RAF Aldergrove

RAF Aldergrove lay in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the shore of Lough Neagh some eighteen miles north-west of Belfast. The site first saw flying in 1918 and was established as a permanent Royal Air Force station in 1925, when No. 502 Squadron formed there as a Special Reserve unit, flying types such as the Vickers Vimy and Virginia and later the Avro Anson and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.

During the Second World War the station’s location on the Atlantic seaboard made it pivotal in the Battle of the Atlantic. Operating chiefly under Coastal Command’s No. 17 Group, its squadrons flew long-range anti-submarine and convoy-escort patrols against the German U-boat fleet, using Hudsons, Wellingtons, Fortresses and Consolidated Liberators. Other units, including Beaufighter-equipped No. 143 Squadron, added a strike and fighter element, and the airfield hosted a wide range of maritime, training and air-sea-rescue squadrons over the war years.

After 1945 Aldergrove served as a dispersal field for the V-bomber force and a centre for aircraft maintenance. From the Troubles onward it supported Operation Banner with helicopter squadrons such as the Wessex-equipped No. 72 and Puma-equipped No. 230. The RAF relinquished control in September 2009, the military side passing to Army aviation while the adjoining runways became Belfast International Airport.