Royal Air Force station

The airfield was originally established in April 1941 as a relief landing ground (RLG) for RAF Aldergrove. Later that year on 15 September RAF St Angelo opened as a fighter sector station in its own right, operating Spitfires and Hurricanes to intercept enemy reconnaissance aircraft off the west coast of Ireland and in the air defence role over Belfast.

In 1943 the station also became home to several squadrons of Catalina and Sunderland flying boats operating from Lough Erne. Later that year, Bristol Beaufighters were based at St Angelo during anti-submarine patrols in the Irish Sea and over the Atlantic Ocean.^[3] As the level of operations over Northern Ireland wound down in 1944 No. 12 (Operational) Flying Instructor School was established at both Killadeas and St Angelo and remained until February 1945, when the school was relocated to RAF Turnberry in Scotland.^[4]

Between the end of the war and February 1947 St Angelo was home to No. 272 Maintenance Unit RAF and served as a storage and dismantling depot for mothballed Avro Ansons prior to their eventual sale or disposal.

Use by the army

The station later became a centre of helicopter operations over Northern Ireland when St Angelo was transferred to the Army and used as an accommodation barracks for the Ulster Defence Regiment and other British Army regiments during The Troubles in the province, with most personnel housed in a vast array of temporary portacabins.

The military use of St Angelo came to a close in March 1996 when the temporary accommodation buildings were demolished, since when St Angelo airfield has been in use as a civilian facility.^[5]