Bell Airacobra, Ballysop, Co. Wexford, February 1943

An Irish Army intelligence branch memo dated 6 February 1943, summarizes the events of the preceding day which found an American fighter plane land in a field near Campile town.  This memo was for distribution to the Minister for Defence, the Army Chief of Staff and his assistant, the secretary's of the Departments of External Affairs and of Defence and the officer Commanding, Air Corps.

Previous Movements of aircraft: An American aircraft first observed by L.O.P. Forlorn Point at 12.39 hrs. on 5th February, 1943, one mile N.E. moving N.W. was subsequently observed by Garda Passage East over post moving S.S.W. to L.O.P. Brownstown where it was observed 1/2 mile S. moving E.  It was later observed by military Dunmore East over post moving N.E. to Waterford where it was observed 1/2 mile W. moving S.E. to Campile where it was last observed over post moving N.E.

Place and Time of landing:  The aircraft landed in a field 3 miles north of Campile, Co. Wexford, at 14.00 hrs. on 5/2/43.

Nationality and type of aircraft involved:  An American Aira-Cobra Single-engined Fighter aircraft.  No. on Rudder 24518.

Particulars of Crew: The pilot, who was the only occupant, was uninjured.  Name: 2/Lieut. Charles M. Kirschen*, U.S. Air Force.  No. O885369.

Condition of aircraft: The undercarriage and propeller of the aircraft are damaged.

Armament: The aircraft was armed with 6 M.Gs., 1 Cannon and some ammunition.

Cause of landing:  Loss of bearings and wireless trouble.

Mission: The pilot states he was on an operational** flight from the south of England.

* 2/Lt Kirschner's name is spelled incorrectly in a number of the Army report pages.
** The word operational is underlined on one copy of this memo in the file.  A follow on document, dated the 19th February 1943, from the same source and to the same distribution list recorded that following interrogation of the pilot, and investigation of the aircraft, is was determined that he was not on an operational flight at the time of the crash.

The following photo of the crashed aircraft was found locally by researcher Sean Egan.  It had been used on a local football club calendar.  In the photo one can see on the tail the numbers 245 and traces of the 18.  USAAF aircraft carried their serial numbers in an abbreviated format, with leadingdigit of the year and the dash left off, hence 42-4518 would be displayed as 24518.  A number of bystanders are clearly visible in the background.

 

Lt J Ryan of the Irish Air Corps Workshops branch attended at to the aircraft with a salvage party and provided a 10 page report on in observances and actions.  He described the scene as: It had landed with the undercarriage retracted and must have stalled before touching down as it appeared to have traveled only about 30 feet before coming to rest.  The underside of the fuselage was torn and dinged from the center section aft to the rudder.  The starboard wing tip was crumpled while the aftermost spar of the port wing appeared to be badly bent and the skin on the upper side of the wing was bulged.

The Irish Army file contains a typed copy of a receipt dated 5th February 1943 listing the property found in the plane and is signed in person by 2nd Lt Kirschner.

Salvage operations by an Irish Air Corps team took place between the 8th and 12th February.  Irish Army officers reported that a considerable amount of damage was caused to the aircraft after its arrival in Wexford, and while it was under guard by Irish military personnel.

Lt John Ryan of the Irish Air Corps, Workshops Branch, filed two long handwritten accounts of the salvage and later, journey of the dismantled Airacobra from Wexford to Baldonnel aerodrome outside Dublin and onwards to the border with Northern Ireland. 

