remembrance ni

Northern Ireland men who served in the RAF during the Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain started on July 10, 1940. It continued over southern of England throughout the summer and autumn.

At least 14 men from Northern Ireland died in the RAF and at least eight fought in

and survived the Battle. Hitler expected the UK to seek a peace settlement after Germany’s defeat of France in June, but the UK was determined to fight on.

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Hitler wanted the war to be brought to a speedy conclusion and preparations for Operation Sealion were being made for the invasion of England.

However, before the seaborne landing could proceed, Germany needed to achieve control of the skies.

Germany had been banned from having an air force in the terms of the WW1 settlement. However the Nazi government re-established it and by 1940 it was one of the foremost airforces in the world. It suffered heavy losses in the battle for France. Yet it had built up three air fleets which would carry the battle to Britain.

Britain had some of the best fighters in the world, not least in the form of the Hawker Hunter and the Supermarine Spitfire.

The Germans began attacking coastal targets and shipping in the English Channel. Their main offensive was on August 13 which the RAF met with fierce resistance.

During the last week of August and the first week in September the Luftwaffe concentrated their efforts on destroying Fighter Command. Whilst airfields were damaged especially in the south-east, most remained operable.

On August 31 Fighter Command suffered its worst day. However the Luftwaffe over-estimated the damages it had caused. Fighter Command was bruised but not broken.

In time the Luftwaffe shifted its targets away from airfields to civilian areas, especially London. These raids were devastating for London residents but they gave British defences a chance to recover.

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Fighter Command repulsed another massive attack on September 15. In the process it afflicted losses which the Germans knew they could not sustain.

Although fighting continued for several weeks, Operation Sealion was indefinitely postponed by Hitler.

Victory in the Battle of Britain did not win the war but it made it a possibility. Four years later Operation Overlord took place from British shores to liberate Europe and bring the war with Germany to an end.

Northern Ireland air crew who served in the Battle for BritainThe following died during Battle of Britain

Sergeant S Ireland - killed July 12, 1940

Sergeant J.B Thompson - killed July 31, 1940

Sergeant J.K Haire - killed November 6, 1940Pilot Officer D Whitley - killed August 28, 1940

Pilot Officer A.W.V Green - killed September 11, 1940

Sergeant S.A Fenemore - killed October 15, 1940

Pilot Officer M.I.D Green - killed October 20, 1940

Sergeant J McCann - killed February 20, 1941Sergeant V.H Skillen - killed March 11, 1941Sergeant T.C.E Berkley - killed June 14, 1941Wing Commander J.V.C Badger - killed June 30, 1941Pilot Officer CR Montgomery - killed August 14, 1941

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Sub Lieutenant W Beggs - killed November 15, 1942Squadron Leader A.D.J Lovell - killed August 17, 1945

The following served in Battle of Britain and survived the war

Wing Commander FV BeamishFlight Lieutenant M CameronFlight Lieutenant H.R ClarkSquadron Leader N.H CorryAir Vice Marshal F.D HughesSquadron Leader W.W McConnellWing Commander K.W MacKenzieSquadron Leader R.R Wright

Shot down over Dunkirk and still flying -This Spitfire was shot down over Dunkirk beach during the evacuation. It lay in the sands for nearly 50 years until it was rediscovered and restored.

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Spitfire N3200 was from RAF Duxford. It was sent back to the UK in 2000 where it was restored in Duxford before flying again in 2014.

The Spitfire was on its first mission when it was shot down. The pilot of the Spitfire escaped, was taken prisoner for the remainder of the war.

The plane can be seen at the Imperial War Museum’s Duxford site.

On this day - July 10

Adm Sir Andrew Cunningham

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1940

On this day 1940 the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet under Adm Sir Andrew Cunningham took on the Italian fleet under Adm Inigo Campioni in the first major fleet engagement of the new war in the Mediterranean, the Battle of Calabria Preliminary phase of Battle of Britain begins with German air attacks on Channel convoys with the aim of tempting the RAF in to battle. The Luftwaffe launches its first large scale attack on Britain as 70 aircraft attack the dock facilities at Swansea and the Royal Ordnance Factory at Pembrey in Wales.Birthday Honours list includes only service recipients. British Union Party (Fascists) banned.

1941 Panzer Group 1 repulses a violent Soviet counter-attack in the area of Korosten to the west of Kiev.The Finnish Karelian Army begins an offensive toward Lake Ladoga to the Northeast of Leningrad.Germans urge Japan to enter war.

