Much more is known about LOP63 than other posts because of the training notes kept by Volunteer 208352 John F. Burns who served at LOP63 (District 13). Burns was drilled on the importance of the post logbook, it provided the raw intelligence material analysed by Command Intelligence Officers. Of course these were only as reliable as the accuracy of those who kept them and there are considerable variations in skills of record keeping between posts. The logbooks are the most important historical legacy of the M & CWS. (Marine & Coastwatching Service)

During basic training John F. Burns learned first aid, signalling, maritime practices and the identification of types of ships, as well as basic meteorology and hydrography. Volunteer Burns served at LOP63 at Benwee Head above Portacloy and his notes show that he had consulted Admiralty charts to work out depths of the sea in the vicinity of his post. At Teacháin a’ Watch, the local name for LOP63, the water in Portacloy Bay, to the right of the LOP was 4 fathoms, beneath the LOP, which was sited 200 foot above sea level, the sea was 12 fathoms. The trade route out to sea was 30 fathoms.

The most intricate drawings and notes in Burn’s notebooks concern mines. As numerous accidents during the war were to show, mines would prove the most dangerous hazard along the Irish coastline to military and civilians. Burns noted the exterior and variations in type due to nationality. He was drilled in how mines were detonated, how some floated free while others were anchored in a fixed position. Mines broke free and drifted away from their intended position and a daily task of Coastwatchers was to report the presence of mines on their stretch of the coastline to Command Ordnance Officers.   

Coastwatchers paid much attention to the recognition of aircraft. Training discussed generic aircraft identification techniques. Burns noted how an ‘aircraft flies at 5 miles a minute’ and a ‘bomber at 4 miles a minute’; in addition ‘bombers has a heavy volume tone, fighters a sharp tone.’  He was to note four physical characteristics of any aircraft passing his post, which he summarized as ‘W.E.F.T’, or Wings, Engines, Fuselage and Tail.

If an aircraft crashed in the vicinity of the LOP, the Coastwatchers were instructed to first ‘call a priest or other such clergyman and treat survivors kindly.’  They were to ‘inform survivors that they are in Eire.’  This approach had its tougher side. Officers were to search the plane to ensure that ‘all maps and documents are to be collected, also pay books, identity disks etc’, ensuring, if it had not been destroyed by the crew, a useful supply of intelligence material. The Coastwatchers were taught the importance of detail in intelligence gathering. They were guarding the extremities of Ireland’s territory in the land, on the sea and in the air. 

From John F. Burn’s notes we get a clear picture of what the men at LOP63 were tasked with.  They were to watch for and record air and marine traffic around the post, look out for mines and shipwrecked mariners or survivors from air crashes. And they were to do so specifically with intelligence gathering in mind. Most of all they were to act as an invasion watch. The possibility of an invasion of Ireland remained very real through the Second World War.

Text courtesy of Dr Michael Kennedy.