Fermanagh Air Bases

Resources

The waterways and surrounding countryside of Fermanagh provided bases for three distinct air war activities.

These were:

Castle Archdale, Killadeas and St. Angelo.

Castle Archdale was the headquarters of the RAF (in Fermanagh) and from there flying boats were launched to provide more effective air cover for shipments transporting vital supplies across the Atlantic from the US to Britain. By the summer of 1942, one allied ship was being sunk every four hours in the Atlantic, while German U-boat losses remained very low.

Killadeas was the RAF Coastal Command Training base. Here servicemen received the required 72 hours of flying time in Catalinas and Sunderlands to train them for operational flying.

St Angelo airport, known as Rossahilly Aerodrome before the War, was taken over by the RAF in August 1941. This was an airstrip from which planes such as Beaufighters, Flying Fortresses and Spitfires could operate.

From 1941-1945 these Fermanagh bases were home to thousands of American, Canadian, Australian and British servicemen.

Please email us your stories to: castle@fermanagh.gov.uk

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Sound File

Title:	American soldiers and local girls.

Speaker:	Emily Cathcart

Sound:	99-10-79.mp3
Description:	I can remember when the American soldiers came in, and they were stationed here in Enniskillen. And the girls were, of course, falling over themselves, because there was nylons to be got, and chocolates and sweets, and everything, y'see? We’d have been going to dances in those days, and I can remember women, y'know, young girls going out with servicemen and that. They weren’t so keen on our soldiers as they would be on Americans, y'see, there was something strange, and they had big talk, and they had plenty of money, and they had, as I say, the nylons, and they had chocolates, and all, cigarettes and everything to give them. Ref: 99-010-79. Interviewer: Joan Duffy, Women's Oral History Project. © Fermanagh County Museum and Clogher Historical Society.

Sound File

Title:	Sunderlands and Catalinas

Speaker:	T.P. Flanagan

Sound:	91-47-98.mp3
Description:	Lough Erne was the centre for reconnaissance over, over the Atlantic and we had a great overflying by Sunderlands and Catalinas. And that was very dramatic. The big yellow underbelly of the Catalina sweeping low over the town you know. I remember that very vivid sound and image. The yellow underbelly of the Catalina caught it would seem irretrievably somewhere between the steeple of the church and the tower of the Town Hall. But it would always right itself and roar away off, y'know. Ref: 91-47-98. Interviewer: Sandra Matchett, Fermanagh County Museum. © Fermanagh County Museum.