Pictures of Ex RAF Jurby & RAF Rescue Station at Ramsey I.O.M.

Skypilot 62

Thanks for your response.

Research is difficult if you want detail about what happened and why. Sometimes there were survivors or members of the Public involved, then accounts of what happened have survived, as surviving crew challenged initial Inquiry decisions, or newspapers have reported events.

Mistakes were made and things covered up (they still are in war). Did you see John Simpson’s program of the Yanks in Iraq about a month ago? Simpson and the BBC were filming whilst an American Radio Op with them gave an American Pilot an Iraqi position, but instead of giving co-ordinates he told the Pilot vehicles by a road junction ahead. Next the American Pilot opened up on the Yanks, Simpsons BBC film crew and their vehicles, as they were also near a road junction!

Also other records which may assist in getting more info seemed to have been disposed of, or parts of files removed. Some P.R.O. files seem to be made up of parts of several files.

Unfortunately many UK Police and Coroners records have been disposed of too. I believe Steve was able to use these for the basis of his research.

Fortunately the Isle of Man have retained their Police and Coroner records also.

We hear about openess being preached. But openess and the actual reality appear to be different. I think a lot was destroyed after the war.

Yet in other files there is great openess about firing on friendly aircraft, one file has a long list of British aircraft damaged or destroyed by ‘friendly’ British defences.

Regards

Mark (Observer)

Mark (observer)

Well, I hope Steve gives you a good commission for such a positive book review! Glad you enjoyed it. Some of the sites are easily visited too, plus we erected a number of memorials around the Island at appropriate sites.

Seems like you have probably obtained most or all of what is available. On the the Isle of Man I had contacts through the Police who let me borrow the station log books for Andreas village Police station which had numerous entries relating to jurby and Andreas airfields but the Isle of Man tends to be unique in that respect – lots of people who don’t throw things away! The drill hall I mentioned earlier disposed of 250(!!!) WW2 gasmask bags only a couple of years ago. I just happened to be at the tip the same day and salvaged them all!

Sadly in the UK it’s more and more difficult to find new leads. Alot of info wasn’t even recorded at the time let alone survive a further 60+ years. Hope you continue to find more snippets.

Happy holidays and keep in touch!

Skypilot,

Thanks for that 🙂

My grandfather Sgt C.L.G. Hood; Isle of Man and Jurby

Hello Skypilot62 and Members of the Forum

Andrew said he knew Steve and that they were Members of their local Aviation Society.

Yes, I have Steve Poole’s book “Rough Landing or Fatal Flight” International Standard Book Number ISBN 1 901508 03 X
Its a brilliant A4 size, 148 page book, with a lot of details regarding many of the crashes on the Isle of Man that he has covered, with various photographs too.

We have emailed each other back and forth, about his book and my grandfather’s accident.

I have collected document photocopies, relating to the crash involving my grandfather from; Observer Corps, Southampton Defences, Balloon Barrages records, his Service Record (photographed), Recognition and Identification Procedures for British aircraft returning to the British Coast, A.A. Southampton/Gosport Layout information, Operational details, returning crews intelligence and information from general files about our aircraft in collision with our Balloon defences in the Autumn of 1940.

I have some information from Fighter Command ORB and 10/11 Groups, Balloon Command, 924, 930, 932 & 933 Balloon Squadrons, Bomber Command and 4 Group Bomber Command, Driffield Station and 77 Squadron Records. Some material covering a few days in August 1940, some covering the week and other information for parts of 1940.

In respect of my grandfathers crash, both the Court of Inquiry, No 12 Balloon Centre Inquiry, Balloon Squadron Statement with eyewitness accounts, Police records, many Observer Post records and Coroners Inquest records have all been destroyed unfortunately.

Therefore it is impossible to get to the exact truth of what happened before the Whitley crossed the coast. 4 Group records say that one of the Dishforth/Driffield Whitley’s was fired upon by a friendly aircraft but there was no damage. None of the crews who return mention this though.

I have many of the details relating to the fatal collisions involving balloons and cables for August 1940 too.

Obviously to the Forum member who asks about the CWGC, yes I have seen what the CWGC hold, which I believe is all on their website. My M.P. contacted Geoff Hoon and in a reply from Ivor Caplin M.P. he assures me I have all the information available about the crash in the official M.O.D. file, which I have to say is very little, or next to nothing. Over the years the Government files including those in the P.R.O./N.A. at Kew have unfortunately been thinned out, perhaps a lot was removed at the end of the War too. Many files relating to Royal Naval Air Stations, known as Ships Books (Logs) in that area, including HMS Raven (R.N.A.S. Eastleigh) are sadly now missing, along with the detailed Intelligence reports of many A.A. batteries. So its really difficult to get any detail as to exactly what happened.

What I have found though in Record Office files, tells me a fair bit more, but raises many more questions than answers.

This is why Steve Pooles book is absolutely brilliant and I think he has done extremely well to research his book, get all the facts and information together and write an interesting and factual account of what happened in his book. It is most interesting reading into air accidents on the Isle of Man!!

Yes, when I’m in the Isle of Man next time (which I hope is very soon), I should be very interested in a ‘guided’ tour.

Best wishes to all over the holiday period

Mark (Observer).

Mark V

When I moved to the UK from the IOM I left all my photos with Steve Poole and ivor ramsden. Feel free to ask Ivor on the e-mail above and mention you spoke to me – he should have some stuff. I’ll trawl through my pics to see if anything missed the net but I don’t think it did.

Hi Skypilot,

Do you have any pics of the interior of the control tower please?

