The New Year of 1943 was to see a change of role once again for the RAF airfield at Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, and during the week commencing January 21 Wg Cdr N.M.S. Russell of No 15 Group visited the station to discuss a proposal to operate Consolidated Liberators from there. This proposal would bring Aldergrove back into the forefront of Coastal Command operations in the Atlantic where the U-boat fleet was crippling Allied convoys. The units moving into Aldergrove would begin to change that. On February 10, Wg Cdr PA. Gilchrist DFC, the commanding officer of No 120 Sqn, and Wg Cdr L.H.C. Auys, the chief technical officer at Ballykelly, arrived at Aldergrove to discuss the move of 120 and 220 Sqns from Ballykelly to Aldergrove. Four days later the main parties of both squadrons arrived from Ballykelly and a Boeing Fortress of No 220 Sqn flew the first sortie from Aldergrove on the 15th landing at Nutts Corner on its return. In February 1943, No 86 Sqn was operating from Thorney Island with the Liberator Mk III. By February 23, the squadron was detaching aircraft to Aldergrove for operations, the Liberators returning to Thorney Island for inspections. The first No 86 Sqn sortie from Aldergrove was an anti-submarine escort flown by Sqn Ldr R.B. Fleming in Liberator Mk Ilia FL931/M.
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