Neglected Flying Boat base.

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Stranraer

Stranraer L/240 February 1941.
F/O Hugh Hirst has his back to the camera.

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Today

The same skyline today - slightly differnet angle as I don't have a boat.
The flying boat would have been moored aproximately where the yellow marker is.

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Air raid shelter

One of the few intact air raid shelters.

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Incineration unit.

I wish I had a fraction of the papers and photographs which went up in smoke in this tiny building.

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Mel Lee's crew

This is Mel Lee's 423 RCAF crew.
They crashed in bad weather on the flare path on 11/11/43 , five of the men in the photograph were drowned.

The aircraft was recovered from the Lough a week later and the body of the navigator was still strapped into his seat.
( I will add the names and more details tomorrow).
The flare path was closed and remaining aircraft were diverted to Pembroke Dock.
Mel Lee was not informed of the water conditions prior to his landing and no blame was attached to him, Mel went on to complete his tour with 423 as did his twin brother (Cal) who was also pilot.
Photo.
Back from the left
Win Birch , Scotty Scott, Les Hobbs, Mel Lee ( Unknown , unknown)
Jock Preacher , Grey Arnold, Charlie Hardcastle, Shef Sheffield.
Scott , Hobbs and hardcastle are buired in Irvinestown .
Arnold is "missing" ( will confirm details later rather than trust memory ).

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Two of Mel Lee's crew.

Below two of Mel Lee's crew lost when his Sunderland crashed Warrent Officer Hardcastle and Scott.
In the photo above Hardcastle is front row 2nd from the right.

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Shetland Dock

The only one of its kind ever built - a dock built for the Shetland flying boat - photos taken in 1945 show construction work underway.
Today it sits waiting for aircraft which will never come.

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Shetland Dock

Another view of the dock. ( Right side).

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Shetland Dock

Forward view of the dock.

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Bomb Scow.

The sorry remains of a bomb scow once used to take depth charges out to the boats, it rusts away at the dock side its job done.

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Motor boat taking 240 crew ashore.

The crew of L 240 coming ashore.

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The same view today.

The same view today come easter weekend it will be jet skis and pleasure carft coming ashore , good fun but they play merry hell with the local wildlife.
( having said that the ducks and swans are the best fed in the country).

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main Entrance into Castle Archdale.

The main entrance into Castle Archdale , the barrier , guard house and assorted vehicles.
One gentleman wehom I was in touch with told me how he arrived back from Irvinestown slightly the worse for wear and cycled into the barrier, once done never forgotten.

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Today

A shot of the entrance as it is today , the huts and house are gone , nothing to say what once was.
The trees remain pretty much unchanged - and the trained arch on the right can be seen , a face on view of this is posted below beside a memorial stone to 422 RCAF man Syd Irving.
Syd was a regular visitor to the area in the later 1980's.

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A memorial stone to Syd irving, this was errected by local historian Briege Mc Cusker and Mr. Gary Pentland of Gortin Co.Tyrone , who was a close friend of Syd.
Syd Irving was the 422 Sunderland which crashed near Tory in February 1944. ( about a quarter of a mile from St. Angelo airfield. The Sunderland was on a Fighter Affiliation Exercise with a Beaufighter when its starboard wing hit some telegraph wires , the aircraft stalled and crashed in a field , two of the crew were killed.)
Syd seriously injured surived the crash.

As "luck" would have it Air Vice marshall Sir Shalto Douglas was doing a tour of Coastal Command Bases in Fermanagh on the day of the crash.

The Beaufighter Squadron ( I will look up their Squadron number it won't come to me at present) a detachment from (238?) sent to St Angelo to provide cover for convoys off the West Coast which had recently come under attack from HE177 and Do-217's armed with ardio controlled glider bombs. ( Air to sea missiles) - one Beaufighter piloted by a Belfast man shot down a Ju-290 - the only recorded enemy aircraft lost to an aircraft operating from Co. Fermanagh.