A memorial to Sergeant William Donnelly, a member of Britain's Royal Air Force who was killed when his plane crashed in Sayh Dhadnah in the emirate of Fujairah during the Second World War, was dedicated by members of the British Consulate and family on January 27, 2010 in Fujairah. Amy Leang / The National
A memorial to Sergeant William Donnelly, a member of Britain's Royal Air Force who was killed when his plane crashed in Sayh Dhadnah in the emirate of Fujairah during the Second World War, was dedicated by members of the British Consulate and family on January 27, 2010 in Fujairah. Amy Leang / The National
A memorial to Sergeant William Donnelly, a member of Britain's Royal Air Force who was killed when his plane crashed in Sayh Dhadnah in the emirate of Fujairah during the Second World War, was dedicat
Peter Hellyer was a UAE cultural historian, author and journalist
December 16, 2021
As my friends and readers will know, my interests include the history of the UAE during the Second World War, and trying to promote ties between the Emirates and my other home, the British Channel Island of Jersey. Now, recent research undertaken by a local collaborator and Jersey Heritage, the island’s leading heritage body, has tied the two together.
Some details in terms of the history of the war show that the UAE was not isolated from this great conflict. Although the Emirates that today comprise the UAE were not formally involved in the Second World War, the conflict did not pass us by. German, Italian and Japanese submarines came into the Gulf of Oman, with planes and ships from Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy trying to track them down. One German and one Italian submarine were sunk, the former by a plane from 244 Squadron, based in Sharjah, and the latter by the Royal Navy. Several British, American and other allied personnel died in plane crashes.
One crash occurred at Dhadnah, on the east coast. A memorial now stands at the site to the British navigator who died, Peru-born Billy Donnelly.
As was recently reported, during “Operation Countenance”, the joint British-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, Mohammed Bin Lahej, a young dhow captain from Dubai, helped to ferry British troops to southern Iran.
My recent research has focused on a 244 Squadron Blenheim bomber lost at sea in September 1942 during an anti-submarine patrol. Of the three-man crew, one was British, one came from Australia and the third, Pilot Officer Anthony Pontius, appears in the military record as having come from the island of Jersey.
Billy Donnelly’s grave. Lesley Botten
Born in Manchuria, to an American father and a Jersey-born mother, he and his brother, along with their mother, returned to Jersey after his father died young. He was educated there, and then went to work abroad, before joining the RAF after the war broke out. Sent to the Gulf, he then became the only known person from Jersey who died here during the war.
It is an interesting story, a tiny piece of an emerging jigsaw of relations between Jersey and the Emirates that helps to add something historical to the better-known links between the two in financial services or the presence of the world-famous Jersey cow at Fujairah’s Rumailah Farms.
To my amazement, however, I found that it is more personal than that. Anthony Pontius’s mother had a sister who married my grandmother’s brother, making him a distant relative – not something I had expected to find in researching the history of the Emirates during the Second World War.
I wonder, though, what other little nuggets of family history are yet to be found that link the UAE population of today back to that now-receding conflict.
Mohammed Bin Lahej was not the only Emirati sailor who was involved in Operation Countenance, though possibly the only one who is still alive. Are there descendants of others with tales to tell? Members of other Emirati families with a maritime tradition may have stories of their fathers or grandfathers encountering German, Italian or Japanese submarines.
There are, surely, stories that are not yet forgotten about the severe deprivation that prevailed in the Emirates during much of the period of the War, not as a record of the conflict itself, but as evidence of the way in which it affected life here.
In the UAE today, we have many Iraqi expatriates. Are any related to, or descendants of, members of the RAF Levies, recruited in Iraq, who guarded the Sharjah air base?
Among our Indian and Pakistani residents, do any have connections to the men who sailed on dhows to and from the Indian sub-continent during the war? Are there stories to be told?
RAF portrait of Billy Donnelly . Lesley Botten
Are there any German residents here related to the single survivor and the other 52 crew members of the U-533 submarine that lies on the seabed off Fujairah?
The discovery that a cousin-by-marriage of mine died here in the Second World War has been made thanks to the presence of records in archives in London and Jersey and to the persistence of colleagues and friends who have helped me with research.
Much, though, of the history of the UAE during that period was never written down.
When over 10 years ago I attended the unveiling of the Dhadnah memorial to Billy Donnelly, among the villagers who came to watch was an old man. A boy at the time of the crash, he described to Donnelly’s relatives, who were attending the ceremony, how the plane had come in low from the sea, clipping the tops of the palm trees before crashing. He witnessed the grievously wounded Donnelly being carefully lifted out of the plane before he died.
What other personal tales of that conflict, from surviving eye-witnesses or from their children are yet to be recorded? In them lies the real impact of war upon that past generation, here and on families far away, like mine in Jersey.
They are part of the links that tie people together from all over the world.
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
Family: I have three siblings, one older brother (age 25) and two younger sisters, 20 and 13
Favourite book: Asking for my favourite book has to be one of the hardest questions. However a current favourite would be Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier
Favourite place to travel to: Any walkable city. I also love nature and wildlife
What do you love eating or cooking: I’m constantly in the kitchen. Ever since I changed the way I eat I enjoy choosing and creating what goes into my body. However, nothing can top home cooked food from my parents.
