real time web analytics
Report - - Short Sunderland Crash Site - Donegal, June 2014. | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Short Sunderland Crash Site - Donegal, June 2014.

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

rich_b1982

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
On 31st January 1944 the Sunderland flying boat DW 110, 228 Squadron, Castle Archdale crashed at Bluestack Mountains near Brockagh, Co. Donegal. Seven airmen were killed. The plane was coming into land at the RAF base at Lough Erne in cloudy weather. It clipped the mountain side and crahsed spreading debris over a large area down this hillside. The republic of Ireland was officially neutral during world war 2, however a base had been set up for planes to fly missions over the atlantic.

As Europe fell to the advancing German armies in the early months of World War II, the United Kingdom became more and more isolated and increasingly dependent on the Atlantic trade route for industrial raw materials and food. Although some air cover was already provided, a gap existed in mid-Atlantic, a section which could not be reached from existing air bases. If U-boats could operate in this area without fear of air attack then Allied convoys would be at the mercy of German ‘wolf packs’.

As a result of aerial surveys carried out late in 1940 and despite a less than favourable report, construction of an RAF base began on the old Castle Archdale estate on the shores of Lough Erne with the intention of closing the gap. There was one snag. The extra 100 miles range possible from the new base would only become effective if the aircraft could fly due west over neutral Ireland. Failing an agreement, planes would have to fly north over Lough Foyle before heading for the Atlantic battleground.

While de Valera would not be coerced into joining the war, pragmatism demanded that, despite strained Anglo-Irish relations, an official blind eye be turned to what became known as the ‘Donegal corridor’, a route over south Donegal/north Leitrim/north Sligo and out to the Atlantic. This concession was subject to the provisos that flights would be at a good height and that the route over the military camp at Finner would be avoided, both of which conditions subsequently received scant attention from the British.

Aircraft of 209 and 240 squadrons operating from this station were responsible’.
The ‘nod and a wink’ policy of ‘neutral Ireland’ extended to more than just a shortcut to the Atlantic. Other concessions followed.

The establishment in June 1941 of an armed air/sea rescue trawler, the Robert Hastie, manned by eleven British personnel, at Killybegs, Co. Donegal, was shrouded in secrecy. Its purpose was to provide assistance to shipping casualties and to supply planes that had run out of fuel. The need for such a vessel was illustrated the previous April when Pilot Officer Denis Briggs, returning from a routine U-boat patrol, was forced to ditch his Saro Lerwick sea-plane in the sea off Tullan Strand, near Bundoran, when he ran out of fuel. Watching the descent of the stricken plane, Irish army observation posts shortly afterwards beheld the unusual sight of an airplane being towed to Bundoran by a passing fishing-boat and immediately reported the incident to HQ. This was a new dilemma for all involved. Local units of the Irish Army, unaware of decisions made at a higher level, proceeded on the assumption that the crew would be interned for the duration of the war and the plane impounded. Following some hasty consultation and diplomatic manoeuvring, a camouflaged airforce lorry arrived from across the border with 80 gallons of aviation fuel. The plane was made ready and took off with its crew for their home base on Lough Erne.

Cooperation between the British and Irish authorities was soon commonplace, eventually becoming so close that in some instances HQ in Athlone could inform Castle Archdale of downed planes in Irish territory before the British even knew they were missing! There were approximately 162 wartime crashes or forced landings in southern Ireland.

The link below gives an account of Sgt. Jim Gilchrist, one of the surviors of the crash. He died in February 2008.

Sgt J K Gilchrist - Sunderland DW110

Below is what a short sunderland seaplane looks like;
AM269-AR.jpg



The explore was a part of a walk I took through the mountains on a recent trip to Ireland.

Pics;

14307002769_75eed1382e_b.jpg


Hillside where the crash happened. Plane wreckeage was strewn all the way down the hill.


14306969150_84de157321_b.jpg


14306970050_b90dd899ec_b.jpg


14470509096_a7053d2b43_b.jpg


14306981630_679c5b587d_b.jpg


14470514366_8110df34c3_b.jpg


14490230021_68d8c40946_b.jpg


14492402242_86f786c0d5_b.jpg




Thanks for looking! :thumb









 
Top