An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2014 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | I n August 1946 the uK's Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) received a request from the uS Navy's Chief of Operations, for a topographical survey of the beaches of the uK and Ireland. The reason given for Operation 'Sandstone' was that it was 'essential to know from the point of view of the enemy which are the most suit- able beaches for carrying out full-scale landings' and that it would also 'facilitate attacks on the occupying forces and the subsequent re-invasion'. As a result, in 1948 the British Naval Attaché in Dublin requested permission for a survey to be carried out, mapping and photograph- ing the entire coastline and also to sound the waters of the bays, harbours, tributaries and off-shore waters. Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Dan McKenna, recommended that the request should be granted despite the sensitivity of having British military personnel operating in Ireland because of the benefits that would accrue from having such informa- tion to hand. As the Director of Plans and Operations at Army HQ, Col Denis Lawlor, later commented: "We had no officers with experience of this work, we had no training or detailed knowledge of the tech- nique of landing operations, we had no knowledge of the information that was necessary before undertaking such operations, nor had we the necessary technical equipment or personnel trained in its use." This approach allowed the government, when asked in the Dáil about the operation, to answer that at their request "a small party arrived recently to give technical assistance with general and pho- tographic surveys and to train Defence Forces officers in modern methods". The operation was expected to last for three years. The British party of about a dozen personnel wore plain clothes and had the use of a helicopter, two jeeps, and a DUKW amphibious vehicle "to test the bearability of beaches". The DUKW and the jeeps were sprayed in Irish Army vehicle colours and given local number plates. The DUKW was also equipped with an echo sounder and could work to the five-fathom line. Two Irish officers were attached to the British party, which in the initial stages was accommodated at Baldonnel. Co-operation between the British and Irish was described as very good. The UK military provided specialist personnel, aircraft, vehicles, cameras, drier, film and chemicals, while the Irish Department of Defence under- took all the photographic reproduction and covered all the working expenses including petrol, oil, food and lodging, and reproduction of diagrams and maps was carried out by the Ordnance Survey in the Phoenix Park. The first stage involved a vertical photo reconnaissance of the entire coastline (c. 4,000 miles) by the Air Corps using Ansons and Seafires flying from Baldonnel and Shannon in December 1948. A Royal Navy Sikorsky 'Hoverfly 1', the first helicopter to operate in Ireland, was shipped to Larne in December 1948, before flying to Belfast, from where it was transported by road to Baldonnel. The Hoverfly would prove invaluable as a time saver and as a platform to take otherwise unobtainable photographs of rugged and inaccessible places along the coast in a fraction of the time than would have been possible otherwise. It could also land observers onto areas difficult to access and its manoeuvrability enabled photographs to be taken from any angle, altitude or distance. Photos taken from sea level often failed to provide the angle or detail required when covering things like road junctions and exits from beaches, whereas oblique photos from a helicopter showed these up much more clearly. After spending around three months operating out of Baldonnel and Gormanston, the Hoverfly was moved by low loader to Ballymul- len Barracks in Tralee. In March 1949 Major Peter Burrell RE wrote to OC Air Corps, Col Quinn, from Ballymullen, saying: "I would like to thank you, your officers and all ranks of the Air Corps for your great kindness and hospitality to myself and all members of the British Survey Party, while we were at Baldonnel. We were all very sorry to leave and have many happy memories of our first close contacts with the Irish Forces. We never met such enthusiastic and whole-hearted co-operation in England and I don't suppose we ever shall." On June 17th the helicopter was brought to Cork where a replace- ment Hoverfly was awaiting collection, having been shipped from England. This machine travelled to Tralee and worked there until August, when it flew to Ballincollig. In September the rest of the sur- vey party departed Tralee after 191 days at Ballymullen and reunited with the helicopter at the Military Barracks, youghal. A field had been rented nearby and a shed of suitable size had been erected by the Eastern Command, at a cost of £160, to accommodate the diminutive aircraft. When flying was in progress arrangements were made to divert the local cows into a lower field. During the summer of 1949 Air Corps Ansons and Seafires carried By Guy WARNER OPERATION SANDSTONE A STORY OF BRITISH AND IRISH POST-WAR CO-OPERATION

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