Swiss Citizens Deported To Portugal In 1941

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Member for

5 years

Posts: 4

I am trying to find out whether a number of Swiss citizens interned in the UK during the war and then deported to Portugal in 1941 were flown there. I understand there was something called a Clipper Service.
Which route would that have flown from London, or elsewhere in the UK, and where would it have landed in Portugal?

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Member for

15 years 7 months

Posts: 1,707

There was a 2-3x weekly KLM/BOAC DC-3 landplane service to Oporto and Lisbon from Whitchurch Bristol from autumn 1940 and BOAC ran flying boat services from Poole and Foynes(Shannon) to Lisbon. Pan Am's Clipper service was between Lisbon and New York...the branches to Southampton and Marseilles were abandoned in September 1939 when WWII broke out

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15 years 2 months

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Wartime airline flights were generally for government approved passengers only. How many people were involved in this deportation as I guess the DC-3 would have only carried 25 or so passengers on such a long trip? I would think that is is more likely that they were dropped by ship in Lisbon.

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15 years 7 months

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Sounds more like a repatriation of neutral Swiss citizens via Lisbon than a 'deportation'. Maybe they could afford the plane tickets.

Member for

5 years

Posts: 4

Thanks farnboroughrob and longshot. Based on files from the National Archives, the Swiss Federal Archives and an FOI reply, they travelled in small groups, maybe half a dozen or so. My focus is on people actually being deported after being interned for various offences, including one Swiss citizen (Victor Kronig) whose life I'm researching in particular, and who fell foul of the law for trying to bribe a police officer in Soho. The most direct route, via France, was obviously closed to them. However, nowhere is a mode of transport referred to, and I'm beginning to think they were, as farnboroughrob suspects, taken to Lisbon by ship. They certainly couldn't afford the trip, as there's evidence of disputes over who should foot the bill.