RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: Deslaw on Friday 11 November 05 09:03 GMT (UK)
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My father did most of his WW2 service at an airbase called Hells Mouth in Wales. All that I know is that it had been a gunnery range that was associated with the base at RAF Penrhos.
Does anyone have information/photographs of this base? It was a big part of my father's life that I know very little of.
Thanks
Des
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Hello ,
I was just browsing and Hells Mouth caught my eye because I spent five of my boyhood years living just down the road from there . Then years later in the 60's and 70's working for a contractor to the MOD that maintained and operated a small radar and radio communication unit on top of a hill known as Rhiw Mountain that is next to Hells Mouth .
Hells Mouth being a south west facing bay , about 2 miles west of Abersoch on the NW coast of wales , that is flanked by cliffs and dangerous rocky outcrops in the sea that have been the cause of many a shipwreck in the past .
Because the top of the hill commands a wiew of most of the coastline of NW Wales , it was a good location from which the RAF could monitor and control aircraft from RAF Penrhos that were used to tow targets for the targets for the ground to air gunnery army training unit at Tywyn on the west coast of Cardigan Bay .
In the 1950's RAF Penrhos closed . After which the Royal Aircraft establishment at Llanbedr near Harlech took on a similar role that developed into a provider of targets for the air to air and sea to air missile practice range in the Cardigan bay , which was monitored by the radar unit at Rhiw mountain , Hells Mouth , till just a few years ago .
I do hope this has been of interest .
Regards Dave .
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Hi Dave,
thanks for the information.
Des