Consolidated Canso A, off Malin Head, Donegal, March, 1942
The Irish Military Archives file G2/X/0984 records the events
that occurred off Malin Head on the 6th March 1942.
At about 11:40 in the morning, a plane was sighted off shore,
half a mile out to sea, west of the look out post at Malin
Head. Volunteer McLoughlin at the post thought the
aircraft was a Catalina and flares were observed coming from the
aircraft. A number of local men, including members of the
Local Defense Forces, made an attempt to row out to the
aircraft. Due to terrible weather conditions including
wind and snow, the attempt had to be called off.
The Irish military in their report commended the efforts of the
men, reporting they were three hours at sea in a boat and
included a Corneliius Bonner and seven other men.
Luckily, the diary of Western Approaches Command of the Royal
Navy had the following entry which provides detail of the
vessels involved:
06 March 1942 - 1115hrs SOS from
Catalina aircraft in sea off Malin Head, Boadicea on passage
and Partridge from Londonderry sent to her assistance. Tug
Zwarte Zee from LD sent to assist. At 1340hrs Partridge
reported aircraft located. All crew rescued, aircraft towed
first by Partridge and later Zwarte Zee but sank at 2220hrs.
The ships mentioned above were the destroyer HMS Partridge and
dutch ocean going tug, Zwarte Zee. HMS Partridge was a
brand new vessel, delivered only the month before and was only
undertaking service trials and working up at the time of this
rescue. It participated in convoy escort duties for the
remainder of the year, deploying to the Mediterranean in April,
then traveled back and forth from there and was engaged in heavy
fighting during Malta resupply convoys. it was heavily
damaged in June, requiring repairs throughout July. it
took part in the invasion of North Africa but shortly after on
the 18th December 1942, she was torpedoed by German U-Boat U-565
and sunk with the loss of thirty seven crew members west of
Oran.
The details of the crew, remain something of a mystery due to
the nature of the aircraft duty at the time of its loss.
The aircraft, a Consolidated Model 28-5MC, had been built for
delivery to the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Catalina flying
boat. The CASPIR database
explains the history of this batch of aircraft which were
largely diverted to Royal Air Force operation to replace
aircraft previously diverted to RCAF operations in 1941.
It is thought that it was probably carrying its original RCAF
serial of 9721 at the time of the delivery flight. It may
have been provided with V9721 markings for its ferry flight from
the factory to Canada. Had it entered service, it would
been operated as VA721. The CASPIR database states
that the all civilian crew were rescued after the bow broke off
during attempted take off in heavy seas near Malin Head.
RAF records contain a Form 1180 crash record for this aircraft
where it is identified as a Catalina and names the pilot as a
Captain P T Miller. The serial number is written as V9721,
but with the V9 crossed out and the serial made out as
VA721. The accident summary is quite to the point and lays
blame firmly on the Captain.
F.L. Weather & Viz. in sea.
Radio operator failed to decode & pass important weather
report to Capt. of a/c. The Capt's. airmanship &
seamanship was not of high standard. Continued to fly
along unknown coastline in poor visibility. Taxied
into open sea against his better judgement. An
indecisive attempt to take off in heavy sea. Strained
& broke bow. Allowed a/c to be towed improperly by
tug. Broke away & lost at sea. Capt. inexp.
on this type a/c.
Paul
Theodore Miller was a First Officer who served in the ATA from
12 August 1940 to 4 January 1941. Their records
indicate he transferred to the ATFERO organization in January of
1941. Ferry Command records at the DHH in Canada show that
he worked almost exclusively as a First Officer from September
1941 to March 1943. He was born in October 1905 and, in
March 1941, he registered for the US Government draft. His
draft registration card provides some useful information
including:
He was born in Philadelphia and his mailing address was 340
South 16th Street in the city at that time. He listed his
employer as British Overseas Airways in Montreal, Canada and his
next of kin was his father, James Theodore Miller at the address
above. His parents were Maud (nee Tate) and James T
Miller.
The April 1940 census of the united States, records one Paul T
Miller and wife, Irene, living in Fulton, Georgia where he
records himself employed as an aviator in the "flying
services". The couple had married in Indiana in 1937 where
newspaper marriage license lists named his wife as Irene
Katherine Matthews of Anderson, Indiana. They divorced in
1943 after adopting a baby in Canada.
He was named in August 1940 newspaper stories from Canada as
being an early American to join the Ferrying operation from
North America to the United Kingdom, his address being Anderson,
Indiana. The Anderson Herald of August 13th, 1940
published the following article:
FORMER ANDERSON PILOT WILL JOIN BRITISH
FORCES
Paul Miller, former Anderson flying instructor, is on his
way to England to join the British flying forces. He
has been operating at a flying field in Dallas, Texas. He
will fly planes purchased in the United States from ports at
which they are reassembled to the front for the Royal Air
Force.
Mrs Miller came to Anderson yesterday to be with her
parents, Mr and Mrs Ralph Matthews, 1936 Walnut street,
until she receives her passport to join her husband.
Miller left Sunday, by Clipper.
Miller operated the Miller Flying Service in Anderson in
1932 and 1933. He signed for service in England with
William Brooks, British agent, who is buying planes and
engaging pilots. As soon as Mrs Miller receives her
passports she will take a clipper to England where she plans
to enroll in the auxiliary air force.
His return from
the UK in January 1941 would see the printing of his story
in many American newspapers, typically the same set of
words but some papers went into greater detail of his
exploits. These article generally name his wife as
Hortense.