When I arrived at the aircraft it was under careful military guard with an officer in charge. The pilot had retained the keys of the aircraft and without these it was impossible to gain access to the cockpit. About half an hour later the American Air attache, Col. Hathaway, accompanied by the pilot, Lt Kirschner, and escorted by an officer from G2 branch arrived on the scene. Colonel Hathaway took me apart and requested that the pilot should be allowed to go aboard the plane and explode the detonator fixed in his special radio set which was mounted under a perspex hood behind the cockpit.  He explained that the pilot would get into serious trouble if this were not done as he should have destroyed the set immediately he landed. I told Col. Hathaway that we had often salvaged similar sets intact before now and that it would doubtless be returned to him untouched.  He stated that if the set were returned to him he would explode it himself.  In view of this statement and as I knew that our Signal Corps had no necessity to acquire such a set I cleared away the bystanders and allowed the pilot aboard.  He exploded the detonator and destroyed the set, the perspex hood at the back of the cockpit being broken by the explosion.
Under my supervision the pilot then removed all his personal gear from the plane and had them removed to the car in which he came.  He left an ammunition container full of cigarettes, chocolate and tinned commodities for distribution amongst the military present.  The distribution of these was attended to by an officer of the guard.  The pilot handed over the keys of the plane before he departed.
After this party had left I examined the plane for armament.  On opening the cowlings in the nose I found that there was a round of 37 mm shell in the breach of the cannon, thirteen rounds on the ammunition belt and one round loose in the bottom of the compartment.  As the gun was clean and showed no signs of having been fired; as the belt should have contained thirty rounds and as it appeared impossible for the loose round to fall out with the cowlings in position I suspect that someone had opened up this compartment before me. I could obtain no confirmation of this from any member of the guard.
The two 0.5 in machine guns were not loaded but each had a full box of ammunition which I removed.  I unloaded the cannon and removed all the remaining 15 rounds of 37mm shell.  The wings guns had no ammunition and as they were easily removable I detached all four.

When he returned to the aircraft the following morning, he found that the doors and canopy had all suffered some degree of damage and that the cockpit had been entered and various instruments and items taken.  The team set to and built a jig which they used to raise the aircraft from the field.  They then lowered its landing gear and set it back down.  That evening of the 7th February a gale blew in across the site with a torrential downpour of rain.  The aircraft was dismantled over the following days with loose equipment being sent to Baldonnel.

Early in their journey, one of the low loaders knocked over a cyclist, and an hours delay was incurred with dealing this man, who thankfully was not injured.  He was given a lift to Parkgate Street in the city with his damaged bicycle.  Near Bray one of the low loaders ran out of petrol.  In order to avoid bridges with the tall load, it was necessary to drive into St. Stephens Green in the heart of Dublin city before heading onto Baldonnell on the 12th of February.  It had taken a team of one officer, two NCO's and twelve enlisted men five days to salvage the aircraft.

The convoy carried on to Drogheda on the where Lt. Ryan put a call through to F/Lt Moore, the RAF liaison officer.

As a final Irish Army activity on this aircraft, the file of papers in the military archives records that the Army Quartermasters branch officially wrote to the Air Corps allowing them to write off a pair of gloves that had been lost during the salvage operation, such was the level of accounting at that time and probably reflective of the sparsity of even basic equipment in the defense forces.

The pilot of the aircraft was Charles Melvin Kirschner.  Charles was born in mid December 1915 in St Joseph, Missouri to Joseph and Laura Lucetta Kirschner.  He attended Benton High School in the city where he is recorded in the 1933 school year book with the following personnel quote:  "A quiet nature is often deep". 

St Joseph newspapers included him in mentions of the number of pupil pilots undertaking training at the local airport, Rosecrans Field, in 1937, culminating in him undertaking his first solo flight in January of that year.

He took a job with the Continental Bakery Company and was employed with them at the time he registered for the draft in 1940.  By late 1941, his local papers were reporting on his departure to Glendale California to undertake flight training for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In February 1942, the papers recorded his having completed flying training in the US for the Canadian forces and that he was visiting his parents on leave

The portrait photo at left is from a newspaper article in December 1942:  Charles M. Kirschner was with the R. A. F. in England when this picture was taker.  Word has been received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Kirschner, rural route No. 6, that in October he was transferred to the United States air force in England as a lieutenant. He left St. Joseph to begin training with the English at a field in California a year ago and in March arrived in England. He is 27 years old.

After the entry of of the United States into the war in 1941, Charles transferred from the RCAF to the USAAF and by November 1942 at least was flying with the 350th Fighter Group's, 346th Fighter Squadron when he collided on the runway of RAF Coltishall with an RCAF Beaufighter while flying a Spitfire fighter.

In 2005 the 350th Fighter Group historian Hugh Dow, via Bob Shifflet advised that:
2nd Lt. Charles M. Kirschner
346th Sq
P-39L
5 Feb. 43

Took off as part of a 5 a/c flight from Lands End, England and on 6 to 7 hr to Port Lyautey, French Morocco, over Bay of Biscay, ran into severe weather front.  Flight broke up - Kirschner tried to return to England.  Missed - ended up over Southern Ireland.  Flew around for nearly one hour.  Unable to figure out his location.  Finally belly landed near south coast.  Turned over to Allied control two days later at border with Northern Ireland.

