Supermarine Walrus
One of the stories my mother has told over the years (and we went through again this morning, at my request) is that of her oldest brother, Peter Adamson, who was part of a smuggling trio in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Known to insiders as ‘Pete, Gus and Hank’, they flew somewhere between one and three old Walrus seaplanes back and forth across the Channel, bringing back perfume and various sorts of alcohol.
On one trip they took a young blonde, who on the trip back managed to sleep through panic stations when the intrepid – but seat-of-the-pants – smugglers teetered on the edge of running out of fuel. They debated pouring some of the illicit brandy into the fuel tank, but we don’t know whether they did or not. My memory is that Peter was asked to leave the RAF during the war, because he crashed too many aircraft.
People my parents knew in the Royal Navy have said the adventures of P, G & H were well known at the time, indeed, the Walrus(es) used to land close in to the fleet, to offload wares.
Would be interested to hear from anyone who knows more of the story.
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