1942 General Carl Spaatz becomes the head of the U.S. Air Force in Europe.The first two ships of the ill-fated Arctic convoy PQI7, arrive at Archangel.Germans admit substantial Russian forces are east of the Don. Panzer units of 4th Panzer Army and 6th Army of Army Group B join up just North of Kalach on the Don, while 17th

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Army and 1st Panzer Army of Army Group A continue their advance toward Rostov.Admiral Chester Nimitz is awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for meritorious service, with special attention focused on the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.

1943

Allied forces continue the amphibious landing in Sicily, Italy, part of Operation Husky.The Allied invasion of Sicily, involved 12 divisions (160,000 men and 600 tanks) of the British Eighth and U.S. Seventh Armies being brought ashore by 3,000 landing craft (200 sunk by rough seas) on the south-east coast of Sicily. While the British approaching Syracuse meet with little German resistance, the U.S. forces are held back by strong counter-attacks of the Hermann Goring and the Italian Livorno Divisions.

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1944

On this day 1944 Captain Frederic "Johnnie" Walker,

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Captain of HMS Starling, commander of the famous 2nd Escort Group and the Royal Navy's most successful WW2 U-boat hunter, died in hospital in Liverpool of a cerebral thrombosis. As Walker's Group had already steamed out for combat duty, most of the naval personnel who manned the funeral procession were from the Royal Canadian Navy. A final honour bestowed upon Walker was a posthumous Mention in Despatches on 1 August 1944.

1945

The USSR, U.K. and U.S. agree on the administration of greater Berlin and decide that France is to be included.U.S. carrier-based aircraft begin airstrikes against Japan in preparation for invasion.1000 bomber raids against Japan begin.

St Sever Cemetery in Rouen

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Roll of Honour - July 10

Representing their comrades who died on this day

1915

+McFALL, Daniel2nd Royal Irish Rifles. 10276, Rifleman. Died 10/09/1915. Aged 19. He enlisted towards the end of 1913 and was about nine months at the front when he was killed. His cousin, James McFall, who was in the same regiment, was also killed in action. He was the son of Thomas and Rosetta McFall, and he had kin at 3 or 16 Garfield Place, Ballymena. Ypres Memorial (Menin Gate). Cloughwater Presbyterian Church.

+MOORE, EdwardRM Artillery. Private. RMA/280S. Died 10/07/1915. Died of wounds received in action 12/07/1918, serving with RMA Howitzer Brigade. France. Enlisted 04/01/1915. Born Rathfriland 07/06/1892. Brother of Mary Moore, Rathfriland. Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. ADM 159/95/280

+NEWEL, Walter 1/6 (Perthshire) Bn Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). ‘A’ Coy, Lance corporal, S/N 1765. Died 10/07/1915. Age 26. Born 26/02/1889. Son of Henry Arthur and Helen Hunter Newel, 362 Antrim Road, Belfast.  He was admitted to BRA 02/03/1902 from St Enoch’s school.  He left in January 1904. A photograph, which appeared in the Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 1 May 1915, shows four of the Newel brothers, three of whom lost their lives. David and Thomas were

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stationed at Epsom and George at Ballykinler. Thomas, served with the PS and University Corps, 26 Royal Fusiliers. Rue-David Military Cemetery (II.G.7), Fleurbaix. IMR, St James’s Church, Belfast, WM.

1916

+ATKINSON, John Mercier

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 2nd Btn. Private.17000. Died 10/07/1916. Aged 26. Husband of Jeannie Atkinson, of 55, Fountain St., Londonderry.Theipval Memorial, Somme, France. Whitehead WM

HARPER, Edgar Henry 8th Bn. South Staffordshire Regiment. Lieutenant. Died 10/07/1916. Aged 36. Son of Henry McGowan Harper and Annie Elizabeth Harper (nee Forbes) of Dungannon, Co. Tyrone. Theipval Memorial, Somme, France

+JOHNSTON, John Ernest4th Bn. attd. 10th Bn. South Staffordshire Regiment. Lieutenant. Died 10/07/1916. Somme. Son of Mr David Johnston J.P., of Grace Hall in Lurgan. Two of his brothers also served. His second brother David Percy Johnston served with the Royal Engineers and gained a commission as a Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. Herbert Curry Johnston, Sergeant in 9th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. Sergeant. 22761. Died 16/08/1917, Age 19, in the Battle of Langemarck.

