Qualla: RAF Mona https://qualla.com/raf-mona en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-mona-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Mona https://qualla.com/raf-mona RAF Mona: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-mona/ Photo credit not stated. Assumed British military, Public domain. On 12 November 1918, a day after the guns went silent on the Western Front, Major Thomas Elmhirst climbed into a small SSZ airship at his Anglesey base, lifted off, and flew it under the Menai Suspension Bridge. He was the commanding officer; he could authorise it. The bridge is 30 metres above high water at its lowest. An airship is not the most agile thing in the sky. Elmhirst pulled it off. It was the kind of unauthorised joy that ended careers in peacetime, but on Armistice Day nobody was looking too closely. That base - then called Royal Naval Air Station Anglesey - is now RAF Mona, a quiet relief landing ground that you would never guess had once kept airships and tested submarine-detection gear over the Irish Sea.

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Image: not stated. Assumed British military | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-mona-wp/gcky-raf-mona-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Mona: Airships and Hydrogen Engines https://qualla.com/raf-mona/ Photo credit not stated. Assumed British military, Public domain. The First World War station was officially RNAS Anglesey, though it picked up nicknames from each of the local villages - RNAS Bodffordd, RNAS Gwalchmai, RNAS Llangefni. The Royal Naval Air Service flew non-rigid SS-class airships from here on coastal patrol, looking for U-boats ...

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Image: not stated. Assumed British military | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-mona-wp/gcky-raf-mona-airships-and-hydrogen-engines.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Mona: Second War, Different Job https://qualla.com/raf-mona/ Photo credit not stated. Assumed British military, Public domain. The base reopened for the Second World War in a different role. It was originally intended for No. 6 Air Gunnery School, but that unit never materialised. In December 1942, No. 3 Air Gunnery School transferred down from RAF Castle Kennedy in southwest Scotland, bringing 48 Blackb...

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Image: not stated. Assumed British military | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-mona-wp/gcky-raf-mona-second-war-different-job.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Mona: Relief Landing Ground https://qualla.com/raf-mona/ Photo credit not stated. Assumed British military, Public domain. From August 1960 Mona became a satellite of No. 4 Flying Training School at RAF Valley, and that is essentially what it remains: a relief landing ground, used to take pressure off Valley's runways and to give student pilots a different field to practise on. Hawks and Tucanos and,...

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Image: not stated. Assumed British military | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-mona-wp/gcky-raf-mona-relief-landing-ground.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Mona: Two Eras on One Field https://qualla.com/raf-mona/ Photo credit not stated. Assumed British military, Public domain. Almost nothing visible at Mona today speaks of 1918. The airship sheds were long ago dismantled. What survives is the location - the same low Anglesey ground that Elmhirst lifted off from when he set out to thread his airship under the Menai Bridge. The bridge is still there too,...

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Image: not stated. Assumed British military | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/y/raf-mona-wp/gcky-raf-mona-two-eras-on-one-field.mp3 0:06 5 full