Welcome to the website, here 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 tbe crash listing, there are about 180 incidents involving crashes and forced landings of aircraft in Ireland and the surrounding seas in the 1939 to 1945 period. This 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 during the period 1939 to 1945 involving foreign aircraft. I have listed my sources against each aircraft both to show my 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 onwards 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. Treat this only as a reference only, I can advise you where to clarify the data.
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 beleive account for errors in other sources, for example where I or another author have 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 to far off shore or have been recorded incorrectly as being in Ireland. These I have indicated in the 'Notes/Sources' field.
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 Cemetry in Wicklow. A small number of Allied air crew are buried in the Republic of Ireland however and these should 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 accuratly 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.
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.
For American Aircraft, all members are taken to be American but there are one or two ocasions 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 civilan, mainly in the case of airmen on the RAF Ferry operations across the Atlantic or Air Transport Auxilliary.
I hope that the notes above explain some of the ramblings of my list.