I went over to Kerrera today to have a look at the various RAF things there.

There were about nine bomb stores at the North end of the island.

There is a large brick building up a concrete track from the base, it seems well ventilated which makes me think that something to do with fuel.  Reminds me a bit of the building for filling cans with aviation fuel at Montfode.  Wonder if anyone knows more about it.

There are said to be LAA on some of the hills around the base but will need to go back another day with a lighter load to check them!

MB

Any suggestions about the large building?

Still thinking about the building.
The wide slipway resembles the seaplane slipway at Newport. The pier may simply have been increased in height - to serve larger vessels (warships) that sit higher in the water.
Also, from where was the extensive submarine minefield serviced?
Navigator

Neil Owen's book mentions flying boats being brought ashore for major jobs.

Not sure about the controlled minefield, don't know if they lifted them periodically or just left there until used in anger (or idiot RN officer pushes the button by mistake!).  I don't think Oban was a mining base so they might have sent a vessel from elsewhere.

MB

Is this what you have in mind Navigator?

Oban Minefield Control Tower

Lifting mines?

Sound a bit unnecessarily hazardous - even your own

The only "removals" I've come across so far have involved the planned/controlled detonation of the minefield.

Recovery of mines once they have been fuzed and armed - which is normally a one-way process that cannot be undone to make the mine safe - just seems too great a risk to undertake unless in exceptional one-off danger situations, where detonation of the device could lead to greater danger to life and property.

Bomb-disposal as was... it has, of course, been given a new name that makes the activity sound more user-friendly and safer, see EOD: The detection, identification, on-site evaluation, rendering safe, recovery, and final disposal of unexploded explosive ordnance. It may also include explosive ordnance which has become hazardous by damage or deterioration.

I think I preferred the snappier bomb-disposal, but it's probably not pc to use nasty provocative words like "bomb" nowadays, as someone might take offence and plant a... oops, that's where I came in

It is probably easier to lift mines in a controlled minefield than one using contact mines because they are remotely electrically detonated so not likely to go off whilst being handled.  Unless the mines also had contact detonators?

Normal minefields seem to have been cleared by being swept and the mines exploded.

The defences around the port of Oban seem to have been directed mainly against submarines, which at the time were quite small, and midget submarines much smaller still.
Conventional mines were detonated by mechanical contact with the "horns", and required a fair degree of force to do so to avoid spurious firing. It was possible for a submarine to pass through between mines in a conventional minefield, or below them given sufficient depth of water. The usual submarine defence was a net suspended from the boom used to deny access to surface vessels, but the current in the straight here is strong, perhaps too strong for nets to be reliable. A minefield where mines could be fired remotely should a submarine be spotted, as well as using chance contact, would be effective and probably would need far less mines than trying to cover all depths and courses. Also, being able to turn them off at will would allow safe passage for friendly traffic, and make the occasional lifting to test the electrics also safe.  The listening loops to the north similarly would be for detecting submarine activity.
Flying boats were ideal for anti-submarine activities, mine laying and air-sea rescue. They were large and heavy aircraft, the Short Sunderland having two decks, a crew of 11, armed with up to 18 machine guns and capable of 14 hour patrols. However the point was that they did not need equally large runways.
At RAF Oban aircraft maintenance was located at Ganavan Sands, and fueling would have been undertaken in the bay in the usual manner from lighters. The base on Kerrera supplied ordnance and other requirements. The large building appears to be in three similar parts, two left hand and one right hand. The large openings look like part of the conversion to animal shelters. Originally there was only one door per cell, and minimal ventilation. It would only protect slightly from blast but well from incendiary bombs, the roof extending over the blast wall shows this. The main blast stores for bombs and the later depth charges are beside the road running north, and this store is a good safe distance away. This building is probably the fuse and detonator store. It needs to be quite large as the type of ordnance would operationally have a selection of different fuses for each bomb/charge carried.
I would expect there would also be some AA protection for the port and base. Kyle is a similar port and had the B1 and B2 HAA Batterys (so secret I can't find them on this site) one on either side. Gallanachmore has more than its fair share of roads compared to the surrounding area, is also a caravan site (a good indicator of WWII usage), and about the right position for firing range. I'll have a look at the mapping and try to identify a site for a matching north AA site.
Navigator

There were three HAA sites, two on Lismore and one near Benderloch.

I have been to one of the Lismore sites - CANMORE just had an approximate location from aerial photographs so I went over to take some photographs.  The other is down the Southern end somewhere near the ferry and said to be something there.  Keep meaning to have a walk over to the Benderloch site, I don't think it had much concrete probably sandbag / earth protection like Fort William Dalvenie.

It sounds rather as if there could have been several LAA around Kerrera and it would be a good point for defending against any aerial attack.

OK on the Kerrera building, I wondered about fusing.

I asked on the airfield list about the brick building on Kerrera, I was sent this URL which seems to be the same type of building.

http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/awall_use/portreath01/html/page06.htm

MB

It has now been suggested that the building is a small arms ammunition magazine.  That sounds a lot more likely than bombs or depth charges and the Sunderland was quite heavily armed.

MB

Had site offices setup in the car park, about 12 years, or so ago. Sitting in my office when a guy came in looking for petrol. Thought it a bit odd he should have wandered off the main road, took him to Benderloch garage. He explained he, and others, were on some kind of round UK rally for micro lights. The fourth guy was given my car keys and directions, and so it continued for some time.I`m there was a mention of my hospitality in their magazine.

Most evenings were spent at the hotel (Connel?) near the end of the runway.

An old gentleman came to the office one day. He came in, sat down, and we had a chat over a coffee. Possibly my old brain is playing tricks, but I`m quite sure he told me he was grounded after flying under Connel bridge during, or after the war.

There was/is a micro light club on the premises and a few of the members took me up. Quite nice, but not quite like a flight on a Hawker Hunter.

Regards,

Davie.

There can't be many bridges that someone has not flown under at some point!  There was a picture in the paper yesterday of someone flying under Westminster Bridge years ago.  I would love to see a picture of the Lancasters that were given permission to fly under the Menai Bridge during WWII whilst training for an operation.  A Polish pilot is said to have flown a Spitfire under the Barmouth bridge - it must have been a very low tide!