You got that right, but not sooooo right:
The day of the flight was
the day of the coup-de-etat. Franco, who had only recently joined the insurgent militaries, had to leave the Canarian Islands (where he was CINC) to go to Marroco, because the troops there not only adored him but also where the only operative forces and the only with combat experience. The other side is that he did not want to be seen on Spanish territory when the coupe was executed, for fear of being apprehended.
The flight itself was organized by Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena, the director of the news paper ABC (the paper still alive today and still extreme right wing) and financed by Juan March (the biggest smuggler gangster in Mallorca at that time, later awarded for his support of Franco with the right to found a bank: Banca March up til today is the most powerful and healthy bank in crisis shaken Spain: The right never lets fall anybody).
Here is the stroy how I understand it (I read it quite recently in an article, I think in "Historia y Vida" magazine for the 75th anniversary of this flight, but I am not 100% sure, neither am I completely sure of my recollection of the details of the article, so take with a grain of salt):
On July 6, Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena phoned
Luis Bolin Bidwell, the London corrospondent of ABC (and named honorary captain of The Legion later by Franco; his cousin still runs the largest chain of Hotels in Spains Costa del Sol), and ordered him to find a sea plane in Britain which would be capable of flying directly from the Canaries to Marroco, and - even better - to Ceuta. He told him that he could rely on an "a Spaniard called Mayorga (sic, R.) (who) will give you the needed money, he will contact you from the City, the bank Kleinwort" He asked for the a/c to be ready in Casablanca on SAT JUL 11 (´36).
With those orders, Bolin gets going and joins up with
Juan de la Cierva (inventor of the autogiro) and
Douglas Jerrold (editor of the ultra right "
New English Review" and later member of "
The Link", a group of British nazi supporters) in "
Simpson´s-in-the-Strand". Neither Bolin nor Jerrod or de la Cierva were told what the mission was about, but they would have imagined.
Both guys went to work but could not come up with a sea plane, so resorted to a Havilland DH-89A , a 7 seated a/c that was operated by "Olley Air Service " from Croydon. Jerrod had suggested the craft and the others found it a viable option.
With the new a/c the initial plan had to be changed, as Ceuta has no airport and a flight plan had to be established to another destiny that made sure they would not have to stop on the Spanish peninsula. To camouflage the purpose of the flight De la Cierva proposed to simulate a leisure flight of two elder British citizens to Tenerife, and to maike it water tight to have them accompanied by two startling blondes many years younger. The idea was that the two blondes should distract the interest of aouthorities away from the rest of passengers.
Bolin then contacted a nazi supporter friend, Hugh Pollard, and asked him to "fly to Africa with two chicks". THe "chicks" in the end were Diana (daughter of Pollard) and a Dorothy Watson, a friend of Diana with attention calling qualities like guarding her tobacco and lighter in her nickers. The two "elder" citizens were Pollard and Bolin himself.
In his memories after the war Bolin always described Pollard as a superficial person who did not speak Spanish but was a weapons fan and into fishing. But - and here comes the part you are interested in - later declassified MI6 dossiers proved that Pollard was an MI6 agent who spoke perfect Spanish and had taken part in missions in Ireland, Mexico and Marroco under the disguise of a journalist. Bolin did have to know that, else he would not have probably found to trust him for such an important mission.
The crew completes with the Captain,
Cecil W. H. Bebb, a mechanic, Georg Bryers and a radiio comms man.
On JUL 9 Bolin recollects an envelope with 2.000 pound Sterling from Kleinworts Bank, provided by Juan March who hated the authorities because they were always obfuscating his smuggling businesss in Majorca despite being bribed graciously (Juan March also had guaranteed to Franco that his family would never suffer poverty in case the coupe would have gone haywire). With the money Bolin pays the rent and an assurance for the a/c, and the Duke of Alba and De La Cierva guarantee personally to buy a new plane in case of accident or crash.
Picture: Luca de Tena, Luis Bolin Bidwell, De La Cierva, Juan March
On JUL 11th, at 0700 G-ACYR (how do I know that? The a/c got salvaged and is still on display today, see below) took off from Croydon and - after a flight with lots of incidents - lands in Burdeos. Here the Marquis del M´erito comes on board, and the mechanic has to leave to make room (and flies regularily to Portugal). The same day the a/c takes off again direction Portugal, but the bad weather and the incompetence of the radio man (see below) obliges them to turn back and land in Biarriz. Once they take off to Oporto again, this time lack of gasoline makes them land in the middle of Oporto and Lisbon on JUL 12th. The mechanic gets back on board.
Finally, on the 15th they go to the canaries via Casablanca, where they leave the radio guy (the figure of the radio guy is very interesting and motive of many speculations:
His name does not figure anywhere, not in the log books etc, he was so incompetent that he - supposedly full drunk - several times tried to contact Spanish airports while the a/c was over the peninsula, Pollard (who officially was just a passenger) decided to get rid of him in Casablanca and convinced the British consul there to pay for the trip to England, etc... ALl this makes people think that he was a Spanish Government Secret Agent who just performed badly and was suspicious to the conspiration group.
Even so, the news of the flight had made it to the Spanish Interior ministery adn this orders the flight to be grounded in the Canaries, in Gando.
THe story goes much longer, but the rest can more or less be found on the net easily:
On JUL 17, 1433J the a/c, now with Franco onboard, lifts off towards Casablanca. First stop Agadir, where they by a hair evade the encounter with some loyal military pilots, then at 2115 they reach Casablanca. As Tanger cannot be gone to because of the loyalists having control of the airport, finally on JUL 19, at 0700 they arrive in Tetuán.
Franco takes over the command of the African Army (of Spain) and the news reaches all of Spain, the Civil War has started.
Here pictures of the orignial a&c: It was incorporated in the RAF during WWII (which it served during all its duration) and decomissioned 1953. A rich man named "Griffith" or "Griffin" bought it and made it a birthday present to Generalissimo Franco in 1954. TOday it can be looked at in the Arts Museum of the Four Winds in Madrid:
Some links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/jul/18/post233
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Pollard_(Major)
http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2006/09/british-friends-of-franco.html
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=409301
FWIW,
Rattler
