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Despite Ireland's neutrality, there was an agreement between
the De Valera (Ireland) and Churchill (Britain)
administrations that RAF aircraft could use a forty mile corridor
above the River Erne for air traffic between the Atlantic
and the British Air Force Base at Castle Archdale, Enniskillen,
meaning that British planes flew over South-West Donegal in
the Republic, to reach Co. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.
This permission was not publicly admitted at the time, and
was known only to Officers in charge of aircraft.
A condition of the corridor’s use was
that craft had to fly high. Even in normal patrolling, the
route was not always adhered to by personnel in charge.
During the second World War , the Atlantic was regularly
patrolled by the Coastal Command of the Royal Air Force for
submarines etc.
One of these patrols, a Sunderland Mark III plane or Flying
Boat, number DW-110, attached to Squadron 228, with a crew
of twelve, set out from Pembroke Dock, Wales, at 10:46am on
the 31/1/1944.
On board were:
| Flight
Lieutenant H.C. Armstrong |
| Flight
Officer M.V. Wareing |
| Flight
Lieutenant M .L. Gillingham |
| Flight
Officer J. Trull |
| Sergeant
C. Greenwood, 1129218 |
| Flight
Sergeant F. Green, Royal Canadian Air Force, 184005 |
| Sergeant
J. Parsons, 1315937 |
| Flight
Sergeant A. Gowans, 1055929 |
| Warrant
Officer J. Richardson, 523921 |
| Sergeant
E. Copp, 614970 |
| Sergeant
C. Hobbs, 1644857 |
| Sergeant
J. Gilchrist, 1338328 (now the only known survivor) |
 DW-110
was a relatively new craft, built by Short & Harland,
Belfast; delivered in September, 1943 and taken on charge
by Squadron 228 on the 20th November 1943.
The patrol was to relieve another from the same Squadron
which was already out. The personnel of that craft reported
good weather conditions with only five-eighths cloud in the
patrol area. However, the weather conditions at Pembroke Dock
were by now bad enough to justify the diversion of that flight
to Castle Archdale, where it landed safely at 14:54pm on 31/1/1944.
The patrol area included the Bay of Biscay and off the west
coast of Ireland...and the duration could be many hours. This
particular patrol covered that area and should have terminated
at Castle Archdale, Enniskillen, after approximately thirteen
hours.
On ending its Atlantic Patrol, DW-110 was
instructed to divert to Castle Archdale on account of weather
conditions in Wales. Because this was not a regular return
route, the plane was seen, heard and generally noticed by
many people around Glenties, S-W Donegal, heading towards
the mountains. They were well off route, possibly explained
that due to bad weather, the pilot may have mistakenly flown
over Gweebara Bay instead of the more southerly Donegal Bay
- the official corridor route.
Many Glenties people heard the drone of the plane's engines
passing over (there were no lights on it), and apart from
its low altitude, there seemed to be nothing irregular in
the engine noise.
The plane cleared the first rises and continued some miles
to a place known as Leachtas before crashing.
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Seven
of the twelve crew members were killed.
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Most of the above information is taken from the book, The
World War II Aeroplane Crash in the Blue Stack Mountains,
thoroughly researched and well written by Mr Liam Briody,
The Rock, Glenties, Co. Donegal. Since serving as a Garda
Officer in Donegal Town in the 1950's, Liam has been interested
in the crash. In his own words:
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On transfer as a sergeant to Glenties in 1967, I became
responsible for policing that Sub-District (which includes
the Croaghs and the Northern side of the Blue Stack
range) and I became acquainted with people who had been
involved in the rescue and subsequent activity arising
out of the incident.
It was not, however, until researching local history
in the 1980's that I became really interested in ascertaining
details of the tragedy.
As there was no inquest and no newspapers or media
reporting of such incidents during the war, little was
known of the purpose of the flight; its destination;
its cargo; and especially its crew, which was put at
varying numbers.
Having interviewed many people including the late Sergeant
Tadhg O'Connor, who was serving in Brockagh and was
in charge of the rescue operations (but had never to
submit a written report on the matter) and after much
painstaking research of the archives in Dublin, Belfast,
Enniskillen and various centres in Britain, I eventually
identified the twelve man crew, their names, ranks and
numbers.
Liam Briody, The Rock, Glenties,
Co. Donegal
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The book is widely available throughout Donegal.
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