Royal Air Force, Bermuda (1939–1945)
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The Royal Air Force (RAF) operated from two locations in the
The government-owned Imperial Airways built a flying-boat station on Darrell's Island that served as an airport for passengers flying to and from Bermuda, as well as on trans-Atlantic flights staging through the Island.
World War II
Between World War I and World War II, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had absorbed the Royal Naval Air Service and assumed responsibility for operating the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). From 1933, an RAF Coastal Command detachment operating from the wharf at the HM Dockyard, on Ireland Island, was responsible for the maintenance of the aeroplanes carried by the cruisers based at the Bermuda, which belonged to the Fleet Air Arm's No. 443 Fleet Spotter-Reconnaissance Flight (which was administered by RAF Coastal Command), starting with HMS Norfolk. Flight Lieutenant Thomas H. Moon was appointed for duty with R.A.F. Detachment Bermuda with effect from 23 January 1934.[1]
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This detachment also held aeroplanes in store, crated in parts. When an aeroplane could not be repaired, another was assembled as a replacement.[2][3] In 1939, with the rest of the Fleet Air Arm, this was transferred to the Royal Navy, which relocated the naval air station to Boaz Island.[4]
With the commencement of hostilities in 1939, Darrell's Island was taken over as a
Imperial Airways, which had become the
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The first Bermudian killed in the Second World War was Flying Officer Grant Ede, a
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In 1940, the
In addition to the BFS graduates and BFC candidates, other Bermudians entered the air services during the war. These included at least two other Great War aviators who returned to service, Squadron Leaders Rowe Spurling and Bernard Logier Wilkinson, who served with RAF Transport Command and the RCAF, respectively. An officer of the BVE, Richard Gorham, transferred to the Royal Artillery, attaching to the RAF as an air observation post (AOP) pilot, directing artillery fire from the air. He played a decisive role in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
In 1940, extending upon an agreement made secretly before Britain's declaration of war in 1939, the USA was given 99-year free base rights in Bermuda, and began construction of a Naval Air Station, the
With the entry of the USA into the War, at the end of 1941, the US Navy began operating air-patrols from the Island. Bermuda was a forming-up point, during the War, for convoys numbering hundreds of ships. Despite the importance of guarding against Axis submarines and surface raiders operating in the area, the RAF had not posted a Coastal Command detachment to maintain air cover. The Fleet Air Arm operated ad hoc patrols from its base RNAS Bermuda (the personnel of which were carried on the books of HMS Malabar) on Boaz Island. This was a repair facility which had several aeroplanes on hand, but no aircrew at the start of the war. It operated its patrols using pilots from ships at the Dockyard on Ireland Island, and RAF and Bermuda Flying School pilots from Darrell's Island. These patrols ceased in 1941 with the arrival of a US Navy patrol squadron, which operated from Darrell's Island until the US NOB became operable.
The RAF operated from its two facilities in Bermuda until the end of the War, when both Commands withdrew their detachments. Darrell's Island reverted to its pre-War role as a civil airport, until the replacement of flying boats as trans-Atlantic airliners by land-planes, like the Lancastrian, the Tudor, and DC4, led to its closure in 1948.[12][13]
Post War activities
The senior RAF officer in Bermuda, during the War,
Although no longer maintaining any detachment in Bermuda, the RAF has continued to use the Island as a trans-Atlantic staging post since the War. Whereas most foreign military aircraft passing through the Island had used the US military end of the airfield, the RAF had continued to disperse its aeroplanes at the former RAF end of the field. Large detachments of tactical aircraft, accompanied by larger refuelling, transport, and maritime patrol aeroplanes, regularly staged at the island on transits between the UK and the garrison at Belize, or bombing ranges on US bases.
See also
- Military of Bermuda
- Royal Naval Air Station Bermuda at Boaz Island
- USAAF, Kindley Field 1941–1948/USAF Kindley AFB, 1948–1970
- United States Naval Air Station Bermuda (formerly Kindley AFB), 1970–1995
- USN Naval Operating Base/Naval Air Station Bermuda/NAS Bermuda Annex, Morgans Point, 1941–1995
References
- ^ The Air Force List. Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda: His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1 January 1935. pp. 57–58.
- ISBN 9780969833246.
- ^ "Bermuda sees for first time massed flying: Planes attached to Dockyard give formation exhibition". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 8 May 1934. p. 1.
- ISBN 0-945274-44-0.
- ISBN 0-9698332-4-5.
- ^ Bernews: Churchill's 1942 Flying Bermuda Visit
- ^ "Churchill's 1942 Flying Bermuda Visit". The International Churchill Society. 18 April 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
- ^ Archived GeoCities site of Seán Pòl Ó Creachmhaoil: FLYING OFFICER HERMAN FRANCIS GRANT EDE, DFC
- ^ The Royal Gazette: Heritage Matters Bermuda's first-lost in the Second World War, by Dr Edward Harris. Published 12 November 2011 (Updated 12 November 2011)
- ^ Biplane Fighter Aces of the Commonwealth: Flying Officer Herman Francis Grant Ede DFC, RAF no. 33307
- ISBN 0-87106-057-4.
- ISBN 9780969833246.
- ISBN 9781927750322.