The Second World War in Northern Ireland

The Second World War in Northern Ireland

County Antrim Part 5

Memorial to Flight Sergeant Wladyslaw Kolek, Boghill Road, Newtownabbey

Plutonowy Wladyslaw Kolek, Service Number P/783150, Aged 26 years. 315 Squadron, Polish Air Force

Ppor J.R. Tuczemski crashed his Spitfire Mk5, number AB245 near Ballymena after hitting an obstacle when on a training flight on 22nd August 1943.

He is buried in Ballycranbeg Roman Catholic Church near Kirkistown. - Scroll County Down Part 1 to see his Headstone which is also shown here bottom right.

This Memorial is to Flight Sergeant Wladyslaw Kolek of No. 315 Polish Fighter Squadron who crashed near this position in 1943 was unveiled at Boghill Road, Newtownabbey on 29th May 2021. Those present included Col Tomasz Ferfecki and Col Robert Pawlicki from the Polish Embassy in London as seen above.
Thanks very much to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Belfast and For Your Freedom and Ours who made this possible.

Warrant Officer Mervyn Milliken From Whitehead

Warrant Officer Mervyn Milliken was born in Whitehead, County Antrim on the 22nd of April 1922 and volunteered for service in the RAF during the Second World War.
He served initially as an Air Gunner on Vickers Wellington aircraft where he took up the lonely position of Rear Gunner which was known as “Tail End Charlie”
In 1942 Mervyn married Jean Ellen Brown and soon afterwards he trained as a pilot.
Once qualified he returned to Operational Duty flying Avro Lancasters.
Warrant Officer Milliken remained in the RAF until the early 1950s, which post-war included spending time with 13 Squadron in The Middle East.
After leaving the RAF Mervyn and Jean settled in The West Midlands and Mervyn worked in the Motor Vehicle industry.
The couple would have a son also called Mervyn in 1967 (he too would later join the RAF) but unfortunately Jean passed away in 1973 leaving Mervyn as the widower father of a young boy.
Mervyn continued his career in the Motor Vehicle industry taking early retirement in 1983 by which time he’d become a senior parts manager in distribution at Peugeot/Talbot and had also remarried.
In January 1984, approximately 8 months before his son’s enlistment in the RAF Mervyn moved his family to Northern Ireland. He was home!
Sadly on the 25th of May 2000 Mervyn passed away having succumbed to cancer.
Sergeant Milliken is shown here on the day of his first wedding in 1942 together with a later picture of him as a Lancaster pilot in flying gear.
(Thanks very much to Jeff Mustard for photos in information)

2nd Buckinghamshire Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Cross Country Team.

I have put this photograph here because they were the winners of the Whitehead Road Race in 1942.

(Thanks to Paul Barnett whose Father is seated 3rd from left in the picture)

Manslaughter of Edward Clenaghan from Soldierstown, Aghalee by 2  U.S. Soldiers