Library Reference Number: 232
100 years of Military Aviation in Scotland
With “Scottish Saltire” appearing in the title of our Aircrew Association, to what extent did Scotland participate in the advancement of military aviation or the development of military aircrew?
The following page numbers are contained in a book listing military aircrew events and airfields in Scotland which have been noted over the past one hundred years. The book was researched and written by Deborah Lake, who had already qualified as a pilot when she joined the RAF at 18 and spent the following 17 years in RAF Service.
Page 17 - “The Flying Corps Committee” was set up to consider the future development of aerial navigation. Proposals were approved by April 1912. Members of this committee included a Glaswegian Pilot, Brigadier General David Henderson, Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders, and Major Duncan Sayre, a Canadian of Scottish ancestry.
Page 19 - The RFC created 12 ‘Air Stations’- In 1913 Montrose became first permanent military aerodrome in Britain.
Page 20 - August 1913, British record of straight flight, Farnborough to Montrose. (287 miles non-stop).
Page 21 - No.2 Squadron based at Montrose; In high winds the planes flew backwards.
Page 23 - 1913, Cromarty became the first seaplane station In Scotland (with three aircraft).
Page 25 - 1914, Dundee joined Cromarty as a coastal air station in Scotland.
Page 39 - Work flowed to Scotland’s unlikely workshops - even Glasgow’s Corporation Tram Depot, Coplawhill.
Page 42 - 1916, Stirling housed Scotland’s second operational squadron (No.43). This was a hasty formation due to the threat of German Zeppelin raids. No. 43 Commanding Officer was William Sholto Douglas.
Page 43 - Turnhouse was also hastily set up with No.26 Reserve Squadron to protect Edinburgh from Zeppelin threat.
Page 46 - First training flight fatality at Montrose on 27th May 1913 (Lt. Desmond Arthur), produced a persistent ghost story where a number of people claimed to have seen a vanishing figure in flying kit.
Page 50 - 1917, RFC opened a “School of Aerial Gunnery” at Loch Doon. In the same year Donibristle was set up as a “Ships Aeroplane Base” for No.77 Squadron. In an ‘aircraft carrier’ experiment, Flight Commander Frederick Joseph Rutland took-off successfully from a 20-foot platform mounted on HMS ‘Yarmouth’ at Rosyth.
Page 54 - August 2nd 1917, another milestone, Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning took off from HMS ‘Furious’ at Scapa Flow and for the first time landed back on the same ship.
Page 57 - Also in 1917, RFC opened ‘No.1 School of Aerial Fighting’ on Ayr racecourse.
Page 59 - On 11th May 1918, Ayr racecourse flying operations were moved to Turnberry with the slightly amended name of No.1 School of Aerial Fighting and Gunnery as it absorbed No.2 Aux School of Aerial Gunnery.
Page 60 - 1st April 1918, after a long struggle with Whitehall, the Royal Air Force was formed. After varied ideas and planning suitable rank titles to take from the Navy or Army, new ‘air-linked’ rank titles eventually emerged.
Page 69 - On 2nd July 1919, Airship R34 took off from East Fortune at 0148Hrs, by dawn she was over Glasgow.
Page 71 - Airship R34 after crossing the Atlantic arrived at Hazlehurst Field, New York, at 0900 Hrs on 6th July 1919.
Page 72 - For the first Atlantic crossing it took 700 men to assist in take-off, and the average speed was 33 mph.
Page 78 - Hugh Trenchard took over revamping the RAF from Sir David Henderson. It had been an uneasy amalgam of RFC and RNAS. By late 1920 Scotland had only 3 military airfields, Leuchars, Renfrew, and Turnhouse.
Page 79 - Trenchard formed “Weekend Warriors” No.602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron (12th September 1925), closely followed by 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron. No.612 (City of Aberdeen) Squadron was formed in 1937.
Page 80 - Financed by Lady Houston, two 602 Squadron Officers successfully completed an over-flight of Mt. Everest in 1932. The Pilots were Sqn Ldr Douglas Hamilton, Marquis of Clydesdale and Flt Lt David McIntyre.
Page 85 - By 1934 the RAF had a mere 30,000 personnel, 732 aircraft, with 76 squadrons spread over 34 aerodromes.
Page 89 - Montrose Airfield like so many others had been sold off at the end of the first world war. Montrose was now bought back for £18,600 and reopened in January 1936 as No.8 Flying Training School.
