Billeted in Mourne Park from 1942 until D Day in 1945.
A camp was built in Mourne Park to accommodate American soldiers of the 5th Airborne Division. Their officers were billeted in the house, and other cottages
The men slept in Nissen huts constructed in Stony Park. Their Officers’ Mess was in Lord Kilmorey’s new study (he was much in Belfast during the war, having unusually transferred from the Army to the Navy, and having been appointed vice-admiral of Ulster).
After building the air-strip at Cranfield, the Americans departed to take part in the D-Day invasion. They have left behind many traces of their time including the concrete roads, concrete foundations and spotlight cables on the top of the mountain.
There was a prisoner of war camp at the foot of the mountain; shooting range; checkpoints and a kitchen built for feeding the troops.
As D Day approached and the camp was hastily packed up, many local girls sat all along the estate wall so that they could wave farewell to the soldiers.
