Ballyhalbert 1943.

Hi, in episode 3 I talk a bit about the war history in Ballyhalbert. I talked about how my home town of Ballyhalbert was home to the RAF, the navy, the army and the United states air force in the second world war. It was predominately used to protect against enemy planes headed for Belfast. the air Field was sold in 1960 to a developer who used it as a caravan site. In the bottom picture you will notice that the behind the men is a semi-circle wall. This is where they used to fire rounds into to align the sights on the on board guns. that semi-circle remains today. This history is right out in my back yard! I have posted this image of these men in front of a war plane in 1943. Below is a little snippet of the text that accompanied the photo in the website.......

(The photo of B Flight was taken in August 1943 at Ballyhalbert in Northern Ireland, when the flight was detached from the rest of the Squadron based at Church Fenton. I can identify most of the pilots in the front row: 1,2,3 Flying Officers Hughes, McKinnon and Stooks 4 ground-crew Flight Sergeant 5 Flg Off Doug Murray 6 Flt Lt Kit North-Lewis � (the flight commander) 7 forgotten! 8 ground-crew Sergeant 9 Army Liaison Officer 10 Flt Lt Pope 11 Flg Off Griffiths (Me!) The aircraft is a Mustang Mk1 � the early version with the Allison engine.Regards Arthur Griffiths )

Another snippet..referring to top picture

23 April 1944. Bally Halbert. From left (only those with visible faces): F/Lt Kudrewicz, F/Lt Jenik, F/Lt Stasik,F/O Swietlikowski, F/O Szaposznikow, F/Lt Proktor (503), F/O Franckiewicz, F/O Marszalek, F/Sgt Zygarlicki, F/Sgt Bienik, F/Sgt Polilejko (?), F/Sgt Sadowski and F/Sgt Lopuszynski.