Although Irelands contribution in World War II was nil and she remained a neutral nation throughout, the war nevertheless came to us. Throughout the 6 year period of the war both Aliied and Axis aircraft regularly flew near or over our airspace. Invariably these aircraft lost and if unlucky were running low on fuel or as was also common crash landed in poor weather. One case is that of a USAF B-17 named the "T'aint a Bird", which had been flying from Marrakesh to England. She was forced to make an emergency landing just outside Clonakilty, County Cork.
I had initailly become aware of this aircrafts story through Donal Mac Carrons excellent book "Landfall Ireland". This great resource covered all the aircraft that were forced down in Ireland during the war. My partner's parents have a second house just outside Clonakilty, for a day out we were going to travel down and I said I would go and see the memorial plaque that is on a hotel (more about that later). My girl was telling her father about the memorial plaque and heof course knew all about it and what even better the field where the B-17 came down in is in view of their house.
The B-17 got pushed off course in bad weather when coming north and was lost, running low they had only minutes of fuel left when they hit the Irish coast, they were blessed because they chose the only flat area to land in the inlet they flew up. The field is called Whites Marsh. It is indeed a marsh, to either side of it are small streams and about two thirds of it are covered in reads and boggy land. Whites Marsh is cut off from the sea by a road built on a causeway. When they made there landing they were taken to Donovans Hotel in Clonakilty along with their mascot, which was a Brazilian spider monkey called Tojo. The crew was interned in the Hotel for 3 days, I don't know where they spent the remainder of their time, they may have been moved to the Curragh, or even Collins barracks Cork. Unfortunatelt Tojo died and is buried in the grounds of the hotel.
The army field engineers constructed a temporary runway in the meantime for the interned aircraft to continue its passage to England. Two weeks later T'aint a Bird and its crew departed.
When I went down I found the field no problem, as the aircraft came from seaward it was a good bet that she would have taken off in that direction also. So I done my looking for signs of the runway on the causway. It was pretty easy to distinguish, it stands out as the only flat long section of grass there, no reads growing on it and very straight. Walking around the field to see roughly were the runway ended I could make a rough guess to the length of it by using an ordnance survey map. I could also get the approximate direction that it lay. A drive around around the field and also looking into old hedges and so on didn't turn up any sign of the marston metal planking that was left behind.
I'll start off with a photos of the aircraft itsself while it was in Whites Marsh. The engines and canopy were covered over to give some protection from the miserable Irish rain.
I had initailly become aware of this aircrafts story through Donal Mac Carrons excellent book "Landfall Ireland". This great resource covered all the aircraft that were forced down in Ireland during the war. My partner's parents have a second house just outside Clonakilty, for a day out we were going to travel down and I said I would go and see the memorial plaque that is on a hotel (more about that later). My girl was telling her father about the memorial plaque and heof course knew all about it and what even better the field where the B-17 came down in is in view of their house.
The B-17 got pushed off course in bad weather when coming north and was lost, running low they had only minutes of fuel left when they hit the Irish coast, they were blessed because they chose the only flat area to land in the inlet they flew up. The field is called Whites Marsh. It is indeed a marsh, to either side of it are small streams and about two thirds of it are covered in reads and boggy land. Whites Marsh is cut off from the sea by a road built on a causeway. When they made there landing they were taken to Donovans Hotel in Clonakilty along with their mascot, which was a Brazilian spider monkey called Tojo. The crew was interned in the Hotel for 3 days, I don't know where they spent the remainder of their time, they may have been moved to the Curragh, or even Collins barracks Cork. Unfortunatelt Tojo died and is buried in the grounds of the hotel.
The army field engineers constructed a temporary runway in the meantime for the interned aircraft to continue its passage to England. Two weeks later T'aint a Bird and its crew departed.
When I went down I found the field no problem, as the aircraft came from seaward it was a good bet that she would have taken off in that direction also. So I done my looking for signs of the runway on the causway. It was pretty easy to distinguish, it stands out as the only flat long section of grass there, no reads growing on it and very straight. Walking around the field to see roughly were the runway ended I could make a rough guess to the length of it by using an ordnance survey map. I could also get the approximate direction that it lay. A drive around around the field and also looking into old hedges and so on didn't turn up any sign of the marston metal planking that was left behind.
I'll start off with a photos of the aircraft itsself while it was in Whites Marsh. The engines and canopy were covered over to give some protection from the miserable Irish rain.
Comment