First World War
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the
Admiralty was tasked with establishing a string of home defence
airfields along the south eastern seaboard of the United Kingdom,
from Edinburgh to the south coast of England.
In September 1915 the Director of Naval Air Services gave
approval for an air station to be opened at East Fortune and, due
to its proximity to stretches of the North Sea, the Admiralty
decided to station airships for carrying out sea-lane patrols
there.
The first aircraft arrived in September 1915, two Sopwith
two-seat Scouts and a Maurice Fairman from the air station in
Montrose. Over the following months more types arrived, Avro 504s
and B.E.2c and the first airships, midway through 1916. These were
the successful ‘Coastal’ type which were used for anti-submarine
and convoy protection duties.
Two large hangars were erected to house the airships and these
were 90 metres long and over 30 metres high.
Air Attack on Edinburgh
The air defences at East Fortune were put to the test on the
night of 2 April 1916.
Two German Navy Zeppelins attacked Edinburgh. One
of them was spotted over the coast near St Abbs and East Fortune
was notified. At 21.40 hours Flight Sub-Lieutenant Cox took off in
an Avro 504C single-seat fighter to intercept the raider but was
unable to find it. He returned to East Fortune only to crash his
machine on landing and he was badly injured.
Commissioning of Royal Naval Air Station
The Royal Naval Air Station, East Fortune was officially
commissioned on 23 August 1916 and by May 1917 a third airship shed
was constructed to house rigid airships.
This enormous structure was some 200 metres long
and over 45 metres high. Throughout the First World War the British
Airship effort was predominantly defensive by nature, carrying out
anti-submarine patrols around the coast and escorting convoys from
their gathering point at Methil on the Firth of Forth.
Training School at East Fortune
During 1917 further aeroplane types arrived as East Fortune was
used as a depot for ship based aeroplanes, a training school was
set up for pilots stationed with the Battle Cruiser squadron at
Rosyth.
The most influential type of aeroplane to serve at East Fortune
in World War 1 was the Sopwith Cuckoo, the first aircraft carrier
based torpedo dropping plane.
By July 1918, crews were being trained for a daring mission
proposed by Admiral of the Fleet Sir David Beatty. The aircraft
carrier HMS Angus would launch her Cuckoos against the German High
Seas fleet at anchor in the Jade River at Wilhelmshaven. To train
crews in torpedo bombing technique, No.1 Torpedo Training School
was set up and re-numbered 201 Training Squadron in August
1918.
World War 1 ended before the risky operation at
Wilhelmshaven took place. The Royal Naval Air Service merged with
the Army controlled Flying Corps on 1 April 1918 and the Royal Air
Force was created and East Fortune came under the new service’s
control. World War 1 ended on 11 November 1918. When the
surrendered German Fleet sullenly sailed into the Firth of Forth,
East Fortune’s aircraft photographed and filmed the event.
East Fortune’s Rigid Airships
There were only two rigid type airships based at East Fortune
during the First World War, these were the Beardmore built HMA
No.24 and Armstrong Whitworth R.29.
Airship No.24
Delivered to East Fortune from Beardmores in 28
October 1917, No.24’s career was something of a disappointment. The
ship was plagued with engine trouble and in one incident off Bass
Rock No.24 was caught in a gale. For two hours she fought a vicious
head wind, often being forced backwards by the strength of the
wind. She eventually departed for Howden, Yorkshire for secondary
duties and was eventually broken up there in December 1919.
Airship R.29
R.29 was constructed by Armstrong Whitworth at
Selby, Yorkshire and arrived at East Fortune on 29 June 1918. She
was the most successful rigid airship in service during World War I
and the only one to have taken part in the destruction of a German
submarine.On 29 september 1918 whilst on patrol off the
Northumbrian coast, crew members spotted an oil slick on the water,
a sure sign of the presence of a submarine. Bombs were dropped and
a destroyer, HMS Ouse was called to deploy depth charges. A trail
of bubbles and oil signified the death throes of a U-boat and it
was later confirmed UB115 had been sunk. R.29 remained at East
Fortune until broken on site on 24 October 1919.
Airship R.34
The newest airship in the Royal Airforce, HMA R.34
arrived at East Fortune on 30 May 1919. After a single operational
voyage out over the Baltic Sea as a show of strength to assist the
German Government in the ratification of the treaty of Versailles,
preparations were made for R.34’s historic Atlantic crossing.
Historic Atlantic Crossing
On a cold misty 2 July 1919, at 1.42am, R.34 and her intrepid
crew of 8 officers and 22 men, one stowaway, two carrier pigeons
and a kitten set off on the first direct flight between Britain and
the United States.
It was the first return crossing of the Atlantic by air, and
although trip took 11 days R.34 didn’t return to East Fortune until
1 August. Her arrival point in the UK was Pulham in Norfolk, from
where she flew publicity flights around London and the South of
England.
There were two stowaways aboard R.34 when she flew to America,
Aircraftsman Second Class William ‘ Billy’ Ballantyne and a tabby
kitten called ‘Wopsie’. Billy was a regular member of the crew who
hid aboard the night before departure! Wopsie was smuggled aboard
by one of the engineering crew, becoming the ship’s unofficial
mascot for the journey, returning aboard R.34 as the first feline
to fly across the Atlantic!
