Many years later, during my instrument training behind a set of angled plastic screens which blocked my view but not my instructor’s, Desmond set me a simulated Catalina sortie. We would leave our base in the east of Ireland, fly west for an hour at Cat patrol speed of 120 mph, then return to Lough Erne. I would enter ‘cloud’ under the screens at 200ft and fly the sortie on instruments, without radio aids, just as he and his comrades had done 25 years before.
We flew over Lough Erne and out over the Atlantic for about 20 miles before turning and letting down for Lough Erne. I was down to 800ft and becoming quite tense, imagining that we would have been peering for a landmark. “Any sign of landfall?” asked Desmond, enjoying his view of a fine summer’s day over Donegal. “Not yet”, I replied. “I’ll let down another 200ft”.
Another five minutes, and Desmond took over. “I have control ... take a look over your shoulder”. As he rolled into a steep turn, I glimpsed rocky hillsides all around us. Had our sortie been genuine I would have flown into the Derryveagh Mountains, as two wartime patrols had done before me. A southerly wind had blown me 20 miles north of track, and given me a lesson I would never forget ... not least when I stood before the headstones of those who had paid the ultimate price for the same mistake.
Today the vast base at Castle Archdale has become a caravan park, and speedboats have replaced Sunderlands on the huge concrete slipway. Boat trailers are secured to the tiedown points which once anchored the flying boats. The ops room building has become a shop, and a few shelters and a bomb store are dotted around the grounds. The great house itself is used for outdoor pursuits and contains a small museum telling the story of the great Atlantic battle. A few miles away the Catalina 131 OTU at Killadeas is the home of Lough Erne Yacht Club, and the nearby officers’ mess has long since gone back to being the Manor House Hotel.
Only the rows of neat headstones in Irvinestown Cemetery mark the last resting place of those who gave their all.