The Early Years
No 1 fighter Squadron was formed in 1922 as No 1 Squadron. The squadron consisted of two parts, A flight with the Avro 504K undertaking the training role and B flight with Bristol fighters, Martinsyde F4, SE5A and DH 9 bombers undertaking operational sorties.
The reorganisation of the Squadron led to the creation of two more flights, C and D flights while the operational flight became No 1 Co Operation Squadron. The Co Op Squadron was equipped with various aircraft consisting of Bristol fighters, DH 9 and newly acquired Vickers Vespas. In 1938 four brand new Gloster Gladiators joined the Squadron. With war on the Horizon in 1939 changes were inevitable and so in January 1939 No 1 Co Operation Squadron was redesignated No 1 Fighter Squadron. The Squadrons strength was 3 Gladiators (1 was written off in 1938) which were occasionally supported by Avro 636 and Avro 626 Trainers. During 1939 the Aer Corps strength was increased by 6 new Westland Lysanders and an order for 8 Gladiators. The plan was for the restablishment of the Co Operation Squadron, a duty in mind when the Lysanders were ordered.
At the time No 1 Squadron A Flight was commanded by Lt K T Curran and B Flight by Lt A Woods. Lt Curran later transferred to the schools as SFI and Lt D K Johnson took over from him. At the start of the war the three Gladiators were based in Baldonnel for the defence of Dublin. The first change came in 1940 when they were allowed to carry the now familiar badge of a Leopard's head on an orange background with the scroll underneath. The most important duty of No 1 Sqn in the early years was the met flights. Every morning a Gladiator or occasionally a Lysander would take off from Baldonnel to take readings for the met men. These runs became known as the Baldonnel Milk Run to the Radar Operators on Anglesey who monitored the Welsh coastline.
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1940/41, the start of the Emergency
A Flight was on 24 hour alert for interception duties which they performed many times although they never intercepted any of the intruders. This proved to be a very trying and frustrating time for the pilots who got an order to scramble but were usually too late despite their best efforts. One example is an attempt on 29th December 1940 which saw two Gladiators scrambled at 15.25hrs for an aircraft ,later identified as a JU-88, that was spotted at 14.55hrs crossing over the Waterford coast heading over Kilkenny, Carlow, Kildare and Meath. The RAF Y Service noted that it received a recall order and then turned south. It was at this stage that the Gladiators attempted an interception. However the superior speed of the JU-88 became apparent as it pulled away from the defenders. The Ju-88 flew over Dublin where it was briefly engaged by AA Defences. As the Irish defence forces of the time had no radar they had to rely on lookout posts that were established around the coast. However by the time the report had filtered down through to Baldonnel the offending aircraft had vanished. Following a number of discussions with the Air Defence Command a decision was taken that the lookout posts would report directly to Baldonnel. This resulted in a number of scrambles aimed mainly at intruding German aircraft. However it was merely a token gesture due to the superior speed of the Luftwaffe aircraft no successful interceptions ensued. The question of operation standing patrols was not an option for such a small unit. Drifting barrage balloons were a constant menace, causing damage to power lines with their trailing cables. These had to be intercepted and brought down by the Aer Corps.
During this period C and D flights were formed with some Hawker Hinds and later Hawker Hectors. In May 1941 A Flight, with the three Gladiators flown by Capt. Johnson, Lt. Kelleher and Lt. Maloney was detached to Ballenteer House near Navan. They operated from there in support of the Second Brigade (Col. Touhy) during manoeuvres. They flew intensivly during the two month deployment which ended on 2nd July. It demonstrated the detachments ability to effectively and independent of the main unit, due no doubt to the ability of the ground crews to keep them flying. Reveille was at 02.00 hrs and flying often commenced at 03.30 hrs ending at around 18.00 hrs. An Avro Cadet operated communication flights in support of the flight. On return of A flight to Baldonnel, Capt. Jimmy O'Brien took B flight's Lysanders to Fermoy for a peroid of four months.
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1942 Manoeuvres
In September 1942 large scale manoeuvres were held in the South with the Air Corps heavily committed. Units of the Fighter Squadron, for the duration of the exercises, were formed into the Second Air Component and were based at teh so called "secret" landing ground at Rathduff. The aircraft used were Lysanders, Hinds and Hectors and many suffered damage as a result of the rough landings on the largly unprepared surfaces. Units from Rineanna were also involved and as part of the First Air Component, Magisters operated out of Glenville near Fermoy. During the exercise Walrus 20 crashed and was written off, fortunatly without fatalities. A flight's Gladiators remained at Baldonnel for fighter defence.
Hurricanes arrive
Following reorganisation of the squadron Hawker Hurricanes at last arrived with deliveries commencing in July 1943. Comdt. KT Curran took over command with Capt. D K Johnson as A Flight commander and Capt. O'Brien in Command of B Flight. Other flying personnel with the squadron at that time include Lts. Quigley, Cussack, Cregg, Winterson, Howard, Carr, Maloney, Kelleher, Crehan and Flanagan. Just prior to the arrival of the Hurricanes the squadron had moved to Rineanna. Three Miles Masters newly arrived were sent to reinforce the unit there, pending the awaited Hurricanes. The squadrons stay at Rineanna was not a happy period. Due to the lack of spares for the Hurricanes (which were old with many hours up), flying was curtailed and this is borne out by the low number of flying hours accumulated. Better news was ahead, however. A decision was made in 1944 that Rineanna should be evacuated to make way for the preparations for its future role as the trans Atlantic terminal known as Shannon Airport. Instructions were received to evacuate as and from 1st May 1945. The squadron flew up to its new base at Gormanstown and happier times.
