Booklet `The Wind that Shook the Barley` 1999
Booklet about Tiree`s role during WWII, the RAF personnel stationed here, new infrastructure, the effect on the lives of local people, the Home Guard, men off to fight, air accidents and shipwrecks. Researched by Dr John Holliday for a summer exhibition at An Iodhlann.
Photocopied letter dated 30/1/1945 from the Air Ministry to Mrs Theresa Bacon.
Letter dated 30/1/1945 from the Air Ministry to Mrs Theresa Bacon informing her that her husband, Flt. Lt. Max Bacon, was missing on a meteorological flight.
Letter from Mrs Theresa Bacon about the Runnymede memorial dated 9/8/1999.
Letter from Mrs Theresa Bacon about the memorial at Runnymede for RAF personnel with no known graves. Mrs Bacon is the widow of Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon who served during WWII at RAF Tiree and was lost without trace during a flight over the Altlantic on 21/1/1945.
Black and white photograph of the Queen and Prince Philip at the Runnymede memorial taken on 18/10/1953.
The Queen and Prince Philip walking amongst the relatives after the unveiling of the Commonwealth Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede for over 20,000 men and women who died during WWII with no known graves, photographed on 18/10/1953 by 9 year old John Bacon whose father, Flight Lieutenant `Max` Bacon, served in 518 Squadron Tiree during WWII and was posted missing on 21/1/1945 when John was only 6 months old. (Original in Filing Cabinet 4 drawer 2)
Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron
Photograph of Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron.
Courtesy of Mr Mike Hughes
Flight Lieutenant Arthur ‘Max’ Bacon (4th left) and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron are pictured beside their Halifax which was lost on operations over the Atlantic in January 1945.
RAF 518 Squadron arrived on Tiree in September 1943 to fly weather reconnaissance missions in long-range Halifax aircraft. Twice a day flights ‘Bismuth’ and ‘Mercer’ left Tiree for a ten-hour-long trip out into the Atlantic at either 20,000 or 50 feet.
Pressure to fly was relentless and in 1944 518 Squadron flew every day but two. Often icing and waves 100 feet high made this dangerous. 518 Squadron lost twelve aircraft during their spell on Tiree. That night in January, Max and his crew disappeared without trace.
Black and white photograph of Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon and his aircrew during World War II.
Flight Lieutenant Max Bacon (4th left) and his aircrew from RAF 518 Squadron beside their Halifax which was lost on operations over the Atlantic on 21/1/1945. Far right: F/Sgt Tony Porazka (Met. Air Obs., Polish). (Photograph from Mike Hughes in Filing Cabinet 2 drawer 1)
