White Cross Bay
WHITE CROSS BAY: Civil manufacturing base
Note: Both of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: Short Bros
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Location: On the east shore at the northern end of Lake Windemere
Manufacturing: Short Bros factory and/or maintenance base
Period of operation: WW2 only?
NOTES: WHITE CROSS BAY was a shadow factory operated by Short Bros to produce Sunderland flying boats. A decision taken, it appears, by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, after Shorts main factory at Rochester in Kent was targeted by German bombers. Quite why Lake Windermere was deemed suitable seems to defy logic, and indeed it was quite unsuitable.
It appears that only the hulls were built here, the wings, (and engines of course), needing to be transported by road. For the wing sections, a very slow and tortuous process. This no doubt being a factor in only, it seems, thirty five Sunderlands being made here. Another aspect, also seeming to defy comprehension, was the construction at enormous cost of a 75,000 sq.ft assembly shed - or hangar. This, it is claimed, having the largest single span in the country.
This site is of course, amongst so many other examples in WW2, a fine illustration of the sheer waste of resources, as a result of utter incompetence, by those supposedly in charge of securing our chances of winning the war.
So much attention has been lavished on RAF Fighter Command and Bomber Command, that this has resulted in Coastal Command being almost totally ignored. It appears to be largely forgotten that we were almost on the point of being defeated by the German U-boat offensive in the 'Battle of the Atlantic'. Clearly advances made by boffins in radar and sonar for example, were critical elements, and the crews of Royal Navy convoy escorts especially made a truly heroic contribution.
But, it must also be remembered that the long lonely vigils made by RAF Coastal Command U.S. sourced Consolidated PBY-5 Catalinas and Short Sunderlands, later augmented by long range Consolidated B-24 Liberators, also made a vital contribution. Indeed, just seeing one usually resulted in a U-boat crash diving, and staying submerged for hours.
COASTAL COMMAND?
Time and again it appears to crop up that this was also a Coastal Command operational flying boat base. It is hard to imagine a worst location for such a site and indeed, after further investigation this information appears to be entirely erroneous. But, I wonder, did some basic flying-boat training take place here? That would make sense.
The largest flying boat to alight on Lake Windermere was the Short Shetland DX133 on 13th January 1945, piloted by Geoffrey Tyson.
AND LASTLY
In April 2023, Mike Holder discovered this picture of three Short Sunderlands moored out in the bay between Watbarrow Point and Epley Point on the west side of Lake Windermere. In effect acting as a dispersal for WHITE CROSS BAY on the east side of the lake and a tad further south.
Frank Snow
This comment was written on: 2021-01-21 10:58:03Were royal engineers based at white cross bay during WW1, if so this would solve the riddle of how my grandparents met. He came from Stoke on trent, she came from Ambleside.
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