WWII coast teams who kept watch over Cork

The Coastwatching Service was established when The Emergency was declared in Ireland on the outbreak of World War II in September, 1939.

Originally amalgamated with the Marine Service, each became a separate entity on July 1, 1942.

At first, the service was only equipped with two-man ‘bivvy’ tents, but after several of them were blown into the sea from their exposed locations, simple, concrete pre-fabricated structures known as ‘Look Out Posts’ (LOPs) were provided.

Measuring just 9ft x 7ft, with sea-facing bay windows, the huts were totally devoid of creature comforts; the only exception being a small stove provided for heating and cooking purposes.

Each hut was equipped with a telephone, telescope, binoculars, Admiralty charts, a fixed compass card, semaphore and international code flags, a Morse lamp, first-aid kit, handbooks for identifying belligerent aircraft and warships, and bicycles.

The huts were numbered clockwise around the coast, from Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle, and many were in remote, and indeed hazardous, areas. Lamb’s Head (LOP 33, still extant) on the Ring of Kerry being a good example of the latter. In stark contrast was LOP 6 (demolished) at Howth Head, Co. Dublin, which was but a hop, step and jump from the nearest hostelry!

By war’s end there were 88 LOPs placed at strategic points along the Irish coastline, positioned, on average, every five to ten miles apart.

The volunteer soldiers who manned them were responsible for monitoring any sign of belligerent activity on sea or in the air, and to warn of the first sign of an invader.

They took their duties very seriously, and anything untoward that came to their notice was diligently entered in the official log book.

Some 500 of these log books have survived and are deposited in Military Archives and available to read online.

Additionally, a telephone message was instantly transmitted up the chain of command with full details of any occurrence.

The force was organised in 18 districts. Each had a District Officer (holding the rank of 2nd Lieut), a Sub-Officer and a Quartermaster whose ranks varied depending on the size of the district.

Each district had between three and eight LOPs, each post having a Corporal and seven Volunteers.

The Volunteers were unpaid (save for a subsistence allowance of 3/6d a day) and unarmed, many coming from the Volunteer Force, which meant they continued to wear this distinctive uniform for some time even after the cadre was absorbed into the Local Defence Force (LDF).

Each Volunteer was required to live not more than six miles from his designated LOP. The Establishment of the force numbered some 750, all ranks.

Volunteers invariably came from the local coastal community; men and youths whose knowledge of every nook and cranny of the seashore, and every nuance of the tide, would prove all-important in the tasks they were asked to perform.

Affectionately known by the rest of the Defence Forces as the ‘Saygulls’ (seagulls), like their avian namesakes they were to be found, night and day, perched in the most precarious places on cliffs all along the coast, constantly scanning the horizon.

Each two-man team worked shifts of eight or 12 hours, in two-hour stints; one Volunteer patrolling outside in hail, rain or shine, while the other manned the telephone.

From early 1943, large letters, each 30ft in height, spelling out the words ‘ÉIRE’, were painted in a prominent location next to each LOP, accompanied by the LOP identity number.

Ostensibly to warn all belligerents that they were encroaching upon Irish airspace, the scheme had been initiated at the request of the US authorities: each Allied aircraft carried a chart corresponding to the numbers of all the Irish LOPs and their positions.

Over-flights had increased from 700 in 1942 to some 21,000 by 1944, resulting from the basic navigation equipment on contemporary aircraft making long flights over water.

In recent years, the Éire Marking Project has uncovered at least 30 of these signs and restored many.

According to one historian: “The service was deemed one of the more effective branches… supplying vital information as to the movements of ships and aircraft in Irish territorial waters, informing GHQ of any attacks which occurred within those waters, and reporting the location of mines which had drifted free of their moorings.

“As is now known, G2 (Irish Military Intelligence) constantly shared any relevant information with the British Admiralty and MI6.

The occupants of many lifeboats, grievously wounded and in terrible distress, the survivors of attacks on convoys and sea battles, frequently came ashore near one or other of the LOPs where they would be assisted and comforted by the Volunteers on duty, who rapidly summoned the emergency services.

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Drifting sea mines posed a grave threat to life and limb ashore.

Designed to sink the largest merchant ship with which they came in contact, one can only imagine the devastation wrought if one exploded on a beach full of people.

One such incident occurred at Ballymanus Strand in Co. Donegal in 1943 when the local District Officer arrived on his motorcycle to find a large crowd in close proximity to a magnetic sea-mine. Before he could safely evacuate the entire area, the device exploded, resulting in, tragically, a death toll of 19 young men and boys.

Not all flotsam and jetsam was unwelcome. The LOP at Sligo alone salvaged some 500 tons of badly-needed rubber, carried as deck-cargo by Allied shipping.

In the event of a convoy being attacked, the bales of rubber invariably were the first things to be jettisoned, many finding their way to our shores.

Presently, the raw rubber would be transported to the Irish Dunlop Rubber plant at Centre Park Road, Cork, to be transformed into badly-needed tyres for the Defence Forces and emergency services, and other essential commodities.

By 1942, the supply of rubber by conventional means had all but dried up.

One fine summer’s day in 1940, Rosslare Port in Co Wexford came dangerously close to being blown up due to the vigilance of the Coastwatchers at Greenore Point LOP.

The Volunteer on outside duty, scanning the horizon with his binoculars, could hardly believe his eyes when, suddenly, the whole sea seemed to be teeming with ships - all heading straight for the Irish coast.

An urgent telephone message was transmitted, and Army Ordnance engineers were quickly despatched to Rosslare where explosives were already in place, waiting to be primed if the day of reckoning should ever come. At the last minute, the fleet changed course and steamed off, away from Ireland.

Some 500 Coastwatching Service log books have survived and are deposited in Military Archives, Dublin. All provide a true and accurate account of the activities of the service during the war years, unaltered and uncorrected in any way. Well, almost all...

In May, 1943, one District Officer was informed by his NCO of the truculence of the men at the Look Out Post when told that their ‘EIRE’ sign didn’t pass muster and would have to be re-done. They subsequently ‘downed tools’.

Having suitably administered a dose of the ‘hairdryer treatment’ to the squad for their show of ‘mutiny’, still bristling, the District Officer made the following entry in the official log book: ‘There is no ******* such word as refuse in the Army!”

That book is there for inspection, too - with the offending expletive tactfully redacted!

The Coastwatching Service was disbanded 80 years agio this month, on October 9, 1945.

LIST OF LOOK OUT POSTS IN COUNTY CORK

21 Knockadoon Head

22 Ballycotton

23 Power Head

24 Flat Head

25 Old Head

26 Seven Heads

27 Galley Head

28 Toe Head

29 Baltimore

30 Mizen Head

31 Sheep’s Head

32 Dursey Head