Welcome to the website, I hope to provide some background into the content of this site and my reasons for putting it together.
This period in Irish history is referred to, with some under statement as, "The Emergency". This name stems from the Emergency Powers Act 1939, which was in force during the war, in Ireland.
On the crash listing, there are
about 180 incidents involving crashes and emergency landings of
foreign military aircraft in Ireland and the surrounding seas in
the 1939 to 1945 period. These have been the subject of many
books and articles and some of these formed the original basis
for the site. The information on this site concerns aircraft
landings on or around the territory of the 26 counties of
Ireland, or Eire in the Irish language, during the period 1939
to 1945 involving foreign aircraft. I have listed my sources
against each aircraft both to show these and as a reading aid
for others. Where possible, I have pointed out errors in those
sources where I have been able to determine such errors. The
work on this site is only a small part of the excellent work
that has been carried out from the 1980's onward by a number of
researchers in Ireland and abroad. I am but one other and I like
to think I have brought some new avenues to the research.
It is worth noting that the Irish Military Archives in Cathal
Brugha Barracks in Dublin has files concerning about 165
aircraft. My list contains just over 200, what makes up the
balance you may ask? I have included in this list some entries
which I believe account for errors in other sources, for example
where a published author has incorrectly associated a date with
the loss of an aircraft. Another type of entry are those that
were not recorded by the Irish Military authorities because they
were too far off shore or have been recorded incorrectly as
being in Ireland. These I have indicated in the 'Notes/Sources'
field. Where you see the following button on the main page
Click on it as it will bring you to an illustrated feature
article about the crew and the incident they were involved
in.
Alternatively, browse the pinned map on the front page (and below) to check for incidents that may have occurred near by.
Typically I will have been able to contact relatives of the crew
member or in a small few cases, one of the actual
veterans. The vast majority of what I have content on here
is relates to Allied crews, British, American, Australian,
Canadian, New Zealand, Norwegian and French personnel.
Note also for a moment the column showing the numbers of those
killed in some of these incidents. I will update this
information as I get it. Spare a thought for the memories of
these young British, German, American, Polish, Canadian, Kiwi,
Norwegian and others, whose lives were lost on or around the
Island during this time. While the remains of most of the
British airmen who lost their lives in Ireland were returned to
their home authorities and are buried in the UK where they came
from or in Northern Ireland, the remains of German airmen were
interred locally near the crash sites. After the war's end,
their remains were moved and interred in Glencree War Cemetery
in Wicklow. A small number of Allied air crew are buried in the
Republic of Ireland however and these will be mentioned in the
text. Those airmen from Canada, Australia, Poland and elsewhere
that died would not be returned to their home countries due to
the obvious difficulties of wartime transport and they lie in
cemeteries across Northern Ireland and in the United Kingdom. As
noted on the sheet itself, the totals I have come to on the list
are generated from a spreadsheet and due to the reasons above do
not accurately reflect the actual number of airmen / passengers
involved in what might be considered as 'Crashes and Emergency
Landings of aircraft of the Belligerent Nations in World War
Two'. Further more, of those who survived their visits to
Ireland, almost 60 more of these men would loose their lives
subsequently in training or operational roles during the war.
The term 'Belligerent' is used due to its being the term used
during the Emergency by the Irish authorities to denote
personnel, aircraft and ships belonging to the nations engaged
in the war
About 217 Allied personnel on 39 aircraft flew out under their
own steam, after repairs, rest or refuel. These were largely
from the established airfields at Collinstown, Rinneanna and
Baldonnel plus a number of beaches and the odd field.
About 254 allied personnel had to be brought to the border and
were not interned even temporarily after crashes or damage to
their aircraft, from about 52 crashes or landings.
And about 23 personnel evaded or landed in Northern Ireland,
from about seven landings. Two were landings where the planes
took off before any Garda, LDF or Army got to the location.
36 aircraft were destroyed in crashes that cost the lives of
206 Allied personnel. The remains of all those were not
recovered as some of the events took place in the seas off the
coast.
This doesn't include men and planes that were killed and
destroyed in the incident . Also doesn't include German numbers
In reading the 'Pilot/Crew/Pax' Column of the list the
following notes are to be taken into account:
Where a airman or passenger was killed in the incident in
Ireland, that person's name is marked with the symbol '+' to
indicate their death.
For German aircraft, it is taken that all crew members were
German though they may have been Austrian and their homes may
have ended up in areas given over to Germany's naighbours post
war.
.
For American aircraft, all members are taken to be American but
there are one or two occasions where British or Commonwealth
airmen were on board or there were passengers on the aircraft in
question. Where this occurs, a note such as 'RAF' or the persons
nationality will be noted.
For British aircraft, i.e. those listed as RAF (Royal Air
Force), FAA (Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm) and BOAC (British
Overseas Airways Corporation), it is to be assumed that all
persons are British unless they are members of a Commonwealth
armed forces. In this latter case, the abbreviation for that
force will appear after the persons name, i.e. RAAF for
Australians, RNZAF for New Zealand airmen and RCAF for
Canadians. In other case's, the airmen may have been a member of
the forces of the occupied nations, in which case this will be
noted as PolAF - Polish, RNAF, Royal Norwegian Air Force etc.
Finally, if the airman is a civilian, the nationality will be
stated where known and the letters 'Civ' included. There are a
number of cases where Canadians, as an example, were serving
members of the Royal Air Force, in this case the listing does
not identify them as being Canadian.
In addition to the above notes, the 'Pilot/Crew/Pax' column
contains the following information also where I have been able
to determine it.
-
DIS - Where an airman died in war time subsequent to the incident listed in Ireland. They may not have died 'in action' but did not survive the war. The letters DIS are to signify that they 'Died in Service' sometime after their incident in Ireland, from injuries unrelated to the incident in Ireland. The more normal means of identifying such casualties would be KIA, Killed in Action or KOAS, Killed on Active Service or the American term DNB, Died Non Battle.
-
POW - Where an airman became a Prisoner of War of one of the belligerent nations. As all German survivors were interned by the Irish authorities this refers to Allied airmen only.
-
(Int) - Indicates that the airman was Interned by the Irish authorities. (Esc) - A few examples of where interned airmen escaped from the Irish authorities.
-
(Civ) - Where the person was a civilian, mainly in the case of airmen on the RAF Ferry operations across the Atlantic or Air Transport Auxiliary.
The issue of those airmen who were interned formed much of the basis for the early interest in the wartime incidents in Ireland. Throughout the war, all German crews who landed in Ireland were interned. At the start of the war, Allied crews, mainly British and Commonwealth airmen were interned in most cases, but not always. This was most prevalent during 1940 and 1941. As the war progressed and in particular with the entry of America into the war, it became clear that if Ireland interned any serving United States personnel it would cause great embarrassment to the Irish government. From 1942 onward a process was followed where by only those airmen flying operational missions would be interned. And even this was not very strictly followed as no members of the RAF's Coastal Command patrol aircraft were interned during this later war period. A list of the Allied airmen interned during the war, and their dates of escape and release are presented below.
I hope that the notes above explain what the content of this
site is. If you have read this far!
The photo below was taken on the occasion of the wedding of
Canadian Roswell Tees in the summer of 1943.
