Neglected Flying Boat base.

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JX242 of 202 Squadron.

The attached photo shown wreckage from catalina JX242 which crashed on the high ground which runs along the Lower Lough's South shore , date of the crash was 20/11/44.

The catalina was in the curcuit to land and crashed a approx. a mile and a half south of the cliff face.
Not all the crew died and a survivor walked down the mountain face to a farmers cottage to raise the alarm , the energy sapping effort which this entailed cannot be imagined and it required a major search operation to locate and rescue the survivors.

The actual site was not cleared for several months and a road way to the loaction had to be built.
The wreckage whch was grossly speaking intact , was broken up on site and removed to anoter location - holes were blasted into the soft bogland ans an attempt was made to bury the wreckage - much of it can still be found there today.
See below.

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Momorial .

Two years ago two memorial stone were errected in the car park at the viewpoint above Magho.
(A view from this point has been shown earlier in the thread).

One is to those who were lost on JX242 and the other to those lost on the 201 Sunderland W4036 which crashed on the night of 18th November 1943 , three of the crew being lost.

The memorial was organised by local man Joe O'Loughlin , Briege McCusker and the Churchill historical society.
Joe had been in touch with the family of one of the crew - F/O Slack - his relatives who live in Hong Kong came over to see the memorial dedicated .
The RAF from Aldergrove also attended and provided a flypast - a SeaKing helicopter from the Air Sea Rescue unit.

They also visited the Commonwealth War grave Plots in Irvinestown.

An excellent effort from all who were involved .

Attached shows members of the Slack family and RAF party in the Church of Ireland graveyard Irvinestown.
( Joe is on the far left).

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Memorial service.

The same party at the local catholic cemetery , to view the Commonwealth plot on that location.
The catholic cemetery is only a few hundred yards away the war dead are seperated by distance , not by time.

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Memorial.

The colour party , car park above "Magho" the two small memorial stone can be seen in the background.
I would have to again admire the hard work and effort which went into making this possible.

The sterotypical views of "Northern Ireland" really had no place here , well meaning people of all shades of opinion , politcial view and walks of life.

I would say approx 2,000 people were present , Air Trainning Corp and local youth groups all being present.

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Memorial Stones.

The memorial stones.

The 202 squadron crew.
W.Off Ernest Slack. Navigator. ( Buried in Stanly New Cemetery , County Durham).
F/Sgt. John W. Geldert . Flight Engineer. ( Bruied Morcambe and Heysham Cemetery , Lancashire).
F/lt. George V Forbes-Lloyd. Pilot. ( Buried Radlett Churchyard Extension , Aldenham, Herts.)
Sgt. Douglas W. nater W.Op / AG. ( Buried Aldborough hatch Churchyard Ilford Essex.)
F/Sgt. Gordon F Trimble 2nd pilot ( Buried Dorking cemetery. Sussex).
F/Sgt. Peter R Marshall W.Op/FME. ( Buried Chichester cemetery Sussex).
Sgt. Fred J Deem W.Op. ( Buried Willington Cemetery Somerset).
P/O. William J Sharp. Navigator Buried in Irvinestown Church of Ireland , County Fermanagh.


202Squadron Operational Record book reads .
19/11/44.
P/202 F/lt. llyod flew aircraft on patrol in areas 11and 12. The aircraft failed to return from this sortie having crashed into Magho hill on the West side of Lough Erne.
( the crew are then listed).
details of sortie reads.
19/11/44. catalina P/202.
( Crew again lisited).
16:14 Aircraft airborne Castle Archdale , on patrol in areas 11 and 12 at 04.57 aircraft sent early 30 message and at 05:43 an ETA of 06:35.
At 07:02 when aircraft was presumed to be on the circuit , called up for landing instructions and was given weather report which was acknowledged very weakly. Nothing more was heard of the aircraft and it was subsquently learned it had crashed into Church Hill on the West side of Lough Erne.
The finds of the Court of Inqiry was critical of the crew - who were simply tired having been in the air for over 15 hours - fatigue was the cause of the accident.

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Guy Wilkinson.

Mrs Maureen Ingram and her son Steve visiting the grave of her father Sgt Guy Wilkinson who died when Sunderland DD848 of 201 Squadron crashed on Mount Brandon en route for Biscay.
Aphoto of Sgt Wilkinson has been posted earlier as well as some photographs taken at the funeral service for the crew at Irvinestown Church of Ireland.
Guy and his freind were buried adjacent to the Commonwelath cemetery marker.
Opposite them two canadians who were killed in a training exercise near Whitehill ballinamallard in October 1943 - both these men had previosly completeed atour with 422 RCAF on Sunderlands.

Maureen , Steve and Les ( his father) have been over several times - really nice people.

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Something of mystery.

