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Ball-bearing Run was the nickname of the war-time ''Stockholmsruten'' flight between Stockholm and
Ball-bearing Run was the nickname of the war-time ''Stockholmsruten'' flight between Stockholm and Leuchars
Leuchars (pronounced or ; gd, Luachar "rushes") is a small town and parish near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland.
The civil parish has a population of 5,754 (in 2011) Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Popula ...
, Scotland between 1939 and 1945. After 1942 the flight was run by the Royal Norwegian Air Force
The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) ( no, Luftforsvaret, , The Air Defence) is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximatel ...
, but for political reasons operated as an ordinary BOAC Flight, the unarmed aircraft having civilian registration and the Norwegian military crew wearing BOAC uniforms and carrying British passports.
The Stockholmsruten was set up by the Norwegian Government, exiled in UK with the aim of transporting Norwegians having escaped from Nazi-occupied Norway. Several types of aircraft were used, but the backbone of Stockholmsruten was the Lockheed Lodestar
The Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar is a passenger transport aircraft of the World War II era.
Design and development
Sales of the 10–14 passenger Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra, which first flew in 1937, had proved disappointing, despite the ai ...
.
Since the aircraft also carried ball bearing
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.
The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...
s, of greatest importance to the British war industry, this is how the flight got its nickname in UK. From 1943, greater load-carrying capacity was achieved by the addition of Douglas Dakota
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in ...
aircraft, but during the short summer evenings when the route over occupied Norway would be too hazardous for these slow aircraft, de Havilland Mosquitos were employed instead, but could only carry a small payload.
The service also carried other passengers, one of the most notable being Danish physicist, Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...
, who was flown from Sweden to Britain in a Mosquito in 1943, while in the same year, George Binney
Sir (Frederick) George Binney ( DSO) (23 September 1900, Epsom, Surrey–1972 JerseyObituary: S ...
, the organiser of blockade-running operations was flown into Sweden in the same type. The Mosquito lacked any provision for passengers, who had to be carried in the aircraft's bomb bay, where they were only able to communicate with the pilot by pulling on a piece of string.
Between 1939 and 1945, 6,000 passengers, and 500,000 tons of freight, were transported by BOAC between Stockholm and Great Britain.
See also
*Shetland bus
The Shetland Bus (Norwegian Bokmål: ''Shetlandsbussene'', def. pl.) was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Mainland Shetland in Scotland and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the su ...
References
World War II deception operations Aviation in World War II {{WorldWarII-stub