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Control Tower No17 CONTROL TOWER THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE SOUTH WEST AIRFIELDS HERITAGE TRUST ISSUE No.17 December 2013 www.southwestairfields.com The Editor’s column Well that's it! Another year over and done with. orate this historic day. Details will be published 2014 just a week or two away. as they evolve. What have we achieved this year? Have a great Christmas holiday everyone and I Well quite a bit, the restored Nissen Hut at wish you all a Happy New Year. See you all in Smeatharpe, another successful Wings and March 2014. Wheels event, an active re-enactment group and I need articles, E-mail it, scribble it on a bit of many more members on the books. We have paper and post it, put it on the blog section of made many new friends and associates during our website, just let me have your stories. the year including a very close association with Thanks to the Internet we can flesh the article our friends at Weston Zoyland. In current times out if we need to. it is becoming increasingly more important that charity groups such as ourselves all work togeth- For updates on this and many other er to achieve our objectives. Resources are things please do go to the web site scarce and money in very short supply. It is bet- at www.southwestairfields.com. ter to share what we have and get somewhere rather than sitting around waiting for the next big Dave Steel donation before moving forward. With that in [email protected] mind we would welcome associations with other like minded organisations. So dear reader, if you know of any such groups then please try to encourage them to get in contact with us. Next year is the 70th anniversary of D-Day so expect a great event in the summer to commem- The SWAHT Christmas dinner at Lakeview Manor, Dunkeswell In this Issue ●Readers Letters. ●Obituary to Gene Shaw McIntyre. ●A membership form for you to fill in and send to us. ●Alcock & Brown - First transatlantic flight. ●Stuff you can buy & e-mail addresses. ●Chairman's Chatter. ●Part 2 of Jack Walker’s World War II Service. Chairman’s Chatter Christmas 2013 Christmas is traditionally a time for families to gather and enjoy a complete break from the otherwise busy pace of daily life during the rest of the year. It is a time for pause, for reflection, thinking about achievements (and the things we wanted to do but didn’t quite have time for) and pondering on the coming year and what surprises it might bring (hopefully all positive!). For those with children – grandchildren even, or maybe even great grandchildren, there is an opportunity to look across the generations and remember what life was like when you/we were that age. Ten years ago some farsighted people gathered to form the Southwest Airfields Heritage Trust – in those days with a clear focus on World War 2 history and the Blackdown Hills in Devon as its geographic area of concentration. Two of our Trustees – Wendy and Claude Caple – were in at the beginning, soon to be joined in 2004 by Vic Bowsher (immediate past-Chairman) and others to form what is now a nine-strong group of trustees. Membership in the past two years has expanded to an international base of around 150, and continues to build strongly. We have a small but growing cadre of members in Europe and North America, reflecting the SWAHT’s strong associations with the United States, Poland, and the Czech Republic in particular. Our geographical interest has expanded to include Exeter and Weston Zoyland. Trustees meet monthly to plan and manage our projects and events, with the aim of enriching the historical experience of our visitors from afar, as well as the people who live in the south west of England. With the trust’s growth in membership and the enlarged scope of activity, management of operations is progressively being de- volved into focused sub-committees, with the aim of easing the administrative burden on the same small group of individuals at the centre that characterize voluntary organisations – which is a roundabout way of saying we are constantly looking for more volunteers! In that context, I am pleased to welcome Brian Lane-Smith as a newly elected trustee and who has volunteered to take up the mantle of Company Secretary of South West Heritage Ltd. from Vic Bowsher, who is stepping down from the role. Brian brings significant business experience to the group, which will be enormously helpful to the Trust as it continues to expand. This is also an appropriate point to thank May Bowsher for all her hard work as Minute Secretary to the Trustees. May is retiring after many years during which she has somehow managed to turn often wide-ranging