8th A.A. Regiment in Training - Roll Call Parade of 23rd Battery at Dunmore Park, Belfast
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The Northern Whig, September 8th, 1939
Ulstermen in Camp 1939 (Jim Lennon X)
Another picture of Ulstermen in Camp - The goat is a great ? with the Troops
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Pack up your troubles..... Royal Artillery Men, leaving to complete their training, smilingly, acclaim the Duke of Abercorn at a Railway Station

Belfast Telegraph Friday, October 12, 1945
The 8th (Belfast) Heavy A.A. Regiment leaving the LMS Station, Belfast, for Coventry.

The Northern Whig, September 8th, 1939
Ulstermen in Camp, The Dancer (Jim Lennon X)
The Dancer - A gunner of the R.A. (stationed somewhere in Ulster,_ who is an accomplished eccentric dancer, provides a little diversion for the troops during "stand-easy,"
and (right) some of the staff at the same camp.
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The Northern Whig (1939?)
A camp with a Battery of the Ulster S.R. Royal Artillery - This photograph, taken just before dinner-time, shows a very happy and contented community.
The Camp Kitchen - Stewed prunes and custard happened to be on the menu when the photographer called (much to his surprise, as in the first war biscuits and "bully" seemed to be the mainstay).
The Advance of the Orderlies when "Come to the cookhouse door" sounds in an Ulster Camp.
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Spectator Newspaper, Bangor, 4th July 1996

       Mr. James Lennon, whose father-in-law and uncle both fought at the Somme in 1916, saw battle there himself in 1940 as a member of the Royal Artillery. The French Government awarded Mr. Lennon a Somme medal exactly 50 years later to the day.

A family campaign

       For the Lennon family of Bangor, the Somme commands a special significance. Two generations of the family fought there, in both the First and Second World Wars.
Mr. James Lennon holds the Somme Medal, awarded to him by the French government for his service during the 1940 battle there. But the former Royal Artillery soldier, who served in the 8th Belfast Heavy Ack-Ack in the Second World War, is in no doubt as to which of the Somme battles was the most punishing.
       "There is no comparison with the 1914-1918 war," he says. "They were poisoned by gas, lived in trenches........it went on for months."
       On Sunday, Mr. Lennon, father of North Down councillor Austen Lennon, wore his own Somme medal as he attended a service at Bangor cenotaph to mark the 80th anniversary of the original Somme in which thousands fought - among them his own forebears. It was whilst fighting at the Somme that his father-in-law, Julius Kinghan (Keenan) Wylie, was promoted from sergeant to 2nd Lieutenant in the field, in the race to replace the huge numbers of officers killed or wounded in action. Miraculously he survived The Great War, despite injury and being captured, only to escape and return directly to the battle lines. Infantry relied on more than their wits and training - fate and superstition too featured greatly.
        Mr(s). Lennon recalls; "There was a superstition that if you used your matches to light the cigarettes of three people, a sniper would get you. My father had a special silver matchbox he got when he was over there which had two compartments, one which carried the matches and the other which was empty. So id a soldier asked for the third time for a light for his cigarette, my grandfather (father) would show him the empty compartment to get out of lighting it." explains Mr(s). Lennon.
       An uncle of Mr. Jim Lennon's also fought in the Somme - and paid for it with his life 20 years later after finally succumbing to the effects of gas poisoning suffered which in the trenches. Hopefully, the Lennon family's military history could be brought to a wider audience. The Ulster Museum has expressed an interest in exhibiting the family's extensive collection of regimental memorabilia - among it First World War relics such as Ulster Volunteer Force armbands and an official UVF car badge.

Not a girl to trifle with: Dora, the largest gun in World War II, shows off the size of her punch.
Roll out the mighty barrel
It's statistics are staggering. It could hurl a seven-ton concrete-busting shell 23 miles or a 4.75-ton high explosive shell up to 29 miles. The gun was mounted on a gigantic double railway trolley which occupied parallel lines of reinforced track, laid in a curve for the gun to be aimed. The whole assembly weighed 1,328 tons. The gun travelled in pieces and took three weeks to be assembled by a crew of 1,420 men. But weapons of this size were terribly vulnerable to attack from the air, and all three 'Dora' guns seem to have been destroyed by Allied bombing in Germany late in the war. Nothing tangible of them was ever found beyond a few rounds of ammunition.

