Orcadian Walruses

[Rheged]

Orcadian Walruses. 

Following  the widespread introduction of reasonably reliable surface vessel radar  throughout the Royal Navy, and the increasing availability of escort carriers, the aircraft carried by capital ships and cruisers were of much less importance.  Naval constructors decided that by landing the aircraft and associated equipment, tonnage became available for extra light anti-aircraft guns, and the redundant hangar space could be converted into accommodation.  As a result of this, HMS Sparrowhawk (the Fleet Air Arm airfield at Hatston, near Kirkwall in the Orkney islands)  became home by May 1944 to  34 Walrus aircraft. A squadron of 12  these were flown south and used for air-sea rescue  and anti-submarine patrols during the D-Day landings, leaving 22 redundant airframes  with their wings folded and a huge quantity of stores  in the back of Bellman  hanger three.   Despite their not being in regular use, all 18 aircraft were kept in flying condition with the FAA artificers working on the basis of "If it moves, salute it; if it has wings, maintain it; if it stands still, paint it"These airframes were still on Hatston's inventory after VJ day at which point a period of major military retrenchment began.


One of the naval supply officers on the airfield, Lt Cdr  Rognvald (Ron) Leask, was a native Orcadian whose father in law was a senior manager of Orkney Ferries.  This was a council run company operating inter-island ferry services throughout the Orkney Islands. During the war, the ferries had been extremely hard worked and were in need of replacement or major rebuilding, as were the piers and jetties of the outer islands.   Over  glasses of Highland Park single malt, Ron  and his father in law had discussed the possibilities of an air service between the islands "after the war" but the price and  availability of building materials and land for runways  made this a very long-term project.


  At this  point, the Admiralty became aware of the Walruses  at Hatston.   Lt Cdr Leask was instructed to arrange disposal of the airframes and associated stores "in a manner which causes least expenditure to the Royal Navy, and does not offend local susceptibilities". As the aircraft were flyable, Leask suggested to the Admiralty that they could be sold for a nominal sum to Orkney Ferries.  This gave a profit to the disposal organisation and provided a benefit for the local community.  For a payment of £500, Orkney Ferries had acquired an air fleet.   Newly demobbed, Ron Leask became general manager of the Orkney Ferries Courier Service.   He was able to recruit both aircrew and ground staff with Walrus experience from  demobbed Fleet Air Arm personnel and by February 1946 a regular timetable of flights between Hatston and  all of the Northern Orkney islands had begun. 12 airframes were kept operational and the rest  cannibalised for spares.  As an amphibian  the Walrus was able to operate from  the Hatston runways (and later those of the former HMS Robin at Grimsetter, which became Kirkwall airport in 1948) to  sheltered inlets on the outer islands. 10 passengers or 15 hundredweight  of cargo  could be carried, albeit in somewhat Spartan conditions.  The aircraft also served as emergency ambulances, bringing severely injured or sick individuals to the hospital in Kirkwall in one tenth of the time  that they could be carried by boat.  The service continued until 1956, by which time the ferry fleet had been modernised, the piers and jetties rebuilt and  RAF or FAA helicopters could provide an air ambulance service,


Orkney Ferries vessels all have a dark blue hull with white upperworks and red funnels. The aircraft had a variant of this livery; lower hull and wing undersides dark blue, upper hull and upper wings white, with a red engine cowling.

I'm currently working on an Orkney Ferries Walrus.  A basic Revell  kit is being built almost OOB, but civilianised and in the colours described above .    Should anyone wish to use this backstory, or expand it to include post WW2 Walrus operations in Scandinavia, the Caribbean, the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia,  the Philippines, the laxative  Laccadive Islands   or wherever  I'd enjoy reading your additions.