Mark

Further to my last, i presume you’ve seen this on CWGC?

http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2691403

Mark

Thanks for the comments. Not sure why you can’t get hold of Andrew. I suggest you try Ivor Ramsden – he’s our chairman and is always a good point of contact. [email]iramsden@talk21.com[/email]

Regarding the Sunderland, it’s detailed well in my friend’s book all about the aircrashes on the Isle of Man listing nigh on 200 — Rough Landing Or Fatal Flight by Steve Poole. Apart from Steve being a good friend, I can recommend the book in its own right. It’sa written in an easy to follow style without being to sparse on details or too technical for novices, it also has plenty of pictures!

As a side note, I got a letter some years ago from a member of Jurby’s fire section who attended the crash. He vividly described how as they raced to the scene, they met the crew racing in the opposite direction shouting “There’s depth charges on board!” so a hasty U-turn was performed just in time!

Glad you liked the Manx regt. museum. Sadly it will be closing down shortly but on a happier note, all artifacts will be transferred to MAPS/MAMM at Ronaldsway (except the Bofors gun which is only on loan to the regt. museum). At least the items will be preserved. The water board buildings were originally the unit drill hall – did you see the RA badge on the roof?

If you’re going over to the IOM again, let me know and I’ll give you a more in depth guide of what can still be seen etc.

Dean (skypilot)

Visit to Jurby Aerodrome and a Whitley Crash 15.8.40 Nr Eastleigh

Hello Skypilot 62

Thanks for your info about Jurby Aerodrome.

Tell me more about the Sunderland crash, which damaged the hanger roof?

I was at Andreas, I.O.M. on holiday, been to the Isle of Man 5 times now (twice on a motorbike in the late 70’s/early 80’s). I managed to bribe my other half, to drive me to Jurby Aerodrome and to the RAF Reserved Cemetery plot at Andreas and Jurby Churches, (as I cannot drive now on health grounds).

I also managed to get half a day reserved to the Air Museum at Ronaldsway, where I spoke to Andrew Burden of the Museum, I have been trying to email him with details of my grandfathers RAF Service (Sgt Claude L. G. Hood Air Observer) at Jurby in early 1940, but my emails are being returned.

My grandfather died in a Whitley crash returning from Ambes (Bordeaux) when their bomber was losing height. Apparently the Bomber went over the Gosport area and into/over the Southampton/Eastleigh Balloon Barrages and Artillery Zone on the 15th August 1940, the barrage was actually blamed for the crash at 03.34hrs.

However they had sent a Distress Message whilst crossing the English Channel near the east of the Isle of Wight, before even crossing the English coast.

This aircraft which crashed at Eastleigh had lost height from 10,000 feet according to records, crashing into the barrage at Eastleigh (balloons at 4,000 feet) and coming down near Eastleigh Aerodrome (R.N.A.S. Eastleigh/H.M.S. Raven).

The Observer Corps records show that the Whitley was unidentified before the crash. Also the Portsmouth and Gosport Barrage had been raised from 800 feet to 4,500 feet shortly before the Whitley crossed the coast.

At 03.47hrs the Balloon Flights report to the Gosport Balloon Squadron that 2 of their balloon sites are reporting kinked cables. The Eastleigh Squadron also report a kinked cable 24/7 due to a collision with a Whitley V.

Northern France and the Channel was covered in 10/10ths cloud, 6 Wellingtons crashed/force landed that night and another Whitley was lost after colliding with the Langley Barrage.

I also went to the A. A. Museum (I think the 15th I.O.M. Regt.) at Douglas (they have a building on the Water Board premises).

Best wishes

Mark (Observer)

Missed this post first time round.

Just for your info…..

When the tower had is’s windows replaced it was stipulated that they must be of the contemporary pattern in design. Also, the paint scheme is a fairly exact reproduction of the original paint scheme as shown on the inside cover of Action Stations (Can’t remember which number), plus based on a number of contemporary photos in my collection. The actual colour was only what could be acheived with government paint – they couldn’t/wouldn’t justify the cost of exact colour mixing, a shame but better than nowt. The tower is used most often as race control for motorcycle race events but also used on flying days at the seemingly now annual air days in July. The interior doors are the originals and still have the original stencils visible under their paintwork, similarly the coat hooks are original as well along with the runway lighting box etc.

Incidentally, the shot of the runway with a hangar in the background right, clearly shows the repair work done to the hangar roof when a fully loaded Sunderland crash landed on the runway(!) and it’s load of depth-charges went up, fortunately all crew survived.

Just curious…how come you were on the Isle of Man? Did you visit our aviation & military museum at Ronaldsway?

Jurby Tower Planning Permission?

Thanks Steve for your compliments on the Jurby Airfield (Isle of Man) photographs, it was spitting with rain and I had a job to keep the camera lens dry.

May be bad news on the Control Tower, Planning Permission was being applied for at the time of my visit in late July, by a company. I should have enquired at the Planning Department (Council Offices in Ramsey) and lodged an objection if detrimental, but the title suggested an extension and use for Offices I think. Hope they don’t ruin the external structure and keep it structurally original, despite the current paintwork you comment about.

I took them with an old conventional film Yashica SLR camera and scanned them at about 100 or 125 d.p.i I think, on my H.P. V45 Fax/scanner/ printer/copier.

The V45 set-up disc is not compatible though with Windows XP, so I can’t use all the scanning functions with the V45 such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan/edit printed docs and it will only cope with just slightly more than A4 width. But longer docs than A4 if you use the % reduction for things like the old Birth Certs ect.

On the V45 small pics/paper cuttings must be large enough to avoid skewing as they leave the guides and go onto the rollers of the Auto Document Feeder. Its great for scanning/copying/printing in colour/B.W. Also has a fax and does not use that heat sensitive roll paper. The V45 is not too expensive.

Mark
Observer

Great pictures, Observer. I’m sure the purists would take issue with the paint on the old watch tower, but I’m just happy to see it’s being preserved. 🙂

Runway Picture