Historic flypast is planned 
to commemorate VJ Day 75

There’ll be many (Covid-19 regulated) events, including a Belfast flyover by the Red Arrows.

But marking Enniskillen, Fermanagh and Lough Erne’s historic role in WWII, the United States Navy is formally honouring local veterans with a flypast over Enniskillen at noon on Saturday by a Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, subject to weather conditions.

Aviation writer and former Chair of the Ulster Aviation Society, Ernie Cromie, puts the Fermanagh flyover into its enormously proud historical context.

During the Second World War the people of Fermanagh became well accustomed to the sight and sound of Catalina flying boats operating out of Castle Archdale or Killadeas on anti-U-boat, convoy escort or training sorties.

Ironically, prior to being handed over to the RAF, Killadeas had actually been constructed for, and commissioned by, the US Navy, but those plans changed.

Catalinas, designed and built in the USA from the mid-1930s by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation of San Diego for the US Navy initially, from 1939 were supplied also to the United Kingdom where by the end of the war they had equipped a total of 20 squadrons of the Royal Air Force, at home and overseas.

On Lough Erne, they were used by a total of six squadrons, not all of which were present at the same time.

As a patrol bomber the Catalina was an effective machine with one outstanding capability – it could remain airborne for a day or more if required, albeit at a comparatively slow patrol speed and with reduced war-load of bombs or the more usual depth charges, to conserve fuel.

That did not necessarily obviate its effectiveness in the war against the U-boats as the mere presence of an aircraft was enough to compel U-boat commanders to submerge where the ability of their boats to intercept and attack vessels on the surface, which were usually faster, was greatly reduced.

However, what it did mean in terms of U-boat sinkings was that Catalinas were not as successful as the Sunderland flying boats also based on the lough or, even more so, land-based aircraft such as the American B-24 Liberators.

The precise circumstances of every U-boat loss will always be open to contention but records based on the latest scientific study would indicate that no U-boats were sunk by Catalinas operating from Lough Erne compared to five by Sunderlands.

By comparison, 17 U-boats were destroyed by Liberators, albeit operating from three airfields in Northern Ireland (Aldergrove, Ballykelly and Nutts Corner), of which 10 were victims of Ballykelly-based Liberators.

Nevertheless, two Catalina flying boats operating from Fermanagh, will long be associated with one of the most important early Allied successes in the Battle of the Atlantic – the destruction of the German battleship Bismarck.

On May 26, the exact position of this greatly feared surface raider that was then the object of an extensive and urgent search following her destruction of HMS Hood, was established by Catalina AH545 ‘Z’ of 209 Squadron out of Castle Archdale.

In command of the Catalina was Pilot Officer Dennis Briggs of the RAF but, significantly, his co-pilot was a young United States Naval Ensign, Leonard B ‘Tuck’ Smith who was, in diplomatic terms, attached to RAF Coastal Command in an observation role but unofficially to help train RAF aircrew in the piloting of Catalinas as well as gain his own experience of operational flying as the USA was then nominally a neutral country.

The Bismarck’s position established, her ‘shadowing’ was continued by a number of aircraft including Catalina AH546 of 240 Squadron, Castle Archdale (to which US Navy airmen were also secretly attached), until her destruction the following day.

In August 1941, ironically, 209 Squadron was transferred to Iceland where it had better luck.

On the 25th of the month, Flying Officer Jewiss and crew suddenly sighted U-452 on the surface and, in conjunction with the anti-submarine trawler HMS Vascama, sank the submarine with the loss of all hands.

On Saturday, August 15, the 75th anniversary of VJ-Day, the historic events of early wartime in Fermanagh will be recalled when the US Navy will again make its presence felt over Enniskillen, depending, as always, on weather conditions.

This will be in the form of what can be regarded as a ‘modern-day Catalina’, a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft except that it is a landplane, not a flying boat, with most performance capabilities significantly different to the Catalina.

A product of the Boeing Aircraft Corporation of Seattle in the US State of Washington, the P-8 is a military derivative of the Boeing 737 airliner.

With a 1,200 nautical miles radius plus four hours on station and 490 knots top speed capability, it is equipped with state-of-the-art, highly sophisticated navigation, sensory and radar equipment.

In a large weapons bay and on external hardpoints it can carry a wide range of armament including torpedoes, cruise missiles, bombs, depth charges and mines. Normally, it requires a crew of nine, similar to the Catalina.

In 2012, P-8 Poseidons entered front-line service with the US Navy which placed orders for more than 100.

Very much smaller numbers are also serving with or on order for the RAF as well as the air forces of Australia, New Zealand, India and South Korea.

The precise identity and base of origin of the particular aircraft expected on Saturday have yet to be revealed.