Royal Naval Air Station Donibristle, (RNAS Donibristle; or HMS Merlin), was a former Royal Navy Naval Air Station located east of Rosyth, Fife, and northwest of Edinburgh.
It grew from an emergency landing ground first established in 1917 on the Earl of Moray's Donibristle Estate by 77 Sqn of the Royal Flying Corps and was transferred to Royal Naval Air Service control in September 1917 becoming a Aircraft Repair & Storage Depot.
On 1 April 1918 the Royal Naval Air Service merged with the Royal Flying Corps to create the Royal Air Force and Donibristle became a RAF Station between 1918 and 1939 operated by the Fleet Air Arm as part of RAF Coastal Area and later Coastal Command. During the interbellum Donibristle was an important centre of training for torpedo bomber crews with a number of new squadrons forming at the airfield.
On 24 May 1939, control of the Fleet Air Arm was returned to the Royal Navy and the airfield was renamed Royal Naval Air Station Donibristle (HMS Merlin). In addition to being an important shore base for training and disembarked naval aircraft units, a substantial Royal Naval Aircraft Repair Yard was developed in the North West corner of the airfield which employed a large civilian workforce alongside naval personnel. Over 7,000 aircraft were repaired and maintained at Donibristle during the Second World War.
Post war, Fleet Air Arm activity at Donibristle slowed considerably and HMS Merlin was eventually run down and paid off by the Royal Navy in November 1953. The Royal Naval Aircraft Yard continued to operate under the civilian contracted management of Airwork Ltd until April 1959 at which point the airfield site was completely closed. The land was sold to developers who created the Hillend and Donibristle Industrial Estates and the new town of Dalgety Bay. The first residents moved in to Dalgety Bay on 28 October 1965.
Origins
The establishment of a military airfield at Donibristle can be traced back to the 1903 decision to build a major Royal Navy base at Rosyth as part of the Anglo-German Naval Arms Race. Construction of Rosyth Naval Dockyard began in 1909, with full operational status achieved in March 1916. Anchorages for the fleet were available in the Firth of Forth from 1914. It was from Rosyth that the Battle Cruiser Fleet under Vice Admiral David Beatty sailed to take part in the Battle of Jutland.
On the night of 2/3 April 1916, two Zeppelin airships of the Imperial German Navy (L14/LZ 46 and L22/LZ 64) set out to bomb the naval vessels at anchor in the Firth of Forth and the Dockyard facilities at Rosyth. Deterred by defensive fire and searchlight glare, the airships instead opted to drop their bombs over Edinburgh and Leith. This resulted in 13 civilians killed and 24 wounded with over £77,000 in material damage (over £5.3 million today).
In response to the Zeppelin threat, a number of Home Defence Squadrons were based in the local area. One such unit was 77 Sqn of the Royal Flying Corps which flew the B.E.2 based at Turnhouse Aerodrome from October 1916. The first Commanding Officer of 77 Sqn, Major William Milne MC, was a close personal friend of Morton Gray Stuart, 17th Earl of Moray who had a substantial family estate at Donibristle situated on the North coast of the River Forth. The Earl was convinced to allow the establishment of a small emergency landing ground for 77 Sqn near to the estate's West Lodge Gates and Carriage Drive. This involved the removal of three small tree plantations to create a grass airstrip. The emergency landing ground was never actually used by the Royal Flying Corps and ownership was passed to the Royal Naval Air Service on 17 September 1917 where it was used initially for torpedo development trials.
As the First World War progressed, aircraft grew in importance both on land and sea. A letter dated 20 November 1917 from the Admiralty to Admiral Beatty, who had since been appointed as Commander of the Grand Fleet, explains that due to the decision to equip all light and battle cruisers with aircraft, there would be a need for extensive shore based support facilities to be established. Donibristle, located just a few miles along the coast from the Naval Base at Rosyth and opposite the fleet anchorages in the Firth of Forth, was ideally situated for development to meet this need.
RNAS Donibristle (1917-1918)
Initial accommodation at Donibristle in September 1917 consisted of just two portable Armstrong canvas huts, a portable latrine and a range of corrugated buildings including a kitchen, ablutions, meat store, dry store and a guard hut.
Approval was soon given by the Admiralty to develop the site into a RNAS Aircraft Repair Depot, this included the erection of a single aircraft shed measuring 200' x 100' and accommodation for ten officers and 115 ratings. This was deemed insufficient to meet demand and a second 200' x 100' aircraft shed was soon approved together with aircraft and engine workshops and a commensurate increase in domestic facilities to accommodate 50 officers and 400 ratings. Admiral Beatty wrote to the Admiralty on 28 November 1917 to request a third 200' x 100' aircraft shed as The Grand Fleet, soon to be based entirely at Rosyth, would be putting to sea with over 100 aircraft by the summer of 1918.
On 10 December 1917 the Admiralty wrote to the War Office requesting permission to construct a railway line and to extend a pier in connection with the launching and recovery of seaplanes. This railway line was originally proposed to be built eastwards to the recently constructed pier serving the Braefoot Battery, however a westerly route was approved and a two mile long standard gauge line terminating at East Ness Pier in Inverkeithing Bay was completed in 1920. An AB Locomotive named RAF No.1 was delivered new to the aerodrome in 1920 and housed in its own shed. It continued to operate on the line until 1951.
