The aircraft was actually owned by the Dutch, hence the flag on the top of the fuselage. Could any of the other people on the plane, though, be the reason for the unexpected arrival of those eight heavy German Ju fighters? Perhaps the BOAC aircraft was destroyed because of Wilfrid Jacob Berthold Israel, a supposed British secret agent and a prominent Zionist, who was engaged in making sure that Jewish refugees could leave Spain and Portugal without difficulty to go to their rightful homeland.
So far, he had helped of them, many of them children, to go there. Supposedly, Wilfrid had recently presented to the British government a very important proposal to solve the problem of getting Jewish refugees out of Europe to their homeland in Palestine. He was on his way to discuss increasing this exodus with Government ministers in London.
He was working for the British Government to offer the Portuguese and Spanish top prices for their tungsten, a hard, rare, metal used to produce various alloys and steels for weapon production.
He was on his way to an important meeting at the Ministry of Economic Warfare. They have a lovely example of a modern coat cof arms:. Perhaps the plane was destroyed because of Tyrrell Mildmay Shervington. Outwardly he was the Lisbon manager of the Shell-Mex oil company but, in the shadowy world of espionage, he was supposedly an agent of the Special Operations Executive.
He was deeply involved in all of its many machinations across both Spain and Portugal and, according to some, he was the Head of the Lisbon Office. Perhaps the plane was destroyed because of Francis German Cowlrick, a 67 year old civil engineer. He had worked for Babcock and Wilcox since They also produced electric cranes and pressed steel forgings. They manufactured munitions and tanks and boilers for Royal Navy warships. Mr Cowlrick was the manager and chief engineer for the company in Spain and Portugal.
