Eye on Millig - Unveiling will bring back memories

He plans to be present when it is unveiled at Kidston Park at 11am on Saturday July 1 to commemorate the Helensburgh ‘Airfield’ and the work carried out by the Rhu-based Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment.

It has been a long-held dream of Helensburgh Heritage Trust, Eye on Millig, and MAEE researcher and retired Merseyside newspaper editor Robin Bird — whose late father Bob was the MAEE photographer for two years — that the service and bravery of the personnel should be recognised.

Thanks to the generosity of the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and the efforts of former pilot Geoff Tompson and his wife Trudi on behalf of the Heritage Trust, the memorial overlooking the Gareloch and the remaining Rhu Hangar will be primarily carried out by Robin Bird, who has written two books about the MAEE.

The memorial itself is the main standardised design already widely utilised by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust, whose objective is eventually to commemorate each known disused airfield site in Britain with one of two forms of standardised granite memorial.

Publicity for the unveiling included mention of an unusual event for MAEE when a German Heinkel 115 seaplane dive-bomber was flown to Rhu by Norwegian personnel. Its arrival was witnessed by ex-Provost Petrie, then a schoolboy.

The ex-Provost, one of two honorary members of the Heritage Trust, remembers it well.

“I was playing at the Ardenconnel football field with a friend, Robert McLean, when all of a sudden we heard an aircraft engine,” he tells me. “It had a different sound to British aircraft.

“It was escorted by a second plane. We could see the Swastika markings, although white crosses had been painted across them.

“It flew low over the Rhu Church tower — so low that I could see several men lying in the gun turret.

“We ran home as we had an air raid shelter, but my father pointed out there had been no air raid sirens. They landed in the Gareloch.

“They opened up Rhu Village Hall that night as the men had nowhere to sleep, but the next day accommodation was found for them.”

Helensburgh was known for a time during World War Two as ‘Little Norway’.

That was also the name given to a Norwegian Air Force base formed in Toronto, Canada, in the autumn of 1940 following the German occupation of Norway earlier that year.

Norwegian pilots and aircrew in Canada were re-equipped and trained with American-made Northrop float planes. They then operated from Iceland conducting U-Boat searches.

But the original ‘Little Norway’ — a base for a newly formed free Norwegian Air Force — was first established at Rhu earlier that year.

Within days of the German invasion of Norway on April 9 1940, a Norwegian pilot and crew flew the battle-scarred German-made Heinkel 115, serial number 52, to Scotland.

Robin Bird tells me that Pilot Haken Offerdal landed on the Gareloch having been directed there by the British authorities — and the aircraft naturally attracted much attention when it landed and beached at Rhu.

Although it was within the confines of the MAEE base, a number of inquisitive school children managed to get on to the beach for a close-up view of the huge menacing Heinkel, including young Billy Petrie.

Norway had ordered six Heinkel 115s just before the outbreak of war to beef up its marine air force wing made up of obsolete Flyvebaatfabrikk MF 11 floatplanes.

Offerdal and his aircraft only left the fighting in Norway as the Germans advanced. His Heinkel developed engine problems while fighting the Germans, but he decided to make the hazardous flight to Britain.

Offerdal realised that the Heinkel 115 would make a ‘war prize’ for the British as it was a modern, three-seater floatplane, powered by two BMW nine-cylinder air cooled engines.

He wanted, too, on reaching the UK to report fully the serious situation in his homeland, and his plan was then to return to Norway in an aircraft supplied by the RAF.

But he was soon joined by three more escaping Heinkel 115s, one of them piloted by Hans Andreas Bugge.

Meanwhile, the situation in Norway was confusing — and changing daily.

Just in time, King Haakon and the Norwegian Government escaped the country aboard HMS Devonshire, and a Government in exile was formed.

Only then could Norwegian forces in Britain continue the war against the Germans despite their air force having battled against the superior Luftwaffe during the invasion.

The majority of the Norwegian aircraft, both land and sea-based planes, were obsolete bi-planes. Only the German-built Heinkel 115 floatplanes were a match for the enemy who had made them.

And only the Heinkels had the power and versatility to make it safely to land on the Gareloch.

A few obsolete Hover MF 11 floatplanes attempted the long flight to Britain by way of the Shetlands. These canvas-covered bi-planes were powered by a single British designed Armstrong Siddeley engine.

They had open cockpits and limited flying capacity without re-fuelling.

They were only ever intended for coastal reconnaissance, and were not designed to be warplanes. As a result the MF 11s flying to the UK either turned back, went missing, or were shot down by the British.

One MF 11 biplane, serial number F328, left Norway with Offerdal’s Heinkel F52, but it was lost on the way.

Hans Andreas Bugge was ordered to form a Helensburgh Group air force and await further instructions.

The Group was to consist of the Heinkels, an expected Arado 196 float plane that had been captured in Norway, and any Norwegian MF 11 that might make it.

But the eagerly awaited Arado 196 floatplane, another war prize, crashed on arriving at Rhu on April 26 1940.

Its pilot, Commander C.W. Byras, RN, misjudged his landing on calm water, and wrecked the Arado.

This was a major setback. MAEE had wanted to inspect the Arado thoroughly to compare its performance with the Blackburn Roc floatplane undergoing trials at Helensburgh.

The Arado was a superior aircraft to the Roc, designed as a seaplane as opposed to the Roc which was a land-based aircraft fitted with floats.

One Roc floatplane had crashed at Helensburgh during trials in November 1939 because of what was said to be ‘uncontrollable directional instability.’

But the British would not get their hands on another Arado 196 until the end of the war.

The Heinkels at Helensburgh initially remained under the control of the Free Norwegian Government in exile. The fighting in Norway entered its final phase on April 26 1940, and effectively lasted until May 28.

During this period Helensburgh continued to be ‘Little Norway’, a rendezvous point for Norwegians escaping Norway.

The bullet-ridden Heinkels were repaired at the Blackburn Aircraft factory in Dumbarton, and then prepared for use in special operations.

The Helensburgh Group was strengthened by two British Empire flying boats converted for military use, Cabot and Caribou, but they were both destroyed during a secret mission to Bodo.

The Heinkels were used for leaflet drops and special operations to Norway, and the Norwegian aircrew and ground crew were found lodgings in the burgh.

How many sorties the Heinkels carried out is not known. Some reports say such flights were aborted as being ‘dangerous and suicidal’.

One Heinkel 115 was kept at Helensburgh for appraisal trials with the MAEE.

Although all the Heinkels were taken over by the RAF for special operations, the Norwegian aircrews at Helensburgh were not absorbed into the RAF but were trained in the use of seaplanes.

The Norwegian Government in exile decided to reform its air force in Toronto, Canada, equipped with American-made Northrop floatplanes.

Bugge took charge of training aircrew in the use of the Northops at their new base, which took over the name ‘Little Norway.’

Once the men were trained they moved to Reykjavik in Iceland as operational squadrons. Sadly, Bugge and his crew went missing during one such flight on April 25 1942. Their Northrop never returned to base.

He was awarded his country’s Air Force Cross and War Cross posthumously.

Robin Bird said: “The fact that Bugge established a ‘Little Norway’ in Helensburgh seems to have been somewhat overlooked.

“Their time in Helensburgh was brief, but long enough for them to reform and continue the fight to free Norway of the occupying German forces.”

MAEE — which made a major and varied contribution to the war effort — left its wartime home in Rhu in August 1945 and returned to its previous home in Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast.