S
steves
Guest
Guest
First ever report...
Used to work here in it's later incarnation as an electronic factory (until it closed down in March). Hope you enjoy the pics more than I enjoyed working there...
The airfield was first opened at Donibristle - later to become Dalgety Bay - in 1917 for the Royal Naval Air Service but was transferred over to the RAF as a landing ground in 1918. After the war, it was put into "care and maintenance" until 1925 when it was used as as a base for carrier based aircraft. From then until World war 2 Donibristle was used as a base for training, repair and operations - some of the Fleet Air Arm's oldest squadrons were housed here - 100 Squadron moved in during November 1930, where their Horsleys were converted to carry torpedoes. For the next two years, the Squadron regularly made practice torpedo attacks on Royal Navy shipping entering or leaving the Firth of Forth.
In 1939 the base was commisioned again as HMS Merlin (The Royal Navy likes to have an HMS in its bases as it looks better for a posting) where it was used by many front-line squadrons, as well as "second-line" communications and repair groups.
After the war it was renamed HMS Cochrane, and operated as a repair yard up until 1959. Since then most of the buildings have been demolished, and the runway is now in the middle of an industrial estate, but a few remnants are still there...
This small report shows upstairs in the officers mess building - this area is the last remnant of the original base left intact. Because a bored Leading Aircraftman took up a paintbrush back in 19xx, it's not yet been modernised so retains many of the original features...
Up the stairs...Original "RAF Drab" colourscheme
Where old monitors come to die.
One night, someone took up a paintbrush (lets face it, what else is there to do in Dalgety Bay on a Tuesday night)
Mildly satirical look at RAF life in the 30's - but is it politically correct?
Lot of dragons in Africa in those days -
The entire thing stretches round the whole room - Some even duller photo's over on stevesflikr
cheers
s.
Used to work here in it's later incarnation as an electronic factory (until it closed down in March). Hope you enjoy the pics more than I enjoyed working there...
The airfield was first opened at Donibristle - later to become Dalgety Bay - in 1917 for the Royal Naval Air Service but was transferred over to the RAF as a landing ground in 1918. After the war, it was put into "care and maintenance" until 1925 when it was used as as a base for carrier based aircraft. From then until World war 2 Donibristle was used as a base for training, repair and operations - some of the Fleet Air Arm's oldest squadrons were housed here - 100 Squadron moved in during November 1930, where their Horsleys were converted to carry torpedoes. For the next two years, the Squadron regularly made practice torpedo attacks on Royal Navy shipping entering or leaving the Firth of Forth.
In 1939 the base was commisioned again as HMS Merlin (The Royal Navy likes to have an HMS in its bases as it looks better for a posting) where it was used by many front-line squadrons, as well as "second-line" communications and repair groups.
After the war it was renamed HMS Cochrane, and operated as a repair yard up until 1959. Since then most of the buildings have been demolished, and the runway is now in the middle of an industrial estate, but a few remnants are still there...
This small report shows upstairs in the officers mess building - this area is the last remnant of the original base left intact. Because a bored Leading Aircraftman took up a paintbrush back in 19xx, it's not yet been modernised so retains many of the original features...
Up the stairs...Original "RAF Drab" colourscheme
Where old monitors come to die.
One night, someone took up a paintbrush (lets face it, what else is there to do in Dalgety Bay on a Tuesday night)
Mildly satirical look at RAF life in the 30's - but is it politically correct?
Lot of dragons in Africa in those days -
The entire thing stretches round the whole room - Some even duller photo's over on stevesflikr
cheers
s.
