A new roadside memorial which pays homage to those who served at a World War I US Army base in Donegal more than a century ago has been unveiled in Inishowen.
The Naval and Air Station at Ture, Quigley’s Point was in operation for less than a year but served as a base for a number of attacks against the Germans and housed more than 400 servicemen.
A number of local men also helped with its construction from January, 1918.
The station opened on September 3, 1918, and formally closed on February 22, 1919.
During the operational life of the base a total of 27 patrol flights, 12 training flights and 9 test flights were made.
Ten convoys were escorted, and two U-boats were attacked. Ten pilots, 10 ground officers and 432 enlisted men were attached to the base.
Local farmer, Gordon Rankin, on whose land the base was built, has permitted the erection of three memorial plaques on the entrance to one of the fields that was used for the facility. To this day, the field contains the last remaining building of the base.
The plaques, on the main R238 road between Moville and Muff, give the details of the former base and operations of the five ‘Large America’ Curtiss flying boats that operated there.
The erection of the memorial was delayed by covid and has just recently been completed.
The memorial came about as part of the Decade of Centenaries programme. The Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle was grant aided by Donegal County Council and FLAG North to carry out research on marine activities around Inishowen during World War 1.
FLAG North funded research into the period which resulted in the erection of a memorial in Greencastle Harbour to the Inishowen fishermen and seamen who served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the war and in the publication of two books based on that research.
One of the books, ‘Beyond the Hempton Bank’, told the stories of the Inishowen men who served in the Royal Naval Reserve. The other, ‘Naval Aviation in Inishowen, World War 1’, by aviation historian Guy Warner, amongst other things, told the story of the United States’ Naval Air Service’s base at Ture.
Construction on USNAS ‘Lough Foyle’ began at Leper’s Point, Ture, on January 5, 1918, with a mixed crew of US servicemen and local civilian labour.
The full story of aviation around Inishowen is told in the museum’s published book and in Guy’s Warner’s larger volume, ‘U-boats around Ireland’. Both are available for sale in the Maritime Museum.