The Full Story
Takoradi Run History
The fall of France to the Nazi Blitzkrieg heralded some of the darkest hours of the second world war, the lights had gone out and Europe was occupied. The heroics of the RAF in 1940 may have stemmed the tide, but Britain was isolated, vulnerable and on the defensive...
Mission
Now Africa presented the only glimmer of hope – a chance for allies to regroup under the desert sun and keep the fight alive.
​But the troops in Africa lacked
vital air support.
​
It was impossible to fly en-masse over Nazi territory and allied shipping in the Mediterranean was beleaguered by the
U-Boat menace.
A new, secret supply route of
men and machines was desperately needed.
Ghana became the starting point for the secret 3600 mile Takoradi Run ​​-
​
an aerial supply route that aimed to ferry fighter and bomber aircraft across Nigeria, Chad and Sudan - to Cairo.
These aircraft would bring much-needed relief to the besieged 8th army in the Western deserts of Libya.​
​
The challenge was getting them there.
Vision
As details of the Takoradi Run are largely undocumented, the findings of this film will be of major historic significance.
Using local experts to uncover archaeological evidence and social history, the expedition team will learn how this fledgling air base worked.
They will explore the deep-water port facilities at Sekondi, where the crated fighters from England arrived, were loaded onto trucks and taken to the assembly areas.
​
How was the operation managed? Where were the living quarters?
...slowly a picture of life in 1940s Takoradi will emerge.
W​​ho were these intrepid airmen? Where were they from?
​​
And what did it really take to fly an aircraft across an unmapped continent?
