Richard Houghton: HMS Ringtail

 

 

There is no such bird as ‘Ringtail’    The Royal Naval Air Squadron was formed in 1914 and had 2 Squadrons on the Western Front in 1915 and as at today is active in Afghanistan. The base was built on the outskirts of Burscough in 1942 and was celebrated in 2013 as part of the Battle of the Atlantic  celebrations in Liverpool and by a ‘Fly Past’ over Burscough with a Swordfish and Spitfire escorts.

Lathom and Burscough Miliatary History Society is well established.  The base served as a training centre for Aicraft Carrier Pilots during WW2 it could cope with 80 planes and handled a range of such.  It was instumenttal in guarding the Western Approaches and anti German Submarine activities off the west of Ireland. The base at Woodvale was known as Ringtail 2 and was operational in servicing war plane engines until 1956.  The ialk lasted for over an hour and was expertely presented by the very knowledgeable Mr Houghton standing in for Lawrence Critchley