Neglected Flying Boat base.

[behblc]

422 crew

The 422 crew of Alan Tomlinson which crashed near Trory in February 1944, Syd irving is top rightleft , the tall gentlman centre back row is W/O. Hebenson , he was one of the two men who died of their injuries , he is buried in Irvinestown .

[behblc]

St John's Point Lighthouse.

A photograpgh of St. John's Point Lighthouse.
St. John's Point is a finger of land which stretch's out into Donegal Bay it would appear on radar and was a well used navigational reference point and assurance that base was not far away.
the "EIRE" in white letters in the painted white square of rocks can still be found, although no longer painted you have to get down low to see it , if you miss it its a case of tripping over it !

[behblc]

BABS Approach System

The BABS Approach system , given to me by Murray Wettlaufer.
Murray was 2nd pilot to Al Bishop when they sank U-489 in August 1943.
Another 423 Pilot Mr. Bruce Whitney later gave me several more plates showing the approach systems , as far as I am aware no others copies are in existance a piece of history "lost".

[behblc]

Revised approach system.

A revised approach system whoch dates from Nov. 1943 rom Mr. Bruce Whitney.
Bruce went on to captain the crew of F/lt Gerry Fellows who attacked and seriously damaged U-672 on 24th April 1944.
A DC exploded prematurely and serious damaged the aircraft , and saved the U=-boat from being sunk.

[behblc]

Carrying the can.

Bruce Whitney ( wearing peaked cap) takes over from Gerry Fellows.

[behblc]

More BABS

Another plate on the blind approach systems.
I have a series of plates and notes which explain the blind approach system to Castle Archdale which was designed to bring aircraft saftely overhead and to bring them right down on the flarepath in poor weather conditions.

[Ralph P]

James - Thanks for taking the time and walk us through the past and present history of the flying boat base. I very much enjoyed reading and seeing the past and present pictures you posted. Thanks again for the history tour...

[JOHN JONES]

Excellent research.
A great preservation of history ----- well done

Sad to see the old facilities gone or changed and neglected.
But thats the march of time, as you said, their job is done.

The persons involved have mostly left this earth, but thanks to their
efforts, we have been at peace ( at least with Europe) for over 65yrs.
Although as I look around today, I tend to feel we are more under threat
from within.


Cheers
John.

[behblc]

131 OTU crew.

This is a crew from 131 OTU - their catalina crashed into Lough Erne when carrying out a local bombing exercise on 7th January 1944.
I cannot put the names to the faces - but will alter this post to include the names of the crew and casualities later this evening.
( It means a trip to the roof space to bring out various files and papers which are in storage.).

[behblc]

131 OTU Catalina

A rare phoptograph of a 131)TU Catalina over Lough Erne , the Mountains in the background are in Donegal - Neutral Eire - at best the flarepath was little more than two miles from Donegal.

[behblc]

201 Squadron RAF

Memerbs of 201 Squadron RAF - this building the old manaor House at CA. , is now gone .
The photograph probably dates from early 1942 - it was given to me by the late Mr. ray hartshorn who lfrw with Sandy Powell's crew .
ray later went to 202 down at Gibralter before returning as an instrustor at Killadeas which is about 2 miles from Castle Archdale.
Sadly like so many Ray is no longer with us, a wonderful gentleman.
Ray is third from the left with a pipe in his hand leaning forward.

[behblc]

201 Crew.

201 crew at their aircraft , some of these men can be seen in the groups photograph above. Circa early 1942.

[Le Breton]

Great piece of work!

Congratulations James,

This is an awesome piece of unknown history. When I think of NI it wouldn't spring to my mind that these types of bases were available over there, yet they are. Thanks for sharing, "After the battle, Then and now" on the internet. Great, great show!

Peter.

[behblc]

Thank you

Thankyou for the comments gents - I will try and beef out some of the posts with more info - as i explained to Peter once upon a time I was very sharp on this subject connections could be made with little problem -after almost eight years on the subject this was par for the course.
I have not really been active in any research etc for a few years and have gotten a little stale.

[behblc]

Thank you

Deleted - duplicate post.