Letter writer Sandy McCallum recalls the days of the Catalina in Largs, and beyond...

I was interested to read your contributor’s letter concerning his war time memories of playing aboard the wreckage of a Catalina flying boat which was beached close to the slipway at Barrfields [now the life boat slipway].

I too am old enough to remember the delights of seeing this pile of twisted metal looking for all the world like a beached whale, except for the protruding coloured knobs and the big, bulging perspex ‘eyes’.

(In reality these were the perspex blisters for the observer’s or gunner’s use).

My parents had what used to be the Elderslie Hotel which, in the war years, was requisitioned by the Navy and I clearly recall being fascinated by seeing men in uniform all over ‘my house’ and being frequently frightened by the very loud noise of the Catalinas and Sunderlands landing on the sea right opposite our windows.

Interestingly, in 1963 my wife and I went off to live and work in Bermuda where we spent seven very happy years before coming back to Largs.

Then in 2004, to celebrate our Ruby Wedding, we returned to Bermuda to meet old friends and recall good old days. While at dinner one evening the subject of Catalinas came up and our host presented us with a book which, amazingly from my point of view, highlighted the connections between Bermuda, the Catalina flying boat and Largs. We discovered that many of the Catalinas which landed off Cumbrae were flown, at great risk to their crew, non stop from Bermuda by pilots of RAF Ferry Command.

The book is entitled “The Flying Boats of Bermuda” and its author is Squaudron Leader Colin Pomeroy. It gives a very full and interesting account of those far off days and there are many references to arrivals in Largs. I’m also led to believe that one of the ferry pilots was a Canadian called Hughie Green....later to make his name in TV.

One final point. If like me any of your readers are still a fan of the Catalina, you can ‘fly’ it on on Microsoft’s excellent flight simulator and, with a bit of luck, you can make a touch down on the Great Sound at Bermuda or on the good old Firth of Clyde.

Happy Landings!

Sandy McCallum