Rattigan on the Rock The name of Terrence Rattigan is back in lights just as it was 65 years ago when the playwriter/airman flew into Gibraltar after surviving an attack by German fighter planes. Rattigan’s play The Deep Blue Sea returned to London’s West End in May and is scheduled to run at the Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand until mid-July. On the night that his Lancaster bomber landed on the Gibraltar airstrip in December 1941 Rattigan had two plays running in London’s West End French Without Tears and Quiet Wedding. Another of his plays, Follow My Leader, was showing on Broadway. As a student at Oxford Rattigan declared himself a pacifist but when Britain went to war with Germany he didn’t shirk his duty. He joined the RAF in July of 1940, qualifying as a wireless operator in March of 1941 and graduating from gunnery school in May the same year. Assigned to 95 Squadron he flew on Sunderland flying boats patrolling over the English coast until the third week of November when the squadron was ordered to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Over the Bay of Biscay the squadron was attacked by German fighters, although none of the bombers were shot down several were damaged, including Rattigan’s. The squadron was forced to wait in Gibraltar while repairs were carried out. This gave Rattigan time to work on a new play about the war. Rattigan wasn’t new to the Rock. He had spent many days in Gibraltar as a youngster. His father, Frank, was a qualified Arabic speaker and a somewhat unconventional diplomat. Due to his work, the Rattigans were constantly on the move from one country to another, primarily Morocco, Gibraltar, Malta and Egypt. When the squadron flew out of Gibraltar for Freetown Rattigan had the play, to be called Next of Kin, packed inside a suitcase. Only an hour into the flight his plane was attacked by a German Heinkel. The German fighter made five passes at the slower Sunderland and put five holes in the tailplane with one bullet narrowly missing Rattigan. The sturdy Sunderland survived the attack but, when it was still eight hours from Freetown and 900 miles from the nearest help (Gambia), one of the four engines cut out and the crew feared that it might blow up. They contemplated ditching in the Atlantic. Rattigan later wrote to his parents: “…But the swell was too great to land, so there was nothing for it but to go on — on three engines, without enough petrol and apparently no chance of getting there. To maintain height we threw overboard everything that was detachable — less the first act of my play which I rescued from my suitcasejust as it went over the side, and then, as we were still losing height, we used a fire axe on the aircraft and threw everything over the side that could be hacked off.” Fortunately a 30-mile tailwind sprung up and the Sunderland managed to reach Bathurst, Gambia with just ten minutes of fuel remaining in the tanks. After repairs at Bathurst the Sunderland flew on and landed at the Freetown airstrip which had been carved out of the jungle. Here Rattigan would spend a very uncomfortable four months, working on his play in between flying on U-boat patrol. He didn’t enjoy his stay, complaining about the humidity and the servants and found the flying patrols a relief: “It does at least get me out of this spot, which is to put it frankly torture… infested not only by 95 Squadron but by lizards, giant spiders, giant centipedes, mosquitoes (not giant but not any the less pleasant), bats, bugs that nest under your skin and a particularly delightful monkey… The town itself is better not visited and certainly there is no reason to do so although it boasts of one officers’ club and one brothel.” When Rattigan returned to Britain after he had completed the requisite 300 hundred hours of flying time he showed his new play to director Anthony Asquith. Asquith declared the title too bland and the more descriptive title of Flare Path was agreed upon. Flare Path is a play about bomber pilots and the women who wait for them to return from their raids. After receiving approval from the Air Ministry it opened in December 1942. The Chief of the Air Ministry attended opening night and when the play was finished invited Flying Officer Rattigan to his box to receive his congratulations. Prime Minister Winston Churchill went to see the play and afterwards remarked: “I was very moved by this play. It is a masterpiece of understatement. But we are rather good at that, aren’t we?” Flare Path would prove to be Rattigan’s second big hit, after French Without Tears, and would run for two years, although the Broadway performance closed after only 14 weeks. Rattigan was next assigned as Gunnery Officer to 422 Squadron where he devised training programs while still flying missions. That posting did not last for long, however, as with the success of Flare Path he was assigned to the RAF film unit to help produce propaganda films. Thankfully Rattigan survived the war and went on to be one of the most successful stage writers of the 20th Century. Among the many plays he wrote the best known are While the Sun Shines, Love in Iddleness, The Browning Version, The Winslow Boy and Separate Tables (my favourite). The film version of Separate Tables garnered the Oscar for Best Picture in 1959. The movie received nine nominations in all and David Niven won the Oscar for Best Actor. Terence Rattigan was knighted in 1971 and died at Bermuda on 30th November, 1977.

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