RAF Donibristle (1918)
The Grand Fleet moved to Rosyth in April 1918 following enhancements to anti-submarine defences in the Firth of Forth. On 1 April 1918 the Royal Naval Air Service merged with the Royal Flying Corps to create the world's first fully independent air force thereafter known as the Royal Air Force. All existing RNAS aircraft, personnel and shore facilities were transferred to the RAF with the airfield site becoming RAF Station Donibristle (known affectionally as Donibee) under the command of Major F A Hooper (Squadron Leader from 1 August 1919 when new RAF ranks were introduced). The airfield continued to be used as a trials base for torpedo development.
In October 1918 the airfield was redesignated as the Fleet Aircraft Acceptance Depot and shortly after the Fleet Aircraft Repair Depot. At the end of hostilities on 11 November 1918, RAF Donibristle consisted of the following 4x Aircraft Sheds 1x Erecting Shed 1x General Store 1x Large Workshop 1x Blacksmiths Shop 1x Dope Shop Bomb Store Magazine & Firing Butt Photographers Studio Officers Mess Accommodation and domestic support for 400 Airmen and NCOs
RAF Donibristle - Inter War Years (1918-1939)
In the immediate post war years, RAF Donibristle was primarily employed maintaining and overhauling aircraft from the shore base at RAF Leuchars and aircraft from ships of the fleet. It was renamed as the Aircraft Repair Depot from September 1919 to March 1920. It was also responsible for scrapping a large number of aircraft now considered surplus due to the end of the war and converting a number of DH.9s for employment as 3 seater fleet spotters.
Following the end of hostilities, the Earl of Moray was rather reluctant to sell his land to the Air Ministry permanently and expressed a desire regain ownership of the land. Until then it had only been a temporary tenancy arrangement under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914. However, he was persuaded that no other location would be suitable for this important shore base and the sale was finally completed in 1923 with the Air Ministry becoming sole owner occupiers from 1924. Reasons listed by the Air Ministry included - close proximity to fleet anchorages, good rail and road links for transportation of aircraft and stores and centrally located between other establishments working with naval assets.
On 3 November 1919, Wing Commander Richard Pink took command at Donibristle, which became known as the Coastal Area Aircraft Depot (CAAD) from March 1920. Pink, who later became an Air Commodore, is famous as the only individual to have a military campaign named after him - Pink's War. An article in the Edinburgh Evening News on 24 June 1920 reported that the station was built at a cost of £300,000 with another £250,000 required to complete. The article also lists aircraft types based at Donibristle as including the Sopwith Camel, the de Havilland DH.9 and the Parnall Panther.Scottish Military Aerodromes of the 1920s and 1930s, Malcolm Fife During this period RAF Donibristle had its own farm with labour provided by local civilians. The farm fulfilled the stations full requirements for eggs and milks with vegetables grown by the farm distributed to NAAFI units all over Scotland.
In April 1921 personnel from RAF Donibristle were deployed to Renfrew and Newcastle aerodromes to support the civilian authorities during the Coal Strikes and are recorded as having "unpleasant experiences". In anticipation of local trouble at Donibristle, an armoured car was provided which mounted five machine guns. This was further protected by barbed wire and netting. The strikes quickly came to an end due to lack of support from the allied National Transport Workers' Federation and National Union of Railwaymen.
Post war downsizing of the Royal Air Force eventually caught up with RAF Donibristle and on 31 October 1922 the station was reduced to a Care and Maintenance basis with only a skeleton staff in residence. On 1 April 1924, the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force was formed, encompassing those RAF units that would normally be embarked on aircraft carriers and fighting ships.
On 15 July 1925 the station was reactivated as part of RAF Coastal Area as a shore base for Fleet Air Arm aircraft under the command of Squadron Leader Thomas Wilfrid Elsdon. Manpower was initially bolstered by the transfer of 300 airman from RAF Leuchars. The first flying units to be permanently based at RAF Donibristle following its reactivation were the Fairey Flycatchers of 405 Fleet Fighter Flight (later to become 803 Naval Air Squadron in 1933) and 406 Fleet Fighter Flight who arrived in early October 1925 with 401 Fleet Fighter Flight arriving towards the end of the month. Several other Flycatcher units formed at Donibristle including 407 Fleet Fighter Flight on 1 September 1927 and 408 Fleet Fighter Flight on 30 March 1929. These units spent varying periods aboard aircraft carriers of the fleet and shore based at Donibristle.
The 30 October 1927 saw a change of command with Squadron Leader Frank Fowler DSC DFC assuming the post of Station Commander. On 1 October 1928 the Coast Defence Torpedo Flight at Donibristle was renamed 36 Squadron and equipped with the Hawker Horsley. This unit was specially formed to introduce and develop the new role of dropping torpedoes from shore based aircraft.
Another change of command took place on 28 January 1929 with Squadron Leader Claud W Mackay DSC DFC taking post as Station Commander. This was a short posting as he was soon replaced on 10 July 1929 by Wing Commander Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall VC MC. Insall was a 21 year old Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps when he was awarded the Victoria Cross following an action on 7 November 1915 flying a Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus. Wing Commander Insall's tenure as Station Commander ended in June 1932 with Wing Commander John V Steel OBE taking post from 1 July 1932. This followed his return from service with RAF Iraq Command where he was Personal Staff Officer to the AOC Air Vice Marshal Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt.