C Watch from Dirleton GCI Station
C Watch from Dirleton GCI Station
Our information
This is C Watch of Dirleton Ground Control of Interception unit at their billet in North Berwick during July 1944. Most of them were conscripts, due to serve for the duration of hostilities. When this photograph was taken their station was well away from the focus of the war, but still had a role in operational training and guarding against surprise air attacks from Norway.
This black and white photograph is an informal group portrait of men and women serving with the Royal Air Force, Women’s Royal Air Force and, mostly, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. The group is posed out-of-doors by the side of a stone building in an unkempt garden.
East Lothian’s three RAF airfields and their ‘eyes and ears’, a number of RADAR and watching stations, played a key role in Central Scotland’s air defences during 1939-45. Dirleton GCI guided night-fighters to intercept enemy aircraft and worked closely with 784 Squadron based at Drem.
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Dirleton GCI was set up in 1941 to provide ground control of night fighters, directing them towards hostile bombers heading for Edinburgh, primarily at night. Although there do not appear to have been any bombers shot down by aircraft controlled by Dirleton, adjacent stations at St Quivox (near Ayr) and Northstead (in Northumberland) certainly did control many successful interceptions. Instead, Dirleton was used for interception training with aircraft from units in the surrounding area, such as Drem, East Fortune and Charterhall.
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