Armstrong Whitworth

As the war in Europe grew more grim, the Chatfield committee recommended that in addition to the regular air forces for local defence of India, Volunteer Flights be entrusted with coastal defence and patrolling.

In April 1941, No. 1 (Madras) and No. 3 (Calcutta) Flights, their Wapitis given in to form No. 2 Squadron, received in replacement Atalantas for the long range patrol function. Two Atalantas (VT-AEF and VT-AEG) had been serving with Indian Transcontinental Airways on their Karachi-Calcutta service since July 1933 and now requisitioned by the Government in the emergency. On 16th April 1941, No. 3 C.D. Flight with three Atalantas, aided by another from the Madras Flight, co-operated with the R.A.F. in flying troops of the 1st K.O.R.R. to Shaibah following the Iraqi coup d’etat. Later, in the course of operations with the Calcutta flight, one Atalanta was grounded for lack of spares and another converted for navigation instruction.

Armed with one moveable machine gun, the Atalantas were operated for routine patrolling of the delta area south of Calcutta till December 1941 when No. 3 CDF converted to the Blenheim I. In February 1942, the last flyable Atalanta was called out for helping in the evacuation of Rangoon. On one of her flights to Calcutta, this Atalanta found her final resting place in a mangrove swamp in the Sunderbans.

An Atalanta however continued to serve for some years thereafter, training navigators at the No. 1 S.F.T.S. Ambala.

Notes :

The first British four-engine cantilever monoplane, the Atalanta class of Imperial Airways entered service in 1932 and were chiefly employed on the Imperial Airways and Wilson Airways’ African routes, on charter between Khartoum and Nairobi and, in India, on the Karachi-Calcutta route across the Sub-Continent. The Atalanta carried 17 passengers with a crew of three and was powered by four 340 h.p. Armstrong Siddeley Serval III engines.