NAS Berehaven

History

At the start of United States of America's involvement in the First World War five sites in Ireland; Queenstown, Wexford, Lough Foyle, Whiddy Island and Berehaven were identified to be operated by the United States Navy in support of allied operations.

NAS Berehaven was designed to operate as a kite balloon station and provide destroyers with kite balloons for convoy and patrol duties. Practice balloon flights were made from towed trucks, since the naval air station was not located close enough to Queenstown, where the destroyers were based, to permit easy transfer of kite balloons between station and ship. Berehaven was not very active because of the transfer problem and the operational requirements imposed on destroyers which did not permit time for kite balloon operations on board.

Equipment

NAS Berehaven was a kite-balloon station where balloons were kept for use in conjunction with torpedo-boat destroyers. The balloons were transferred from the shore to the destroyers, made fast, and towed at an altitude of about 500 feet. This station was located on a beautiful sound formed within Bantry Bay behind Bere Island near Castletown.

Operations

In July 1918, most of the U.S. LTA personnel and kite balloon equipment were transferred to NAS Brest, France. Berehaven later became a kite balloon station, again, supporting operations aboard HMS Flying Fox in late July and early August 1918. Berehaven then switched to support of balloon operations on board the American battleships USS Utah (BB-31), USS Nevada (BB-36) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37) from late August through mid-October. The three battleships, operating from Bantry Bay, Ireland, had been sent to Europe to protect the Allied convoys approaching Ireland.

In the latter part of October 1918, preparations were being made to move LTA operations from Berehaven to Queenstown to make kite balloons more accessible to the ships located there.

End of hostilities and closure

With the end of the war, the U.S. Naval Air Stations Anti-submarine warfare patrols in Ireland were discontinued and all aircraft grounded and disarmed. Upon the agreement of Armistice, NAS Berehaven had 16 kite balloons. The only United States Navy kite balloon base in Ireland and England was disestablished on 12 February 1919.