Chicago Jan 25 (AP) Paul Miller veteran Chicago flier who
has been ferrying combat airplanes in England is looking
forward to a job he considers less dangerous flying US
bombers across the Atlantic Miller has just put in six
months in the air transport auxiliary a civil branch of the
RA engaged in ferrying planes from factories and assembly
points to fighting squadrons. Many of the 50 US pilots in
the ATA he said are turning to ferrying bombers across the
Atlantic be cause of the flying hazards in Eng land Miller
who has been flying for 21 years said the danger came not
from German air raiders but from British balloon barrages
anti air craft gunners unable to see well in the haze and
fog and almost continual bad weather would be a cinch to fly
in England if the weather were like it is he said they have
clouds and haze all the time The balloon barrages are
terrific have to fly down corridors a mile wide These
constantly are shifted and they vary from the maps when the
wind Miller who has made two trans Atlantic ferrying trips
said he hopes get settled down in a quiet routine flying
bombers over the Atlantic.
The version
published by the 31st January 1941 Anderson Daily Bulletin
provided additional background information on Paul.
Paul T. Miller, age 37, experienced pilot, who has been in
service of Great Britain for several months, flying planes
for the R.A.F. service, and his wife, left here last week
for Montreal, where Mrs Miller will reside to be near her
husband as he resumes his flying career for the British. Mrs
Miller remained with relatives here during the late fall and
early' winter when her husband assumed his duties as pilot
While here Miller talked before the Optimist Club on his
hazardous work He stopped in Chicago last week to renew his
license before re turning to Canada.
Miller, formerly a flyer for the Blue Bird Air Service,
Chicago, joined the British flying service last fall. He
flew two Lockheed Hudson twin engine bombers from Canada to
England and for the hazardous trip received $1000 a month
and a bonus of $500 a trip, according to information he
disclosed. He stated that he planned to continue in
the service at the same rate of pay upon returning to
Montreal. In an interview at Chicago Miller termed flying
the Atlantic as "no excitement at all." He said that
he was accompanied on the two Atlantic crossings by a
co-pilot and radio engineer and that they averaged about 11
1/2 hours for the crossing. Miller said that pilots engaged
in flying bombers across the Atlantic had not lost a
ship. Miller said that ferrying planes from English
factories to air fields was more exciting than crossing the
Atlantic because of the danger of British protective
methods. The pilot asserted that 250 pilots are in the Air
Transport Auxiliary, sixty of whom are Americans.
While here, Miller described havoc wrought by Germans in
London but praised pluck of the English people. He said that
Britain does not need men but machines and ammunition.
The editor of the Anderson Herald in Indiana occasional
mentioned Paul in his editorial notes and two in particular seem
to confirm that he was indeed the P T Miller on
V9721/VA721. Strangely, this back-stage column was printed
always in lower case with peculiar punctuation.
24 September 1942:
one anderson boy knows how it feels to
be stranded on a life raft. paul miller, my british
ferry command pilot friend, made a forced landing in the
atlantic in a catalina flying boat. the seas were so
rough, they knocked in his bomb bays. the plane sank
and paul was adrift for six hours before a british ship
picked him up.
28 October 1942:
...... when I my thought was
interrupted by a breath of adventure in the person of my
friend Paul Miller, for two years and a half, a crack ferry
pilot for the British government. Just three days
before Paul had been somewhere out over the south Atlantic.
Not much more than a week before, he had been at Karachi,
India. Paul had taken a B-24 consolidated bomber from
Nashvllle, Tenn to India and you can guess what for.
It was delivered there by him, then he returned as a
passenger with other ferry pilots on a regular army
transport line. Paul saw the beginning of the latest
offensive in Egypt, saw some amazing preparations by the
allies elsewhere in Africa that I can't repeat and saw what
we are doing in India. It was all very
encouraging. He left here by car for Montreal where
and by the time you read this he may be out over the north
Atlantic delivering a flying fortress to Britain. I
asked him about the time he made a forced landing in the
Atlantlc. He said he thought his number was up so he
just went to sleep in the flying boat as the best way to go
out.
The tales perhaps were not always strictly true perhaps, but
they made for very interesting reading.
20th September 1942:
Mrs Paul miller, wife of veteran in the
British ferry command service, is back in Anderson for a few
weeks. Paul, you may remember from my stories, joined up
three years ago and it so happens that out of the 44 who
went in at the same time, just four are left. The rest went
down to the sea in their ships. These and
hundreds of others won the battle of the Atlantic by flying
over it. Mrs Miller has been in the hospital for the
last four months but looks fine now. Paul, she tells
me has been loaned to the U.S. Army to fly supplies to
Egypt. He is on his first trip now, flying one of
those giant Curtiss planes with ammunition and medical
supplies. In the last three years Paul has flown the
Atlantic scores of times, been three times across the
pacific, flown the northern Siberian route to Russia as well
the arctic ocean route. This is the first time it has
been told publicly, but Paul was the pilot of the plane that
took Churchill to Moscow for the meetings with Stalin
recently. Paul and his gang think of the world in
terms of hours. For instance, the other day a knock
came at the miller door in Montreal. She answered it.
It was a pilot friend who carried a bundle. Here's
Paul's laundry" the friend said "I picked it up in Australia
for for him." Paul had simply sent his wash to the laundry
there and instructed the proprietor to deliver it to the
ferry command at the local field. The boys have an
agreement to bring each other's things back. anyway,
it is a great life. More about it later.
He passed away in April 1989, but it is not yet certain where
he passed away and is laid to rest.
Compiled by Dennis Burke, 2024.