Royal Air Force, Bermuda (1939–1945)

From 1933, an RAF Coastal Command detachment operating from the wharf at the HM Dockyard, on Ireland Island, was responsible for the maintenance of the aeroplanes carried by the cruisers based at the Bermuda, which belonged to the Fleet Air Arm's No.

These included flying boats, like the PBY Catalina, which, designed for long-range maritime patrols, were capable of being flown across the Atlantic, albeit in stages.

In January, 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Bermuda on his return to Britain, following December 1941 meetings in Washington D.C., with US President Franklin Roosevelt, in the weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Although it had been planned to continue the journey by ship, he made an impulsive decision to complete it by a direct flight from Bermuda to England, marking the first trans-Atlantic air crossing by a national leader.

These included at least two other Great War aviators who returned to service, Squadron Leaders Rowe Spurling and Bernard Logier Wilkinson, who served with RAF Transport Command and the RCAF, respectively.

When the airfield (named Kindley Field after an American aviator who had fought for Britain during World War I) became operational in 1943, RAF Transport Command relocated to it, taking over the West end of the base in Castle Harbour.

Despite the importance of guarding against Axis submarines and surface raiders operating in the area, the RAF had not posted a Coastal Command detachment to maintain air cover.

The Fleet Air Arm operated ad hoc patrols from its base RNAS Bermuda (the personnel of which were carried on the books of HMS Malabar) on Boaz Island.

Darrell's Island reverted to its pre-War role as a civil airport, until the replacement of flying boats as trans-Atlantic airliners by land-planes, like the Lancastrian, the Tudor, and DC4, led to its closure in 1948.

Large detachments of tactical aircraft, accompanied by larger refuelling, transport, and maritime patrol aeroplanes, regularly staged at the island on transits between the UK and the garrison at Belize, or bombing ranges on US bases.

RAF Darrell's Island during World War II .
Artist's impression of the Gloster Gladiator flown by Bermudian Flying Officer Herman Francis Grant "Baba" Ede, DFC on the 24th May, 1940, during the Battle of Norway
Walrus and Seafox seaplanes at the original Royal Air Force-operated naval air station in the North Yard of HM Dockyard Bermuda, in 1938
Edward , Duke of Windsor visits the Bermuda Flying School in 1940 pictured in front of a Luscombe 8 Silvaire floatplane.
Bermudian Flying Officer Herman Francis Grant Ede DFC and other RAF pilots
RAF Victor XM717 at the Civil Air Terminal on the former US NAS Bermuda ca. 1985. XM717 took part in the first mission of Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War .