Page 89 - At Prestwick the Marquis of Clydesdale officially opened a grass aerodrome for No.12 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School. Silencers were fitted to the Tiger Moths at the request of nearby residents. In July 1936 the pace quickened and the Government introduced the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
About this time, Deborah Lake highlights the important work of three Scots. Lord Dowding, Robert Watson-Watt and William Weir. In July 1936 Hugh Dowding was appointed the first Head of Fighter Command. Also in 1938, the pioneer radar work of Watson-Watt enabled a series of RDF stations to be set up along the east coast which linked directly to Dowding’s Fighter Command Control Room. On aircraft production side, William Weir personally stripped down the Spitfire and strengthened vital areas, he also modified the Hurricane to allow mass production. It was said that without the early ruthless approach and painstaking work of William Weir, there would have been an insufficient number of fighter aircraft to enter the war with Germany. Britain entered the run-up to the war with two monoplane fighters largely free from faults thanks to William Weir. They each had eight machine guns, a variable pitch propeller, a new retractable undercarriage and a VHF radio link between pilot and ground control.
Also on the production side, Rolls-Royce established a plant at Hillington, Glasgow in 1939. Managing director Arthur Sidgreaves later recalled that if Hillington had not been in existence, there would not have been sufficient Merlin aero engines to fight the Battle of Britain.
Scotland wasted no time in meeting the enemy. A Glaswegian, Flying Officer Andrew McPherson of No.139 Squadron became the first British pilot to enter German airspace in the war when he captained a Blenheim 1V N6125 on a photographic reconnaissance north of Wilhelmshaven on 4th September 1939, he was later killed on 12th may 1940. On the second day of the war, a Lockheed Hudson of 224 Squadron based at Leuchars attacked a German Dornier 18 Flying Boat over the North Sea.
Page 102 - On 16th October 1939 at 14.45 hrs, a German Junkers slipped quietly under the sea just off the coast at Prestonpans. Flt Lt Patrick Gifford from Castle Douglas, leader of three Spitfires of Red Section, 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, their job done headed back to base. He had shot down the first enemy aircraft over Britain. Sadly, he himself was shot down on 16th May 1940, with his body never being found, he had no known grave.
Page 107 - Scottish Aviation(Prestwick) repaired damaged Spitfires(1,200 by 1945). Flying Boats repaired at Greenock.
Page 108 - Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, worked on Barrage Balloons. Renfrew assembled thousands of American planes.
Page 115 - Kinloss set up No.19 OTU. - previously, training crews had gone straight to Bomber Command squadrons.
Pages 114-115 - Norwegian and other escaping European pilots brought a huge variety of planes to Scotland.
Page 118 - 13th September 1940, Invasion Barges strung along Channel ports, 80 were sunk in Ostend harbour alone (member Andrew Jackson involved in above, also subsequent sinking of further German Invasion craft).
Up to this point, Scottish based aviation and aircrew details have been taken from “Tartan Air Force” by Deborah Lake covering one hundred years of aircrew history in Scotland. However, moving on from the 1940 event stated above, members will probably through their own experience have a much better grasp of the subject than authors publishing events at a later date. Although five Scottish airmen were awarded the VC including John Alexander Cruickshank and Bill Reid, the latter urged us to record our members’ eye-witness accounts without further delay, irrespective of wartime, peacetime, time or place, from any member having qualified for a military flying badge.
This article commenced with events in April 1912. During the one hundred years of aviation history, members of aircrew living in Scotland were posted to USA, Canada and Commonwealth countries in order to carry out flying training, then either flew operations over Europe, Middle or Far East with visions of aviation in Scotland left swiftly far behind. Many of us brought American-built planes across the Atlantic to Prestwick before proceeding further to Far East or overseas postings. Prestwick grew enormously, becoming one of the few airfields in UK to have a radio range facility to enable incoming aircraft land down through cloud, a life-saving service in very bad weather.
For the record, we have received contributed accounts of wartime airfields in Dumfries & Galloway, Fife and also Caithness for our website library. Having broken the hundred year barrier, we continue to welcome aircrew eye-witness accounts for inclusion in our website which at present numbers 230 memoirs in the ‘Library’ section.
- “Tartan Air Force” by Deborah Lake (2007). Pub: Birlinn - extracts by kind permission of author Deborah Lake.
- “Wartime Airfields in Dumfries & Galloway” by Dennis Sawden (No.218 Website Library).
- “Wartime Airfields in Caithness” by Wilson Crawford (No. 219 Website Library).
- “Wartime Airfields in Fife” by Alan Donaldson (No.220 Website Library).