Amazing memories of Catalina on Largs bay by letter-writer from Inverness.

As a five year old in Largs during World War 2 I remember the seaplanes well, landing and taking off across in the lee of Cumbrae.

The area in front of Barrfields was choc-a-bloc with Catalinas and regularly a Sunderland would block the prom at the Barrfield slipway. One day my dad took me out in a motor boat to have a look at a crashed Catalina lying offshore opposite Vanduara, it was being kept afloat by oil drums and was floating well down in the water.

My Dad told me that it was a landing accident and that one of the crew members was killed.

The following Sunday my Mum and Dad, who was on leave took me for our Sunday walk along the prom with myself, resplendent in my new Sunday coat with its little velvet collar.

As we approached Vanduara I jumped for joy as the crashed Catalina had now been dragged ashore and was lying on the beach well clear of the water, looking very forlorn in its damaged state. Like a streak of lightning I was down the steps and climbing into the back of the aircraft through a very large hole,made my way, climbing over bulkheads to the cockpit and won WW2 all on my own before lowering myself through what was once the nose of the aircraft and was now a gaping mess of twisted aluminium on to the shingle below.

Rushing back to my parents full of exitement I was greeted with exclamations of horror at the state of my new coat which now had streaks of oil and hydraulic fluid not to mention several little tears.

Needless to say I couldn’t sit down comfortably that night. This memory was round about the time of the Catalina in the article and must have been another mishap of which were not uncommon during the war years. One more memory at the end of the war was the sound of machine gun fire coming from over at the mooring area at Cumbrae and being told that the remaining aircraft had been scuttled by riddling the fuselage below the water line by gun fire.

Rod Lightbody 28 Union Road Inverness 01463 223758