BENTRA AIRSHIP STATION THE FIRST MILITARY AVIATION SITE IN IRELAND “When the drone of an airship’s engine could be heard approaching, the local children would run down
The site at Bentra was a small but important link in a chain of naval and aviation bases all around the coast of Ireland, which were instrumental in winning the war. Carrying out their roles of surveillance and deterrence, they helped combat the deadly German U-Boat menace.
the side of the adjacent field to watch through the hedge” The Royal Navy’s response to the threat posed by the German submarine force was to develop a fleet of airships to patrol the seas. The new submarinesearching or submarine-scout craft became known as the SS Class and was be crewed by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). No other contemporary aircraft could match the airships' endurance or slow speed capability. They could patrol for hours on end and used wireless telegraphy to communicate with their bases, who could then direct warships towards a potential target. The airships helped keep U-boats below the waves, where they could see less, had to travel much more slowly and used up valuable battery power. It is a well-documented fact that the U-boats crews loathed the airships.
It is hard to imagine now just what it would have been like for the crews of the SS airships, suspended in an open cockpit, between a few hundred and a few thousand feet above the cold, grey sea. Flight Sub-Lieutenant Thomas Elmhirst, only 19 years old at the time recalls that conditions were cramped and confined on board, exposed to the cold and at the mercy of the elements. “It was not be a pleasant experience when returning from a long patrol - tired, hungry and cold”.
It must have been particularly exciting that summer of 1917 for those who saw the strange craft descending from the sky. An eye-witness to these events, Nancy Calwell [neé Wisnon], described her experience as a six year old when she and her friends would hear the drone of an airship’s engine and run out to watch them coming in to land. On one occasion she was even was lifted into the cockpit onto the pilot's knee!
In October of 1915, Bentra, just outside Whitehead, was established as a substation of RNAS Luce Bay airship base, Scotland, under the command of the Senior Naval Officer at Larne Naval Base. Following the renewal of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare by the Germans on 1st February 1917, the facilities there were enhanced, with the erection of a portable airship shed. Wooden huts were built to act as accommodation for flying personnel on site. Rations for the men stationed at Bentra were provided by the Army Service Corps, Belfast via the 6th Royal Fusiliers at Carrickfergus Castle. Duties included convoy escort and also accompanying the Larne-Stranraer steamer, the Princess Maud. Crewed by young men barely out of their teens, the SS and later SSZ class airships made long patrols over the sea of up to 10 hours duration – in open cockpits.
SS Class prior to launch at Bentra - The gasbag of an SS Class had a capacity of 60,000 cubic feet and was 143 feet six inches in length, with a maximum diameter of 27 feet nine inches (compared with a typical German Zeppelin airship of the period which measured more than 700 feet in length, with a diameter of 78 feet and a gasbag capacity of 2,500,000 cubic feet.)
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The primary task for the airships stationed at the Whitehead Aerodrome was to protect the cross-channel ferry, SS Princess Maud and escort incoming and outgoing convoys in the North Channel. During the entire war there was only one instance of a ship being escorted by an airship being sunk.
Handling on the ground could be a tricky business as an airship presented a sizeable bulk to the wind. For take-off, the airship would be made positively buoyant so that it could be ‘walked’ out of the shed. When the engine was started, the order to ‘let go’ would be given and the craft would rise gently into the wind.
During the final 15 months of the war the SS type airships carried out over 10,000 patrols
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A portable airship shed was erected in 1917 consisting of a steel frame covered by canvas, measuring 150 feet long by 45 feet wide and 50 feet high.
When the prevailing wind permitted, the crew would scout from the air, looking for submarines on the surface or the wake of a periscope. Success depended on close cooperation between the naval airmen and the warships operating from Larne harbour, using the new science of the time, wireless telegraphy.
SS Class Airships
Could climb up to 5,000 feet, though normal altitude was
SS Class Airships Had an airspeed of
40-50mph
750 feet SS Class Airships Flew up to 8 hours carrying a
crew of 2 or 3
To watch a film clip of First World War airships in action scan the QR