A post which has been wrwritten and a good reason why I should enver trust my memory for anything - check it all.
The 210 crew lost in April 1941 - most of these poor lads are missing - Runnymede being their tombstone.

On Cruit Island 10 Commonwealth graves only one of them is from AH532 Sgt Horace Arthur tann a W/Op. AG aged 20.
The other member of this crew F/Sgt Alfred Tizzard AG waswashed ashore on Innishmore , one of the Aran Islands.

An object lesson on how memory can let you down , must be about 5 years since I checked this out - big mistake I should not have made.

The other members of the crew missing -
F/lr Henry F.D. Breese W.Off. Clifford Bond.
F/Sgt. Leslie S Dilnutt
Sgt. Walter H Balch.
Sgt. Alexander V McRae.
AC2 Herbert V. Norton
AC1 james F. Woodard.

This aircrew has largely been over looked - they "simply failed to return".
210 was Oban based but there seem to have been a number of instances in which they operated from Lough Erne.

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Some more - wreckage of JX242.

When checking out the details of the 210 crew I came across some more photos from JX242 - wreckage moved from the site of the crash to the mountain top.
The holes shown were not dug but blasted .
sadly a now defunked aviation group spent quite some time removing pieces of the wreckage from the hill - would be to god that they had left it alone.

What sense is there in boy scouting away piece of history to sit in a garden shed or to be thrown out when interest eventually wanes , I see none.

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Jx242.

Some more from the 202 Squadron catalina.

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Jx242.

Some access panel and stensiled writing from the hill.
inspite of having been in the open for years the paint was still fresh .
No doubt these panels have since disappeared into a garrage or garden shed - does this make me a little angry - yes it does .

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JX242 P/202 Squadron .

Some more of the wreckage.
Bomb hoist attachment , from the area adjacent to the wing struts.

There have been several aviation interest groups in Fermangh over the years , in the main folks like Joe O'Loughlin , Briege McCusker , Gary Pentland and myself have by and large worked apart - life seemed much simpler.
Although drawn into contact with one or two groups I withdrew from them - too many personalities - too many complex relationships and too many egos.
No thanks

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Two years ago two memorial stone were errected in the car park at the viewpoint above Magho.
(A view from this point has been shown earlier in the thread).

One is to those who were lost on JX242 and the other to those lost on the 201 Sunderland W4036 which crashed on the night of 18th November 1943 , three of the crew being lost.

The memorial was organised by local man Joe O'Loughlin , Briege McCusker and the Churchill historical society.
Joe had been in touch with the family of one of the crew - F/O Slack - his relatives who live in Hong Kong came over to see the memorial dedicated .
The RAF from Aldergrove also attended and provided a flypast - a Sea King helicopter from the Air Sea Rescue unit.

They also visited the Commonwealth War grave Plots in Irvinestown.

An excellent effort from all who were involved .

Attached shows members of the Slack family and RAF party in the Church of Ireland graveyard Irvinestown.
( Joe is on the far left).

Look back to the previously posted photo off the firing party.

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240 Squadron Catalina.

The catalina which Iveach mentions in his diary - some photos of her shown earlier.
The yellow paint work dating from her itm in US servcie has worn through.
Look at the structure and strength of this wing , amazingly well built .

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228 Sunderland engine.

I found these earlier this evening when looking for a book - ( 1974 " Corgi" edition of "The Willing Flesh" by Willi Heinrich ).

The engine belongs to the 228 Sunderland which crashed in the Blue Stacks in County Donegal - a few more photos of her wreckage - such as remains on the mount I posted earlier.

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Dd862.

Attached below the "Form 1180" which details the loss of DD862 of 423 RCAF in may 1945.
My other and two of her brothers saw the aircraft come down , they had an engine fire , the engine falling from its mount and with a spreading fire the pilot (F/lt. Stewart ) very did very well to put her down on the first suitable stretch of water.

The crew were able to get out of the burning aircraft and made their way to shore - when my mother and her brothers saw them the crew were black , save the whites of their eyes, coated by the smoke.
the aircraft burnt and drifted to the North shore .
No one was injured in the landing.

Conflicting stories about what happened the aircraft - some day she was broken up and taken away on "low loaders" , others say she was "sunk in the Lough" , her remains may still be there, or not as the case may be.
DD862 - she was flown by F/lt. Gerry Fellows and crew when they attacked and damaged U-672 in May 1944 - one of the charges exploded on the way down and seriosuly damaged the aircraft twisting the airframe and control surfaces - the submarine was damaged and but for the DC exploding prematurely would almost certainly have been sunk.
( There is a photo of gerry fellows in the openning pages of the thread).

I was in conatact with Mr. fellows last year who I am happy to say is alive and well.

Equally happy to say that I have been recently put in touch with Mr William Stewart who piloted DD862 when she made her final landing , just had an email from him earlier this evening and have mentioned this thread to him.