and energetic discussions into a succinct précis for follow-up action. I am pleased to welcome Hilary Thorne to the team, who has volunteered to take over from May as Minute Secretary. During 2013, our new ‘Heritage Centre’ – a restored Nissen Hut on Cherryhayes Farm at Smeatharpe – was transformed into a first class meeting place for those interested in the history of the adjacent airfield and the work of the Trust in general. It has a semi-permanent exhibition focused on RAF Upottery and its involvement in the liberation of Europe in 1944, and is one of our venues for talks and other events. Please take time out to visit - by arrangement through David Bunney or Trisha Knowles. Focus is now turning to creating a similar Heritage Centre at Dunkeswell, where we are working closely with the airfield’s owner to create a centre focused on the USAAF and USN operations there during WW2; more on that early in the new year. Plans are also afoot to create a SWAHT presence at other airfields such as Culm Head and Weston Zoyland, as part of the Trust’s long-term ambition to complete its Aviation Heritage Trail in the south west. On behalf of the trustees, I wish you a very happy and restful Christmas, and a prosperous and successfully New Year. For those who can make it, we look forward to seeing you in 2014 at any of our events. Graham Weller Christmas 2013 WESTONZOYLAND AVIATION MUSEUM (Affiliated to SWAHT) ● A ‘virtual’ museum in that it is yet to acquire permanent premises but maintains a growing photographic archive dis- played at talks and an exhibition tent alongside a very active Facebook page. ● As reported in a recent Daily Mail Online article – a perma- nent building would also act as a memorial centre for the nineteen pilots who lost their lives in the jet age. ● It was the West’s leading Meteor Jet training base and wasn’t decommis- sioned until 1958. ● RAF WESTONZOYLAND is one of the country’s oldest small airfields which started its career in the early ● 1920’S.Negotiations are in progress with Westonzoyland Parish Council for placement of a suitable building taking a ground lease is secured so a suita- ble grant application can be made. Obituary to Gene Shaw McIntyre It is with the greatest of sadness and respect that we record the death of Gene McIntyre on Wednesday, 30th October last, at the age of 96. He was laid to rest on the following Friday. Gene Shaw McIntyre was born in Texas in 1917 and spent his early years in Memphis and in Millington, Tennessee. He was educated at the Christian Brothers College and graduated in 1936. For the next five years, he worked for short periods at a number of employments without fulfilment before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 and beginning pilot training, based at Regina, Saskatchewan. On the morning of Sunday 7th. December, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. facilities at Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands. The US declared war on Japan during the following day and, with only six weeks to complete before his graduation as a pilot; Gene McIntyre left the Canada and returned home to join the US Navy. He was selected for aircrew and received training as an aviation ordnanceman before being posted in February, 1943 as an AOM to an operational unit flying the PBY-5A Catalina. However, his time here was short and in early March, 1943 he was posted to the US Navy Auxiliary Air Station at Camp Kearney, San Diego, California. joining many others selected to form the crews of the PB4Y-1s then being brought into service. When U.S. Navy Bombing Squadron 103 commissioned on 15th. March, 1943 Gene McIntyre was assigned to crew 5. Throughout March and April, conversion training was undertaken on the PB4Y-1, followed by low-level bombing and aerial gunnery practice. At the end of April, the aircrews collected the PB4Y-1s that were to equip the Squadron from the naval air station at Norfolk, Virginia before being deployed to the air station at Quonset Point, Rhode Island for 2 weeks intensive training in anti- submarine operations, including use of radar, sonobouys and the Mark 24 Aerial Mine. In May, VB-103 was moved to Bristol Field, Argentia, Newfoundland and, after further training, began regular patrols of the western Atlantic, and convoy escorts. The big move came in August, 1943 when the aircrews flew their aircraft across the Atlantic to the RAF Coastal Command base at St. Eval in Cornwall where anti-submarine operations were again conducted. On the move again in September, VB-103 travelled some 80 miles to the east and took over the newly constructed airfield at Dunkeswell in Devon.
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