Hugh Dow further reported:

Yes, Lt. Charles W. Kirschner, 346 Fighter Squadron, ex RCAF/RAF, did crash land on the southern part of Ireland, on 5 February 1943.  He was part of a five ship P-39 flight that took off from RAF Station Predannack, on Lands End, with destination Port Lyautey, French Morocco, following a B-25.  Out over the Bay of Biscay they ran into a severe line squall and the flight broke up while attempting to penetrate.  Two of the pilots, Lt. Duket of Hq. 350 Gp and Lt. Tedford of 345 Sq. rejoined after penetrating the front and made it to destination.  One 347 Sq. pilot, Lt. Clyde Wilson, flew east to establish his position, encountered the coast of France and turned out to sea again, before heading south.  While over Spain he decided he no longer had enough fuel to reach French Morocco and chose to crash land on a small Spanish airfield.  After a couple of months the diplomats worked out the details and he was permitted to proceed to Gibraltar, under cover, and rejoined his Squadron in Africa.  Another pilot in the flight, Lt. Henry M. Nelson, apparently got through the front and continued south towards his destination.  He was spotted by Lt. Hermann Horstmann who was patrolling over the Bay as a member of KG/40, in a fighter version of the Ju-88, looking for lone allied aircraft to intercept.  It is assumed that Nelson was still flying near the deck at maximum range cruise speed about 165 MPH when he was intercepted from behind by Horstmann and was shot down and killed.  (See Chris Goss s  Bloody Biscay  for further details) The fifth pilot in the flight, Kirschner, decided to return to England when the flight broke up in the weather front.  He found a hole to let down through over a green countryside but could not establish his position and after burning up most of his fuel crash landed in southern Ireland, not knowing till afterward that he had landed there instead of England.  He was released a couple of days later at the border with Northern Ireland. 
 
One more pilot, Capt. Robert L. English, made a precautionary landing at Lisbon on the 8th after loosing all electrical systems.  These losses, combined with the major loss of 10 345 Sq. aircraft an pilots that landed at Lisbon on 15 January 43 when they ran short of fuel after dodging frontal storms, accounted for the fourteen (out of 75 aircraft) 350th Group losses during the move during the middle of winter, by many pilots with only 20 hours in the P-39, from England to Africa.  The last flight by the Groups pilots took place on 28 February 43.

His local papers again reported in July 1943 that he was back in the United States on a 30 day period of leave and visiting his parents.  He can be found on the morning reports for the Billings General hospital, Fort Benjamin, Indiana in early August 1943, being returned to duty at Stout Field, Indiana.  he was still in the US in February 1944, visiting his parents again while preparing for a transfer to Virginia from Minneapolis. 

At some point during 1944, he was deployed overseas again.  Late in 1944, his local newspapers would publish news of his award of the Air Medal for his service.  The St. Joseph Union Observer also carried a longer article a few weeks before.

Air Medal to Kirschner, Thunderbolt Pilot
AN 8TH AIR FORCE FIGHTER STATION, England.
P-47 Thunderbolt-pilot, 1st Lt. Charles Kirschner, son of Mr. and Mrs, Joseph P. Kirschner of St. Joseph, has been awarded the Air Medal for- "meritorious achievement in sustained combat operations over Germany." Announcement of the award was made by the 356th Fighter Group commander, Lt. Col. Philip E. Tukey Jr. of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Lt. Kirschner was a pilot with the RAF from March, 1942, to May, 1943. He transferred to the U.S. Army Air Force, joining this group in September, 1944. The flyer was with the Continental Baking Company in St. Joseph before enlisting in the Royal Air Force for flying duty.

The following January 1945, the same newspaper was reporting an Oak Leaf Cluster award Air Medal.  He featured in another St. Joseph New Press article in July 1945 where he, his brother and fourteen cousins were written about as the serving grandsons of 84 year old Mrs Rosa Kirschner.  His awards are all recorded in card files in the US National Archives and all award orders appear to be issued by the 1st Air Division of the Eighth Air Force.  December 1945 would find the St. Joseph papers recording the re-union of his parents with their three children, Hildabright, Charles and Joseph Jr.  His discharge from the Air Force was announced that following January, his service finishing up at Santa Ana, California.

In 1950, he was a National Guard pilot and civilian flight instructor in St Louis.

He passed away in July 1967 in Dade County, Florida where he lived with his wife and stepson.

Compiled by Dennis Burke, 2024.