African Assignment

African Assignment is the sixth short story in Biggles Takes the Case. The anthology, the second one about Biggles in the Air Police, was published in 1952. This particular story was first published in the Daily Mail newspaper from 27 May 1950 to 12 Aug 1950. In the anthology, this story is preceded by Biggles Baits the Trap and followed by All in the Day's Work.

The story has been adapted in comic form also with the same title African Assignment in Issue 7 of the Adventures of Biggles comic series published by Action Comics of Sydney, Australia.

Synopsis

What had caused the African tribe at Ubeni to become hostile? When a trader, Angus Soutar disappears and his son had noticed a flying boat departing the area, Biggles is called in to investigate.

Plot

See the article for Angus Soutar for a summary of the plot.

Characters

The Special Air Police/Scotland Yard

• Air Commodore Raymond
• Biggles
• Ginger Hebblethwaite

Others

• Angus Soutar
• Tommy Soutar
• Karl Steiner
• Hilda Steiner
• Captain Callingham

Aircraft

• Saro amphibian - most likely the Saro Cloud
• Cornell flying boat
• four engine R.A.F flying boat - why not simply call a spade a spade and name it as a Sunderland?

Places

Visited

• London, Scotland Yard - Raymond's office
• Juba
• Ubeni
  • Lake Kulu
• Entebbe

Mentioned

• Kimberley

Other points of interest

Cars

• Soutar's ox-cart

Newspapers/magazines/books

• "The Heart of Africa" travel film being shown at the Poly Cinema
• Biggles bought a few promotional print photos of the film
• The film was reviewed in various newspapers

Firearms and other weapons

• Biggles used an automatic and had a rifle. He also used a penknife
• Revolver - Hilda Steiner
• Rifles - RAF airmen
• Spears and shields - Ubeni natives

Brands/products

• The Ubeni natives were being supplied with gin, canned jam and canned sardines
• tobacco - supplied by Soutar
• Various trade goods such as canned food - Soutar traded in them
• Uncommon but unnamed brand of cigarettes in a blue tin - Karl Steiner used them
• raw diamonds

Food and Drinks

• Canned food - Air Police crew
• Cigarette - Biggles smoked some

Organisations

• R.A.F. Headquarters, Egypt - Ginger went to see the A.O.C.
• H.Q. Middle East

Research Notes

Incongruities

• There's something wrong with Johns' geography here. Ubeni is stated to be near the boundaries of Kenya, Belgian Congo and French Equatorial Africa. In fact, Kenya doesn't share a border with the other two, being separated from them by Uganda. Uganda shares a border with Belgian Congo (today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) but not with French Equatorial Africa (today, the part in question would be the Central African Republic).

• The only British colonial territory which shares a tripoint with Belgian Congo and French Equatorial Africa would be Sudan (today, the part in question would be South Sudan). The tripoint would be near where Johns placed Kudinga in Biggles Hunts Big Game. This is quite plausibly the location intended by Johns for Ubeni. It is an area teeming with wild game and near Juba, where Biggles went first to interview Tommy Soutar.

• Strange, that neither Biggles nor the Air Commodore mention Kudinga. Hunts Big Game could not have been more than a couple of years before.

• Biggles tells Ginger to go back to Egypt to get instructions from Raymond by radio, but then proceeds to act without instructions. He says that if he is not at the creek when Ginger returns, it will mean that he has gone to Ubeni. So why should Ginger should go "home" at that point to seek further instructions, leaving Biggles alone in a remote part of Africa?