RAF Turnberry

In WWI Turnberry housed No. 1 School of Aerial Fighting (Loch Doon, to the east, was used for a School of Aerial Gunnery). The school merged with No. 2 (Auxiliary) School of Air Gunnery, becoming No. 1 School of Aerial Fighting and Gunnery, renamed No. 1 Fighting School (North-West Area) on 29 May 1918. It provided pilots with three-week courses in the arts of aerial gunnery and combat. It was disbanded on 25 January 1919. The Turnberry Hotel was used during the war as a hospital for the wounded.[4]

Following the end of the conflict, all land and property requisitioned for military purposes was returned to civilian ownership. Golf courses 1 and 2 were rebuilt and renamed "Ailsa" and "Arran". A memorial honouring lost airmen at Turnberry was erected on the hill overlooking the 12th green of Ailsa.[5]

With outbreak of the Second World War, the hotel was again commissioned by the British government as a hospital, and the golf courses were requisitioned for air training for the Royal Air Force.

In November 1942 the Torpedo Training Unit RAF arrived from RAF Abbotsinch in Glasgow. Two months later in January 1943 it became No. 1 Torpedo Training Unit RAF, and kept that name until May 1944.[6]

RAF Coastal Command based Consolidated Liberators there for anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. The base was also used for training Bristol Beaufighter and Bristol Beaufort crews. Testing of Barnes Wallis's "Highball" bouncing bomb was also performed by 618 Squadron, flying from Turnberry. As Turnberry hotel was used as a Royal Navy hospital, as many as 200 patients died at the base.[4] In 1943, Bruce Forsyth's older brother John, who was serving as a pilot in the RAF, was killed during a training exercise at the base.[7][8]

The following units were based at Turnberry:[9]

• No. 5 Operational Training Unit RAF (May - December 1942)[10]
• No. 10 Gliding School RAF (May 1945 - January 1948)[11]
• No. 254 Squadron RAF
• Coastal Command Flying Instructors School RAF (June - October 1945)[12] became Coastal Command Instructors School RAF (October - November 1945)[13]

• Falconer, J (2012). RAF Airfields of World War 2. UK: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85780-349-5.
• Sturtivant, R; Hamlin, J; Halley, J (1997). Royal Air Force flying training and support units. UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 0-85130-252-1.