R.34’s flight from East Fortune to Long Island, New York and
back were the longest journeys flown by an aircraft at the time.
The flight was initially conceived as a study into the potential of
airships for long distance air travel.
When R.34 returned to her home station, little flying was
carried out from then on. She and the non-rigid NS.7 were the last
airships to fly from East Fortune, departing on 4 February 1920,
with its closure as an airship station.
Between the Wars
A Care and maintenance department remained on site, continuing
the operation of the wireless station until mid 1920.
During the National Coal Miner’s Strike of 1921, East Fortune
was inhabited by the Royal Navy once again as their Regional
Headquarters and naval personnel assisted in the operating of
equipment at local pits.
Some 350 acres of land was eventually sold to the South East
Counties of Scotland Joint Sanatorium Board who established a
tuberculosis hospital in the former air station buildings.
Soon after the coal strike the three airship sheds were used for
the storage of small arms ammunition, which was broken down for the
recovery of metals for manufacturing purposes. Mid way through
1922, the gigantic airship sheds were dismantled.
Second World War
Royal Airforce Station, East Fortune
In June 1940, the site was requisitioned by the Air Ministry as
a satellite field nearby at RAF Drem.
The tuberculosis sanatorium had shifted to Bangour
by May 1941 and the development of the south side of the aerodrome
commenced. Three large ‘Callender-hamilton' type hangars were
constructed for airframe and engine maintenance. Accommodation for
ground crews was built on the Gilmerton Road, within walking
distance of the newly developed compound.
Operational Training Unit (OTU)
Throughout the Second World War, the Royal Airforce Station,
East Fortune served as an operational training base.
The first crews to pass through OTU were of
Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Polish origin. Accidents were
frequent, often fatal, the surrounding countryside becoming
littered with aeroplane crash sites. From 4 June 1941, the
Air Defence Cadet Corps became the Air Training Corps and
they often held camps locally for young cadets which provided
them with their first flying experience, in the de Havilland
Dominies based at the airfield.
Coastal Command
The airfield was transferred to No.17 Coastal Command on 24
November 1942.
No.60 became No.132 as an anti-shipping-strike training unit
with the Bristol Beaufort and Beaufighter as its principal
machines. Training commenced over Aberlady Bay in the art of
torpedo bombing and unguided rocket attacks, and once again a
Torpedo Training School was opened on site.
In April 1944, the first de Havilland Mosquitoes began to
supplement the Beauforts and Beaufighters. To accommodate the new
arrivals, a new hangar was built, adding a fourth to the south side
complex. East Fortune began to receive the odd visitor on their way
back from night operations over Europe. During one week in December
1944, 22 Handley Page Halifaxes and 18 Avro Lancasters were
diverted from their home bases on return from raids on Germany.
With the war in Europe drawing to an end, the intensity of
flying training deceased, but continued until end of 1945. The
Beaufighter was to be replaced by the newer Bristol Buckmaster
within Coastal Command, only two of these machines arrived at East
Fortune before its closure.
Flying activity actually intensified after the end of the
Second World War as East Fortune was used as a staging
post for the transportation of personnel to and from Scandinavia,
using Short Stirlings, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes. From September
1946, 30th Fighter Command took over the site but only stayed until
the end of the year with the departure of the RAF.
Post War East Fortune
Tuberculosis Hospital
The land requisitioned from the Santatorium was returned and the
tuberculosis hospital was set up again.
The East Fortune Hospital remained open until 1997,
occupying the northern side of the site, the dilapidated buildings
still standing today although ashamedly decomposing.
Storage Facility
By the mid 1950s, the Scottish Home and Health Department has
requisitioned sections of the south side of the former aerodrome
for storage of civil defence equipment.
in anticipation of hostilities erupting between
East and West. Emergency service vehicles were stored in hangars,
in particular Green Goddess fire tenders. After tensions slackened
the Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries took over the south
site, hangars and buildings were filled to the brim with
foodstuffs.
Edinburgh’s International Airport
Flying had not completely ceased at East Fortune.
From April to August 1961 the main runway was
opened as Edinburgh’s International Airport as Turnhouse was being
redeveloped. A prefab village was opened on one of the
cross-runways as the the terminal and the wartime control tower was
refurbished. Over the 4 month period some 99,800 passenger
movements were recorded, though it was not without incident. A
Vickers Viscount overshot the runway and on a separate occasion a
Percival Pembroke crashed after take off near the coastal town of
North Berwick – neither accident experienced any fatalities.
National Museum of Flight
The main runway is now privately owned and is used to facilitate
a Sunday market.
In 1971, the Ministry of Defence donated a Supermarine Spitfire
to the Royal Museum, Edinburgh.
Due to lack of space to accommodate the aeroplane, permission
was granted for the museum to acquire one of the hangars on the
former south side of RAF East Fortune as a storehouse for their
aeronautical exhibits - the seeds were sown for the development of
the National Museum of Flight. The museum officially opened to the
public on 7 July 1975.
Today East Fortune still reverberates to the sound of aircraft
engines, whether they be from low flying RAF jets or from air
displays put on by the museum. East Fortune may not be the most
remembered of airfields but this once busy military site has earned
its place in history.