One very cool customer: Churchill, puffing on cigar and wearing dashing aviator glasses while being tailed by the Luftwaffe during ‘most daring flight of the whole war'



PM had visited U.S. to lobby Roosevelt on Allied strategy against Hitler

Flight back to Britain was tracked by the Luftwaffe after straying too near Brest in France

It was the perilous 18-hour flight which saw Britain's wartime Prime Minister fly back from America while being hunted by the German Luftwaffe.

Winston Churchill had flown back across the Atlantic in 1942 after lobbying President Roosevelt over the Allied Forces' strategy against Hitler.

And given the flight risks and importance of the discussions, the long-haul voyage back to Britain was one of the most significant of the Second World War.

Now a rare family archive has captured the intimate moments of Churchill's flight, including pictures of the wartime leader at the controls of the Boeing Clipper flying boat RAM 'Berwick'.

Brave: Churchill sat at the controls of the Boeing 314a Clipper during the 18-hour flight, during which he was also pictured with his trademark cigar

Atlantic crossing: Churchill took an 18-hour flight on the Boeing Clipper flying boat RAM 'Berwick'

Flight Officer Ron Buck kept back his own pictures from the trip that was later described as the 'Most Daring Flight of the Whole War.'

Churchill had crossed the Atlantic by ship in order to lobby President Roosevelt, but rashly decided to fly home from Bermuda.

With some of his most senior colleagues, the Prime Minister embarked on what was to become a perilous 18 hours flight.

The photos show Churchill, cigar in mouth, at the controls of the plane, and also at the dinner table, glass in hand. He was the first leader to cross the Atlantic by plane.

The Berwick, a Royal Mail Aircraft, had to be lightened in order to have enough fuel for the journey that was still a daring distance at that time.

Among those alongside Churchill were the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sur Dudley Pound, Air Chief Marshall Sir Charles Portal and Lord Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft production.

Time to relax: Churchill also took time to dine on board the plane, while Sir Charles Wilson and Air Chief Marshall Sir Charles Portal (right) were also part of the British war machine on the flight

Flying the 'Berwick' was celebrated pilot Captain John Kelly-Rogers and he had to have his wits about him when the plane went too near the French town of Brest.

It was a heavily defended German naval base and a Luftwaffe squadron was scrambled to intercept the plane, but fortunately it couldn't find it.

The 'Berwick' flew for the last two hours of the flight with radio silence and ultimately approached England from an unexpectedly southern direction.

Churchill later recorded: 'Six Hurricanes from Fighter Command were ordered to shoot us down... but failed in their mission.'

Flight Officer Buck was an amateur photographer and this collection has remained in his family for the 70 years since the flight.

The archive includes a signed dinner menu from the historic crossing and a cartoon mocking the Luftwaffe because of its failure to shoot down the plane.

The menu showed they ate a shrimp cocktail, cold buffet, chicken, ham, beetroot, Bartlett pears with cream followed by coffee.

The archive was taken to an antiques roadshow event by Flight Officer Buck's nephew Miles Buck, who lives in the New Zealand, north island town of Tauranga.

Archive: A menu card from the flight, as well as a cartoon mocking the Germans' inability to hunt Churchill's place, are also among the collection set to go on sale

It is now being sold by Art and Object in Auckland with an estimate of 23,750 New Zealand dollars - about 12,000 pounds.

Hamish Coney, who discovered the archive when it was taken to the roadshow, said: 'This is an incredible archive of pictures that has been kept by the family of Flight Officer Buck.

'His nephew brought them to one of our roadshows and they records the return journey of Churchill in 1942 from his visit to America.

'Pear Harbour had just been bombed and Churchill wanted Roosevelt to focus on Hitler in Europe.

'There was a big chunk of his war machine on board in an unarmed aircraft. It's crazy really.