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 Shortly
after the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk and the
fall of France to the German Nazi invaders in June 1940 plans were
developed to establish emergency harbours in Britain. Now that the enemy
were so close to Britain’s main ports the fear was that Liverpool and
Greenock would be so heavily bombed that they would be unuseable
particularly in relation to vital supplies from the United States. In
Scotland several sites were investigated and two were chosen. Number 1
Military Port was to be established at Faslane on the Gareloch and Number
2 Military Port was to be established at Cairnryan near Stranraer.
Four thousand workers mostly serving military personnel in the Royal
Engineers, The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and Royal Pioneer
Corps began the construction at Cairnryan in the summer of 1940 building
two piers, the North Deep and the South Deep, seven miles of railway, with
all of the associated sidings yards and service buildings and 10
accommodation camps of Nissen huts. These camps, traces of which can still
be seen today, were the Transit Camp on the outskirts of Stranraer, Aird
Camp, Rock McGibbon or Innermessen Camp, Leffnoll Marshalling Yard,
Drummuchloch Camp, Bankhead Camp, Meadowbank Camp, Caddyburn Camp,
Cairnryan Camp and Bonnybraes which was linked with the Pile Construction
Yard.
Within eighteen months, in July 1943, the port at Cairnryan and the
railway were opened, a truly amazing feat of construction engineering. By
this time the US had entered the war, the build up for the invasion of
Europe had begun and a number of US ships carrying troops and vehicles
arrived at Cairnryan. At the Pile Construction Yard huge concrete sections
of the Mulberry Harbours, called “Beetles” and “Whales”, were constructed,
tested in Wigton Bay, and then towed to the invasion beaches in France.
With the danger of enemy bombing passed and with the successful Allied
landings in France Number 2 Military Port at Cairnryan was put on a care
and maintenance basis. When the war ended in 1945 the main activity at
Cairnryan was the disposal at sea of huge deposits of explosives,
including mines, shells, grenades, German nerve gas canisters, small arms
ammunition and fuses. This was dangerous work and eight soldiers of the
Royal Engineers were killed in an accident involving these explosives.
At the end of the war Cairnryan also saw the surrender of 86 German U Boat
submarines and the breaking up of such great warships as HMS Ramillies,
Valiant, Centaur, Bulwark, Eagle, Ark Royal and Blake.
In 1959 the port at Carinryan was closed and in 1967 the historic railway
built in the darkest days of the Second World War was lifted. Little now
remains to record the achievements of thousands of men and women who
served here and made history.
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