The Sunderland flying boat galley kitchen - built for a high pressure life

If you’re cooking a Christmas dinner for an RAF bomber crew on an airborne flying boat during wartime, you need a pretty robust kitchen.

At Naked Kitchens we love to see ingenious uses of kitchen space, so we were mightily impressed by the S25 Sunderland’s galley. And talk about bomb-proof…

Even in the best of times, kitchens need to be tough to handle all that life can throw at them. That’s why at Naked Kitchens we test ours to destruction – in fact, we like to say we build ‘bomb-proof’ kitchens. We guess that’s an approach that an RAF cook on a WWII Sunderland flying boat would have appreciated: the galley he worked in was tucked up right next to the bomb store…

The Short Sunderland was a big beast and a remarkable piece of British design. It took off and landed on water, and its main job in the Second World War was to destroy German U-boats in the Atlantic. But it was also used in long-range operations from bases in Africa and the Far East, for attacking small ships and for conducting open sea rescue missions.

Sunderland Mk V flying boat via Creative Commons

Though hardly the Ritz, inside it was really quite roomy for an RAF aircraft, thanks to its huge fuselage. On the lower deck there was a wardroom, two bunks, a flush lavatory, a washbasin and mirror, and next to the bomb room was the galley kitchen. Although a very functional space (the galley hatches also acted as fin-like sea ‘drogues’, which controlled the Sunderland when it was in the water), the Sunderland’s kitchen was famous not just for its usefulness, but for the sense of cheery British homeliness it provided.

Flight Sergeant C Cain makes tea in the galley of a Sunderland flying boat with the help of one of the Dutch internees during a flight from Java to Singapore. (Photo by Dewhurst (Sergeant) from Air Ministry Second World War official collection, via Creative Commons Long-range flights could last many hours so crews needed to be properly fed – and catering for ten is a challenge in itself (as anyone responsible for cooking a big family Christmas dinner will tell you). Sunderland chefs during wartime faced an extreme version of that challenge: keeping calm while cooking for a hungry crew mid-flight must have required nerves of steel – and a sense of humour.

The kitchen itself was very compact, with cleverly designed storage and two kerosene-fuelled primus stoves. Worktop space was at a premium (definitely a case of ‘clear up as you go’) and food on board had to be easy and convenient to store. But RAF cooks were nothing if not resourceful with their tinned and dried goods: think corned beef rissoles, tinned marrowfat peas, Spam fritters…

Mind your head (the bombs are directly above you). Dinner team on a Sunderland. Via Creative Commons And as for Christmas dinner… those remarkable RAF cooks made sure that Sunderland crews didn’t miss out. Not only did this one produce a roast chicken but he also put up some Christmas decs in the galley…

Preparing the crew’s Christmas dinner in a Sunderland kitchen, December 1940. Via Creative Commons

We’ll never complain about peeling the carrots again…

If you want to see a Sunderland flying boat for yourself, there’s one in Hangar 1 at the RAF Museum in Hendon.

At Naked Kitchens we have a particular affinity with brilliantly-designed planes, not least because our own Norfolk workshop is based in a former Second World War aircraft hangar – those magnificent men in their flying machines are a constant source of inspiration!

Picture top: Mid-flight washing up in the galley kitchen of a Sunderland Mk I, via Creative Commons