North Luffenham

Jim O'Connor

In the summer of 1953 Operation Leap Frog Four was underway and a convoy of RCAF Vehicles from 1 Wing at North Luffenham made the trip up to northern Scotland where the Aircraft of Leap Frog Four were destined to land at the British Royal Naval Air Station at Lossiemouth Scotland. The guys who made the trip were Herman "Bud" Pitts, Everett Beck, "Pat" Patton, Paul Cote and myself, Jim O'Connor. We drove up in two buses, two refueling tenders and one station wagon. Bud Pitts and I drove the buses, Ev and Paul drove the refuelers and Pat drove the station wagon. It was a long trip and I believe we spent three nights on the road. Our purpose in making the trip was three-fold. First off we had to find and reserve accommodation in local hotels (mostly golf clubs) for 200 people for a minimum period of two weeks. The times of the arrival and departure of the 4 Wing aircraft and people were dependant on the vagaries of the weather over the North Atlantic, so we had to be prepared for delays, but have the accommodation available for when they did arrive until they were able to depart for Germany. We also had to be able to provide road transport for the two hundred men between the Lossiemouth airfield and the various hotels where the RCAF people would be accommodated. We also had the refuelers to assist in refueling all the aircraft involved in Leap Frog four. We not only accomplished our mission, but found ourselves to be very, very popular with the management of the hotels where we reserved so many rooms for two weeks. As it turned out, the leap Frog Operation went off with an absolute minimum of delays in crossing the Atlantic and they were able to depart Lossiemouth the first morning after their arrival. So we made a few Scots happy when we went around and told them that they would be paid for the rooms we had reserved for the full two week period, but as all our RCAF friends were well on their way to Germany and would no longer require the accommodation, they would be free to rent the rooms out to other parties if they so wished! What a way to make a Scotsman happy!