+SMALL, Hugh Alexander

The King's (Liverpool Regiment), 20th Btn. Second Lieutenant. MC. Died 10/07/1916 at Trones Wood. Aged 25.

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Born 28/03/1891. Commissioned Temp. Second Lieutenant, 25/01/1915 having joined the regiment at Bray. Hugh was awarded the Military Cross - “On May 1916 during a heavy bombardment of the Right Group of Sub Sector Z2 Maricourt, the platoon commanded by Second Lt. H. A.

Small occupied FT A 16/2 and AP2 and Sap. The men were lying down as ordered in the bottom of the trench, seven however were wounded by shrapnel. Second Lt. Small moved along the trenches helping to dress the wounded and whilst the shelling was very heavy round AP2 he went to the top of the Sap to get some of the men back to a safer place. A shell burst in the Sap head whilst he was there, covering him with earth, but he continued his work and all the wounded were very quickly removed under his direction.

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Second Lieutenant Hugh Alexander Small, MC

He showed a fine example of great coolness and courage under fire.”

Hugh survived the terrible first day of The Battle of the Somme, but on 10/07/1916 the battalion was involved in the attack on Trones Wood.  The murderous fighting for the Pals lasted three days. Hugh was killed in action during this action and his death was reported in the battalion War Diary,11/07/1916 - “In accordance with orders, a section of bombers under Second Lt. Small attacked the portion of Maltz Horn Trench north of that occupied by us and after some resistance captured it. It was found to end in a fork one side of which ran to near the E edge of Trones Wood and the other nearly to Guillemont-Trones Wood Road. A considerable number of the enemy (about 50) were killed and 2 machine guns put out of action. Second Lt. Small while reconnoitring on the road was killed.”

The Battalion diary continues, “The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary. The place was a Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination, the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible.”

Son of Alexander Small and Meta Kennedy Milliken of Keady. His mother died in 1909 when Hugh was 18.

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Theipval Memorial, Somme, France. 2nd Keady Presbyterian Church RH. Magee College, Londonderry WM.

1918

+WALKER, Claud Arthur LeonardLieutenant, 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Killed in action 10th July 1918. Aged 21. Son of the Rev. R. Walker, LL.D., and Mrs. L. J. T. Walker, of Shankill Rectory, Belfast. Joined Public Schools Corps, Aug., 1914. Nominated to R.M.C. Sandhurst, Dec., 1914. Commissioned, May, 1915. Buried in Bouzincourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.

1942

+HODGKINSON, Stanley Royal Artillery.111 H.A.A. Regt. 355 Bty. Gunner. 1629668. Died 10/07/1942. Aged 31. Son of Joseph Thomas Hodgkinson and Florence Eliza Hodgkinson, of Newthorpe, Nottinghamshire. Belfast City Cemetery, Glenalina

1943

+BRYANS, William RobertRAFVR. Sergeant. 1063523. Died 10/07/1943 . Aged 21. 408 (RCAF) Sqd. Son of William Robert And Annie Bryans; Husband to E. Jane Bryans, Belfast. Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany

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+GREEVES, Hubert GoughRAMC. 181 Airlanding Field Amb. Captain. 87080. Died 10/07/1943. Born and lived in Tyrone. Cassino Memorial, Panel 12, Italy

1944

+BLYTHE, John

Royal Ulster Rifles, 1st Btn. Rifleman, No. 7019887Died 10/07/1944. Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, he was the husband of Mrs Blythe of Coldagh, Ballymoney, County Antrim. Pre-war he was well known in the Ballymoney summer league football competitions. Ranville War Cemetery

1945

+CARLETON, EdwardRNPS. Seaman. LT/JX.305456. Died 10/07/1945. Age 25. HMS Golden Hind in the Pacific theatre. Brother of James Carleton (below). Son of Hugh and Hannah Carleton, Apsley St., Belfast. Sydney War Cemetery, Australia

1947

+FRY, Humphrey Francis Warren

RAFVR. Squadron Leader. 201234. Died 10/07/1947. Aged 25. M.B., B.Ch. BAO. QUB 1945. Son of Humphrey Francis Fry and of Margaret Annette Fry, of Belfast. Fayid War Cemetery, Egypt. QUB WM

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