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Over 9,000 planes were sent this way with Joe personally flying many of them. Joe also had another job at this base, that of flying rescue missions, many of them in extremely hazardous weather conditions. One report goes like this:
On 13th October 1944 Flight Lieutenant A. B. Bird, Medical officer and Mr Joe Gilmore,pilot took off from Gander on a mercy mission flight to Seal Cove ( a large bay like Dundrum bay). Soon the weather closed in on their small Norseman plane , facing winds of over 40 mph. Joe landed the plane in the bay and they drifted for 3 hours coming close to being smashed up on rocks on many occasions. Joe then sent flares up and luckily a vessel approached and towed the plane towards land to a place called Western Point where they were to pick up their patient. But to their dismay they found that the woman patient was not indeed at Western Point but another location Western Arm! It was now too rough to fly on so Joe and the medical officer reluctantly had to stay the night. At first dawn the two men made their way to the new location but here they found the patient had recovered but would not have travelled back to Gander as she was petrified of flying! Exhausted and frustrated the Medical officer put word around that he would stay a few hours if anyone needed help. Several people with minor illnesses came forward and were treated. As the two men were about to fly off again, a commotion started and word got to Joe that a lad of six was coming from the outback – he was suffering from severe pneumonia. The medical officer treated him on the spot and soon Joe had him flying back to Gander to the RCAF hospital, luckily within weeks the young man made a full recovery.
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RAF Bishopscourt
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When the future President came to Dunsford.
Bishopscourt Air Base
This aerodrome opened in November 1941 and closed in 1990. It is 52 feet above sea level. Its main runway was once 6000 feet long although this was reduced to 4000 feet. For the most part the base was used for training navigators and air gunners and later became a support area for the numerous radars in the vicinity. In May 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower landed at Bishopscourt while inspecting Allied
airfields across N. Ireland and briefly visitied Downpatrick to inspect American troops before the Normandy Invasion. Eisenhower became the 34th President of the United States on the 20th of January 1953 until the 20th January 1961. He was succeeded by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
General Eisenhower Inspects the USS Quincy at Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland, 18 May 1944, shortly before the Normandy Invasion. |