Tale of French Treachery   by Philip Kerr
The French behaved disgracefully during the Second World War and it continues to astonish many, myself included, that France was allowed to pose as one of the four victorious powers after the defeat of Germany. What most people fail to realise is that the Germans needed a force of a little more than 3,000 men - half the size of the Paris police force - to garrison the whole of France during the Occupation. The reality of the situation was that most Frenchmen were willing collaborationists and enthusiastic racists. Petain's regime introduced anti-Jewish regulations in France without any prompting from the Germans. Resistance to the Occupation was small and piecemeal and, where it was most efficient, largely Communist. Yet even the French Communist Party, confused by the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, had toed the party line and joined the Vichy government. It wasn't until 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, that Communist resistance got going. They were just as likely to kill members of other resistance groups - Gaullists, for example - as they were to kill Germans. It seems almost unthinkable to us, 50 years after, but this was the reality of Nazi France. Let's call a spade a spade: France was just as much a Nazi country as Austria was.

my father wrote on this clipping...

The 8th (Belfast) during this siege sustained 36 Casualties including 13 dead.

Awards
L/Bdr. H. Mills - Military Medal
Sgt. Wm. Adrain - Military Medal
Lt. H. G. Bing - Military Cross
Capt. R. H. Reade - Military Cross
Lt. Col. J. G. Cunningham - O.B.E.

FIGHTING IN ARAKAN AREA
8th Belfast Heavy A.A. Regiment

by a Military Correspondent

   Once again in the back areas enjoying a well-earned rest are men of the Belfast Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, first unit of its kind to cross the Brahmaputra into the Arakan operational area in October 1942.  With Lieutenant-Colonel F. Dearden as Commanding Officer, their first role was airfield defence, and three batteries being sited in forward areas in East Bengal.  It was a period of considerable activity during which the Japanese were able to send over fairly large groups of raiders, of which the regiment took a good toll.
     In March, 1943, Colonel Dearden, who had received a Brigade appointment, was succeeded by Lieut.-Colonel J. W. P. Saunders, but he was wounded before taking over his command, and after some months in hospital was invalided home.  The present Commanding Officer, who took over on April 17, 1943, is Lieut.-Colonel J. G. Cunningham, son of the Rt. Hon. Samuel Cunningham, of Belfast.
     By September, 1943, the regiment were in new positions at Tambru, Ramu and Bawli, while in January, 1944, one battery moved forward in support of the 15th Indian Division, and a little later, another was detailed to support the 7th Indian Division.
     The crossing of the famous Ngakyadauk Pass by one troop of the latter battery without loss or damage to either matadors or guns has been described as "brilliant driving."  The newly opened road was a nightmare to drivers, being marked by dangerous gradients with sheer drops awaiting the slightest show of unskilled driving or want of care.
     The day after their crossing, the Pass was cut by the Japanese, and the troop played a part in holding the 7th Indian Division's famous "administrative box."  In addition to dealing with Japanese raiders who frequently flew over, they were called on to engage ground targets at varying ranges.  They wrought havoc among the Japanese when firing over open sights at a range of 650 yards on "Artillery Hill."  The troop was bombed, shelled, and mortared; two guns were temporarily disabled, but the two remaining played a great part in clearing the "box" of the Japanese who had overrun it.
     It was during these hectic days that L/Bdr. H. Mills, of 21 Matlock Street, Belfast, gained the immediate award of the M.M.  In spite of his wounds he struggled to beat out the flames which at one time encircled the ammunition supply on the site.  He refused attention until he had got the fire under control, even though cordite was already exploding.
     When the Japanese were completely smashed and the Pass was reopened, the contribution of this troop was spoken of very highly by senior officers in the Division.  About 40% of the original 1939 personnel are still with the regiment. Prominent among them is R.S.M. A. E. D. Simmonds, who was sent to Belfast in April, 1939, to help to raise the regiment.  He now has 28 years' Army service to his credit, 25 of them being with the Royal Artillery.
     The regiment has several well known sportsmen among its personnel, including Captain H. R. McKibben, 38 North Circular Road, Belfast, (Irish Rugby International); Captain H. J. Porter, Garryowen, Ben Madigan, Belfast (Irish Swimming champion) and Major H. M. Gabbey, King's Road, Knock, Belfast (Irish bridge international and radio commentator on bridge competitions).
     Most of the men come from Belfast, among them being Captain R. C. C. Kinahan, Fairways, Newtownbreda (adjutant); Captain J. M. Patterson, 27 Strathmore Place; L/Bdr. H. J. Mawhinney, 20 The Mount; Sergeant W. Adrain, 86 Hesketh Park; and Driver J. Wilson, 3 Esther Street, Alexandra park Avenue.  Others are Gunner W. W. Finlay, Mount Erin, Millisle, Co. Down, and Captain R. H. Reade, Carncairn, Broughshane, Co. Antrim.