Flying boat veteran to retrace personal history

Antipodean Andy · May 14, 2009

BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | Foyle and West | War veteran retraces flight path

A World War II flying ace is to retrace his flight path from Northern Ireland along the Donegal corridor for the first time in more than 60 years.

Ted Jones, 86, who met his wife when he was posted to County Fermanagh in 1944, trained crews of military flying boats.

Although the Irish Republic was officially neutral, British forces were allowed to fly over Donegal linking Lough Erne with the Atlantic Ocean.

The flight is part of the Fermanagh Seaplane Festival starting on 24 May.

Before the confidential agreement allowing between the UK and the Irish Republic, RAF aircraft based near Enniskillen had to fly north to Londonderry before heading westwards over the mid-Atlantic to protect shipping convoys coming from the US.

Mr Jones will board a flying boat for the first time in 64 years at his former base at St Angelo airport, near Enniskillen, and set out once more on the route as part of the Fermanagh Seaplane Festival.

The great-grandfather is originally from Nailsworth, Gloucester, but has lived in Clontarf, north Dublin, for most of his life.

Mr Jones said he was looking forward to the trip down memory lane.

"It'll be fun, won't it?" he said, consulting his flying log book to check the date of his final flight.

"The last time I took off from St Angelo in a Catalina flying boat was May 24 1945," he said.

We used to hone in on the lighthouse with radar and shine a really strong light on them, scaring the hell out of the lighthouse keepers

Ted Jones
Mr Jones, who became Ireland's oldest skydiver three years ago when he did a charity parachute jump, used to train captains and crew on the 17-tonne Catalina flying boats during six-hour flights along the Donegal corridor.

His fondest memories are the night-time missions from Killadeas in Co Fermanagh towards the St John's Point lighthouse in Donegal Bay.

"We used to hone in on the lighthouse with radar and shine a really strong light on them, scaring the hell out of the lighthouse keepers," he said.

"And landing a Catalina at night was always very exciting, because you can't see the water."

The former Flight Lieutenant Acting, who was covertly trained in flying boats at a US Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, went on to serve in Canada, England, Iceland and the Shetland Islands.

As well as commendations from the RAF, the octogenarian has been awarded medals in recent years from Russia for his part in the Arctic convoys during the early 1940s.
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