A new memorial was unveiled at Lough Erne Yacht Club (LEYC) last Saturday, October 26, in memory of Killadeas Airfield and dedicated to all units and personnel which were based there between 1941 and 1947.

The new RAF Killadeas Memorial by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust is near the existing RAF OTU 131 Memorial, un-veiled back in June 2000.

Over 50 years, Fermanagh and LEYC interest and knowledge has expanded on their World War Two Flying Boat Heritage including in newsletters, exhibitions and a number of books.

Researching for his book Voices of the Donegal Corridor, Joe O’Loughlin also set out three Rolls of Honour, listing every crash and crew killed: Sunderland (Castle Archdale) Catalina (RAF Killadeas, LEYC) and Land-Aircraft (St Angelo).

In November 2006, these were presented in LEYC Clubhouse: the Catalina one was put on LEYC wall.

In 2018, Joe’s information, updated, was given to the RAF for one Memorial listing all who gave their lives flying from Lough Erne, in support of Northern Ireland’s main RAF Centenary Celebration 1918-2018, located at LEYC along the foreshore.

In June 2018 over 1,800 visited to see flights by a Catalina, a 21 gun salute and displays by the Ulster Aviation Society and others. That new large RAF Memorial, gifted to LEYC is prominently displayed in our Clubhouse, beside the Galley.

Today, many interesting RAF Killadeas artefacts remain at LEYC, including iron rings to moor down the tail of a Catalina in its service bay. Another former service bay contains today’s RNLI base. The ‘Hangar’ built for servicing wartime support boats, now stores dinghies, mast up and sails set.

A place built for war operation and training is today used for peaceful sailing training, pleasure and racing sport. Dinghies and RNLI use a slipway used for pinnaces and wartime support craft. J/24s in the Bay moor to blocks made for flying boats.