Info sought on WW2 Airfields of the British West Indies

Hello All

During WW2 a series of airfields were built through the islands of the British West Indies from Antigua Southward to British Guiana by US forces and the British Government

I am particularly interested in finding out for the following, the dates they were completed and opened, by whom built and the reason for constructing at the time.

1. Diamond Airfield (grass) St Vincent.
2. Pearls Airfield (hard?) Grenada
3. Camden Field (hard) Trinidad
4. Beane Field (hard) St Lucia

If anyone has any information I would be very appreciative, particularly on the first two listed. I am an agricultural pilot and 5 years ago instigated the construction of a grass airfield on St Vincent. Called Langley Park and used for crop spraying only, it is located on the East coast of the island, is 2000 feet long by 150 feet wide with a 1 in 10 gradient from the East uphill to the West. Because of the down gradient, landings cannot be made into the prevailing wind but must be done downwind approaching over the shoreline. Doing it with a taildragger in a quartering tailwind is very interesting.

Regards
Duncan

Hi Duncan I know a few details from that Part of the world. Beane Field StLucia is the current Hewannora Airport , I flew in there in 06 and departed by helicopter over what's left of the old airfield. There is still a north/southish runway that is disused and in poor condition, with a few dispersals. While I was there I seem to remember it was built in 1944 by the USAAF as a anti submarine base, but went over to training as there was no sub threat by then.
Diamond on StVincent is interesting. It features in a Book(that I can't now find!) by Donald McVicar, formerly of RAF ferry command and chief pilot at BWIA briefly in 1945. He groundlooped a Hudson at Diamond and resigned after because he felt it was unsafe but the company refused to stop using it. I remember it was on the side of a hill ending in the sea and all approaches were with the wind downhill!Ill see what more I can find
Rob

Rob. Thank you for your reply. Diamond was indeed a dangerous airfield, long abandoned but the old terminal still stands amongst tall trees. I actualy have a photograph of the first aircraft that landed on the site in 1936 when it was just a cow pasture.
My particular interest and perhaps I should have explained is a private research effort I am making on the crash of a Baltimore IIIA RA314 on April 12th 1943. This aircraft attempted a forced landing on the North East coast of St Vincent just south of Georgetown and my present airfield into a field of coconuts reportedly with an engine failure and possibly an engine fire. It had left Nassau at 8.22 am bound for Trinidad and eventually North Africa. It's eta for Trinidad was 3.25pm but is reported to have crashed at 5.00pm according to one crewmans records. My interest is, why try a landing in a coconut field when Beane Field was near to the NNE and possibly Diamind just a few miles South ?(if it was built then) The crew perished in the resulting inferno, the Captain, a civilian Lennox Faulkner was Canadian, the Navigator Douglas Perry was English and the Radio Operator Geoffrey Carter was Australian. The flight was under the orders of RAF Ferry Command.

I often pass the cemetery where they are buried and as memories dim I see the need to record their loss which happened at a time of a news blackout where there is only a cursory article on the crash in the newspaper archives. Any information you can pass on would be greatly appreciated.

Paul. No picture at the moment but I can take one next time I'm in the area which will be around the end of this month.

Rob. To support your comment on Diamond I found this comment on "tonysoldies" a St Vincent web site.

....Yes, my father had told me about the Diamond airport, years and years ago, even took me to see for myself. He pointed out that planes invariably landed from the sea, yes, downwind (yikes!) touched down on the grassy runway just inside of the beach and sand dunes, and ran up along the valley, crossing over a
man-made wooden bridge that spanned the river running down to the sea, and came to a stop in front of the terminal building dispersing its extremely gracious and lucky passengers.

Departing passengers would then board the plane, which taxied out from the airport terminal building, which is still there in among the trees at Diamond (near the gate to the unused dairy, behind the trees to the left take the family or friends and go and have a look one day), rev up, scoot over the bridge,
rumble down the grassy runway to the east, heading literally down the slope of the valley to the sea, and then lift into the trade winds and fly away, usually to Barbados.....

I have just discovered from my wife that her first mother in law flew from Trinidad to Diamond in July 1942 aboard a US airforce aeroplane. She was probably the first civilian to land there. She worked for Barclays Bank and her fellow employee and best friend had a boyfriend who was the pilot of that plane. It seems in these remote corners airforce pilots could fly friends around. Anyway this lady now 90 is certain of the date because she was got married in St Vincent two days later.

This is a view of Hewannora airport, taken 29th March 2002. Sadly I haven't been back since.

REF wrote:

This is a view of Hewannora airport, taken 29th March 2002. Sadly I haven't been back since.

You don't want too, took 2 hours to get through customs in 2006. A virgin 744 and American B738 swamped the place! Plus it had no aircon! Lovely Island awfull airport terminal! Mind you i would swap todays weather for two hours in the terminal!

Back to Diamon, have found the book,' A change Of Wings' By Don McVicar. During mid 1945 he flew Lockheed 12a VP-TAI into Diamond 3 times a week on Trinidad-St.Vincent-St.Lucia-Barbados run. He describes taking a new pilot on a check ride to Diamond and how he was stunned at being asked to put the gear and flaps down with no airport in site! He describes it as a 1500ft long pasture. He frequently had to land from the 'land' side rather than the sea duw to the winds! Doesn't sound like fun.

As for the opening dates there is a forum on the Carribean airline pilots ass website. They are a pretty helpfull lot, try www.caribbeanalpa.com/

Rob

Farnboroughrob wrote:

You don't want too, took 2 hours to get through customs in 2006. A virgin 744 and American B738 swamped the place! Plus it had no aircon! Lovely Island awfull airport terminal! Mind you i would swap todays weather for two hours in the terminal!

Never took me that long, mind you I used to work for the airlines!

In reply to Paul, Rob & REF. First Paul, if you go to this page
tonyoldies.homestead.com/148thPage.html
you will find some good pictures of the Diamond Terminal as it is today. The rim and tire I suspect are from a tractor. The whole place became part of a dairy farm. The next page tonyoldies.homestead.com/32ndPage.html is Diamond around 1949 or post building of the V tail Bonanza.
To REF that picture brings back to mind something I witnessed around 1980 and here Rob too would be interested. I was getting a ride on a BN2 Islander from St Vincent to Vigie on the North of St Lucia. With headset on I heard a Pan American Clipper (Boeing 727) out of Barbados get landing clearance for Hewanorra. The runway had recently been resurfaced and was quite dark while the disused NE/SW runway stood out. From the North end of St Vincent I could see Hewanorra quite clearly and with alarm I watched the Clipper line up for an approach to the disused runway. As I was about to tap the pilot on the shoulder and have him call the Clipper the tower came up on the radio "Clipper ?? are you lined up for the correct runway 100" Instantly at fairly low altitude the Clipper pulled up in a tight left turn to make a very close right downwind for the correct runway. At the same time in a voice replied" Err we're just making a circling approach here" I heard no more from the tower but I suspect the Clipper crew were a bit embarassed but thankful other eyes were watching to prevent what could have been a nasty accident. From REF's picture you can see how easily it happened, a short flight VFR from Barbados and not paying attention. Back then there were no buildings alongside the disused runway.
Rob I can well imagine taking two hours to clear. We West Indians take our time to do anything. Try Barbados with Virgin, BA, AA and Air Jamaical all landing in sequence. A nightmare. Finaly many thanks for the name of the book and the further info. I do recall hearing that BWIA did a schedule in there for several years until the airfield was closed and Guiana Airways started a seaplane service instead from Young's Island Cut.