Royal Navy
H.M.S. Afridi was a Royal Navy Tribal-class destroyer during the Second World War. It came under heavy Luftwaffe attack on 3rd May 1940 in a Norwegian port.
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Signalman Vincent Cyril Price of Ballycastle, Co. Antrim died on 3rd May 1940 when the Royal Navy destroyer H.M.S. Afridi came under attack in a Norwegian port.
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Rifleman John Campbell Lackey of Wilton Street, Belfast died on 3rd May 1940 while serving with the Royal Ulster Rifles. His grave is in Belfast City Cemetery.
At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers was in Derry~Londonderry where they had been based since 1936.
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Private Wilfrid Harold John Reed married a local woman while serving with 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers based in Derry~Londonderry from 1936-1939.
R.A.F. No. 11 Operational Training Unit formed on 8th April 1940 at R.A.F. Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, England. Crews trained on Vickers Wellington bombers.
Royal Air Force
In early 1940, R.A.F. 103 Squadron was in France, deployed with the R.A.F. Advanced Air Striking Force. The squadron sustained heavy losses during this time.
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Aircraftman 2nd Class Wilfred Wright of 12 Burnbrae Avenue, Portadown, Co. Armagh served in R.A.F. 103 Squadron at his time of death on 4th January 1940.
Infantry
6th Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles, raised in 1939 was a Home Defence Battalion consisting of older men with military experience, unfit for front-line service.
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Rifleman Frank Toye of Lisburn, Co. Antrim had a long military career and was well-known in local football circles at his time of death on 29th December 1939.
Throughout the Second World War, many officers and ratings with connections to Northern Ireland served at sea as well as at shore bases with the Royal Navy.
H.M.S. Royal Oak sank on 14th October 1939 having come under attack from torpedoes fired from U-47 in an audacious attack in the "safe haven" of Scapa Flow.
