Before WW2, Imperial Airways ran a regular air mail service to Africa and the Far East/Australia which involved flying through the Mediterranean. This continued after the outbreak of war, although at a decreased frequency. (On 1 April 1940, Imperial Airways became BOAC.)
When Italy entered WW2 in June 1940, mail could no longer be flown through the Mediterranean by BOAC. The answer was the Horseshoe Route in which air mail between Australia and Britain was flown between Sydney and Durban in South Africa via Malaya, India and Egypt by Qantas / BOAC with the Cape Town - Britain leg being by sea. There were extensions from New Zealand (Auckland - Sydney by TEAL) and Hong Kong (Hong Kong - Bangkok by BOAC). Air mail from the UK was sent by sea to South Africa before being flown to destination from Durban.
This page contains a detailed report on the Horseshoe Route
from June 1940 until February 1942 when it was broken due to Japanese advances
and was restricted to Calcutta - Durban.
The report consists of 14 chapters each of which is available for download as a pdf file.
The Horseshoe Route: 1940 - 1942
The following chapters are freely available for download, but I would request that any use of the information is
referenced as:
The Horseshoe Route: 1940 - 1942, R. Clark, www.nzstamps.org.uk/horseshoe, 2024.
The Horseshoe Route: 1940 - 1942, Robert Clark
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Air Mail Services in Early June 1940
- Chapter 2: Interrupted Services
- Chapter 3: Alternatives to the Horseshoe Route in mid June 1940
- Chapter 4: Services in June 1940 by other Airlines
- Chapter 5: First Horseshoe Services: 19th June 1940
- Chapter 6: Subsequent Horseshoe Services: June - July 1940
- Chapter 7: Horseshoe Services: August - September 1940
- Chapter 8: September 1940 (Winter Timetable) - April 1941
- Chapter 9: Disruption: April - July 1941
- Chapter 10: August - November 1941
- Chapter 11: Reserve Routes 1 & 2: December 1941
- Chapter 12: Reserve Route 3: January - February 1942
- Chapter 13: Mail from UK sent from Durban by Sea in Late 1941
- Chapter 14: End of Service to / from Australia
- Combined References
- Appendix 1: Air Mail Rates; Appendix 2: Trans-Tasman Flights; Appendix 3: Censor Codes; Appendix 4: Bangkok - Hong Kong Service
Comments, corrections, additions etc. are very welcome and should be sent to nzsgb1 AT googlemail.com. (Replace the AT with the usual symbol.)
All scans were made by the author. Copyright © 2024 Robert Clark. For personal, non-commercial, charitable and educational use only.