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Inter unit competition
Baldonnel hosted the inter unit competition at Gormanstown on two occasions. The winners were Comdt. Curran and Capt. Ryan from the Headquarters Flight on both occasions in 1943 and 1944 in what was described as first class shooting in the Hurricanes.
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New CO and Seafire Arrival
Comdt. Curran left the squadron in 1946 to become Camp Commandant at Baldonnel, the new appointment was Comdt. Paddy Swan, he was to stay for ten years. His appointment coincided with the imminent introduction of the 12 Seafires, the first four of which were delivered to Baldonnel on the 17th February 1947 by Comdt. Swan, Capts. Ryan, O'Connor and Johnson. The delivery operation was not without problems. 1947 was the year of the very bad winter. On 13th January Capt. Woods took off from Baldonnel in Avro 19 No 142 with the inspection party consisting of Comdt. Horgan, Capt Teague and C/Sgt. Browne. With the inspection completed the Avro 19 left South Marston on Wednesday 15th and set course for Speke where it arrived to clear customs, due to deteriorating wether conditions they were held up until the following Friday. On Monday the 20th Capt. Woods, this time flying Avro 19 No 141 left Baldonnel and picked up the four pilots at Gormanstown and flew to South Marston. With acceptance test flight completed the four Seafires (Nos 146, 147, 148 and 149) and the Avro 19 took off at 12 noon on the 24th and set course for Spike. Bad weather forced the four Seafires to land at RAF High Ercall near Shrewsbury, the Avro 19was able to land at Speke under radio control andcontinue on to Baldonnel, just getting out before the weather further deteriorated. The Seafires could not get to Speke as they had not got VHF at the time. This resulted in the four remaining at High Ercall untill the weather improved and they succeeded in getting away on the 17th February.
During this time the personnel had been increased with the appointment of some of the Sergeant pilots. The squadron with its new aircraft undertook many functions and operations including fighter leader courses, instructors courses, ground attack exercises in co-operation with army units, fighter interceptions with Avro 19, Avro 19s and Miles Masters from Baldonnel, and the usual cermonial flypasts. During the period 1949 to 1954 the squadron undertook a complete photographic survey of the coast. A rather unique part of the undertaking was the use of RAF Ballykelly and RNAS Eglinton in order to cover the area of Donegal. One Derry resident recalls how impressed his father was (a civillian employee at Eglinton) to watch three Irish Seafiresexecute a close formation take off maintaining impeccable station. The flight leader on this occasion DK Johnson. The writer has been told many heads turned to watch.
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Seafire fatalities
The squadron during its Seafire period (and unlike the Hurricanes which killed no one) suffered two fatalities. On 22nd May 1953 Seafire No 148 flown by Lt. Coghlan crashed into the sea off Balbriggan on approach to Gormanstown at the end of a formation flight. It followed an earlier fatality on 28th May 1951 involving Seafire No 154, Capt. Billy Ryan, who crashed during a finger four formation exercise. During a climb the pilots lost sight of oneanother and in accordance with standard operational procedure, each in turn broke away. It was during the descent that disaster struck when he broke cloud too late to avoid hitting the mountains above Kilbride. The other three pilots namely Capt. O Connor, Lt. Glenn and Lt. Farrelly successfully emerged from the thick cloud and returned to Gormanstown. Capt. Ryan was a most popular and competent officer and a great loss to the squadron.
The Seafires soldiered on until 1955 and were at times supplemented by the two seater Spitfire trainers, which were, incidentally faster than the Seafires! With new runways completed at Baldonnel the Air Corps received its first jet aircraft, the Vampire T55 Trainer and signalled a move from Gormanstown to Baldonnel in 1956. The Vampire served the squadron well and suffered nothing more serious than wheels up landings by two Vampires on the runways. There was little damage other than pride. The Vampire was the first and only aircraft with ejector seats and had cause to use them only once when on 5th May 1961 Lt. Mc Partland ejected over Cavan, after loss of stability when flying with Comdt. J B O'Connor. Following the ejection, Comdt. O'Connor regained control and brought his Vampire back to Baldonnel. Lt. Mc Partland landed successfully and the canopy and seat were recovered from the Mullagh area of Co. Cavan.
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Fouga Magisters
Six Fouga CM170 Super Magisters were purchased to replace the ageing Vampires and with it came a new designation for the squadron, as a result of reorganisation of the Air Corps the unit became the Light Strike Squadron. The squadron was to adopt a much higher public profile as a result of a number of public appearances at numerous airshows with its aerobatic team the Silver Swallows. The various pilots with the team over the years proved that their expertise is second to none and are always the highlight of the shows. The Magisters or the Fougas as they are popularly known, unlike their predecessors afforded the public the opportunity to see the Air Corps in action during displays by the superb teams which comprise, at different times, the Swallows. Like other units it offered the general public the opportunity to appreciate all the more the fine qualities of the small but efficient Air Corps. The Magisters continued the tradition of carrying the unit badge on the nose of the aircraft ad at least one Magister was always to be found with the badge. The writer can only recall seeing it on two of the Magisters some years ago, how about it lads. |
