A Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU (nicknamed curiously "God 'elp all of us") landed on bamboo mats and the pilots were knighted

On 12 November 1919, Captain Ross Smith, together with his crew, M. Smith (his brother and co-pilot), W.H. Shiers and J.M. Bennet, started from Hounslow Heath (London). After stops in Lyon, Rome, Cairo, Damascus, Basra, Karachi, Dehli, Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon and other stations to Surabaya, where the aircraft stuck on a provisional airstrip made of bamboo mats. The flight continued from there to its destination of Darwin (Northern Territory Australia), landing on 10 December 1919. The total flight time was 135 hours and 55 minutes, and the total flight distance was almost 18,000 kilometers. The prize money was shared by the crew. The Smith brothers were knighted for their heroic deed. The Australian government issued an additional cinderella for this flight with the inscription FIRST AERIAL POST/ENGLAND-AUSTRALIA. This was affixed to 320 items carried after arrival in Australia.

One of such vignettes in souvenir sheet form in mint condition can be found in our 55th auction. One more highlight from our special airmail catalog.