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RAF Aldergrove, in County Antrim, earned its Second World War importance from geography. Positioned to look out over the western approaches, it became a valuable RAF Coastal Command station during the Battle of the Atlantic. From here, long-range reconnaissance aircraft could push patrol lines out into the Eastern Atlantic in search of U-boats threatening convoys, and sorties could range as far as Rockall. This was the grinding, high-stakes routine that rarely makes headlines but mattered intensely: a single sighting could divert escorts, deter an attack, or bring an aircraft into position to strike a submarine before it reached the convoy lanes.
The airfield’s wartime flying was shaped by the types best suited to maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine work, and by the need to balance patrol endurance with the weather realities of the North Atlantic. Detachments and squadrons cycled through with aircraft that chart the RAF’s evolution in the coastal war: Lockheed Hudsons (a key early-war maritime patrol aircraft), Bristol Blenheims in fighter and long-range roles, Westland Lysanders in liaison and short-range tasks, Hurricanes for air defence, and later Bristol Beaufighters which combined range, firepower, and the punch needed for anti-shipping and strike work. Aldergrove’s wartime unit list includes, among others, detachments of No. 224 Squadron with Hudsons, No. 235 Squadron with Blenheim IVFs, No. 245 Squadron with Hurricane Is, No. 233 Squadron with Hudson Is, No. 102 Squadron with Whitley Vs, and longer-term Coastal Command residents such as No. 143 Squadron with Beaufighter ICs and No. 206 Squadron with multiple Hudson variants.
For the crews, the operational rhythm could be punishing. Maritime patrol meant long hours over cold water, scanning the surface for the unnatural line of a periscope wake, an oil slick, or the silhouette of a surfaced boat – often in poor visibility and heavy cloud. Navigation demanded precision, because the margin for error on fuel over water was thin. When contact was made, the job could switch instantly from search to attack, requiring low-level approaches under fire and the coordination needed to drop depth charges effectively. Aldergrove’s Coastal Command role also overlapped with wider defence needs, particularly during periods when the Luftwaffe threat to Northern Ireland and to shipping lanes sharpened, which helps explain the presence of fighter units and fighter-capable aircraft in its wartime mix.
Photographic evidence from the period captures the station’s connection to Coastal Command’s Hudson era, including images of No. 233 Squadron Hudsons operating from Aldergrove in 1941. Aldergrove’s wartime legacy therefore sits in that vast, often invisible theatre beyond the coastline: the battle to keep Atlantic supply routes open. In a conflict where Britain’s survival depended on imports, bases like Aldergrove were part of the system that helped to find, fix, and fight the submarine threat – one patrol at a time.
- Wartime headline role: Coastal Command operations in the Battle of the Atlantic
- Typical aircraft: Hudson, Beaufighter (among others)
- Operational character: long-range patrols, convoy protection, anti-submarine search and attack