Tiree

[PETERTHEEATER]

Martin Briscoe has some pictures of this little known airfield:

http://www.mbriscoe.me.uk/page83.html

[PETERTHEEATER]

Some interesting stories here:

http://www.aniodhlann.org.uk/documen...TOKEN=33072250

[PNK]

Nice write up.

Gott Bay I have listed as a bombing range, but have yet to find signs of it. Possibly it was umarked and used sea markers only. If my memory is correct Tiree was also host to an infra-red target projector.

[mbriscoe]

A new book has been published about Tiree (not seen it yet)

Tiree - War among the Barley and Brine
The Islands Book Trust » Books » Tiree - War among the Barley and Brine

Tiree - War among the Barley and Brine*

Mike Hughes and John Holliday

Tiree’s inhabitants had fought to master the seas for centuries. Tiree’s soil had nourished a large population, along with other islands. In World War Two Tiree was required to offer sustenance and shelter to arrivals from a multitude of cities and states.

In the early 1940s, as country after country fell to Hitlerism, Tiree became a sentinel for the Clyde and other vital, west coast sea ports. Convoys crammed with servicemen and women and crucial supplies skirted close by, while U boats lurked just out of view. The military commandeered chunks of almost every Hebridean island – if invasion came, would there be fighting on the machair?

And so a vital role developed for Tiree, in an enormous Allied endeavour. Without victory in the Atlantic, how would a second front be prepared for and launched to liberate Europe?

Was there more than stubborn, enduring or endearing stoicism linking Tiree and Winston Churchill in wartime? Was there something more than loyalty connecting the island with the Royal family at this time? How might Tiree offer rescue to those in peril on the seas, in time of war? What was it about the weather; the turbulent, sometimes chaotic weather patterns of Tiree’s Atlantic shroud, which educated and informed the planners of Allied victory? The authors have sought to capture here some memories of this momentous time, while memories still prevail, just; recollections of youth; RAF, Royal Navy and islander alike
£15.00Price:

http://www.theislandsbooktrust.com/s...ley-and-brine/

[mbriscoe]

The book has arrived - by the way Tiree is in Argyll not Inverness-shire

Tiree: War Among the Barley and Brine

Tiree War amongst the Barley_0001.jpg

Tiree War amongst the Barley_0002.jpg

[mbriscoe]

Mike's previous book mentioned a RAF Wireless Unit on Coll, this described the location a bit better so will have a look on the postwar aerial images.

Also says there was a Wireless Unit on Tiree, Iona, Colonsay. Skye, Mull and Ardnamurchan with their HQ in a few Nissen huts behind the harbour in Oban.

It describes a RAF Wireless Unit on Tiree which sounds like a DF station, it is at HEANISH. I might be able to see a DF tower at NM 037 439 but nothing visible there now.

Unfortunately no mention of the building on Beinn Hough (above the CHL site) - Canmore has their marker on it though the CHL is not there but slightly lower down.

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site...radar+station/

[mbriscoe]

There is a mention in the book of Exercise KENTRA which was carried out by Combined Operations and used the airfield. I mentioned to the webmaster of the Combined Operations website and he was aware of the exercise. There is more on 516 COMBINED OPERATIONS SQUADRON on the website.

There are many mentions of the Squadron Leader Preston-Potts who was CO of Tiree for some of the war, he seems to have been quite a colourful character!