Crash of RAF plane at Gowlane in 1943

In 1983, forty years after the RAF Liberator plane crash at Gowlane, a group of people met at Gowlane and were led by the late Nealie Harrington to the scene of the crash. The group was organised by members of the Warplane Research Group of Ireland and on researching the site of the crash they unveiled a memorial to the members of the crew who were killed in the crash in August 1943.
The Warplane Research Group was set up to research and record all plane crashes in Ireland during World War Two. They check on the details of each plane what nationality, where, when and why they crashed. They also contact surviving relatives. One of the leaders of the organisation, Victor Sullivan, has strong local connections and is well known in Beara. His mother was Elizabeth Gill, from Clounaglaskin, Castletownbere and his father, James Sullivan, was a native of Bantry.

Victor had lectured to the Beara History Society on the organisation's work and has gathered a vast amount of information about the Beara crashes. After sixty three years, very little is left at the crash sites at Garnish and Gowlane, as following the crashes, visitors to the sites took away pieces as souvenirs.

The memorial unveiled at the site at Gowlane contains the names of the crew of the crashed plane and reads: Gowlane Beara, August 27, 1943: F.O. Robert M. Kildea; F.O. Donald W. Roberts; F.O. Clifford F. Cropper; Sgt. Geoffry L. Plume; Sgt. Walter H. Harris; F.L. Sgt. Edward B. H. Wells; F.L. Sgt. John S. Rippon. The unveiling of this plaque was the first such event to be organised by the Warplane Research Group of Ireland. "The day the plane came down" is still remembered by many people in Beara, even after the passage of sixty three years.

These two crashes in 1943 were not the first planes to crash or come down in the Beara area. In the spring of 1942, a German Heinkel 111, which was on a convoy bombing mission from its base in France, was tracked and attacked by an RAF Bristol Beaufort. In the attack, the RAF plane scored a hit on the Heinkel's engines and it had to make a ditched landing in the sea south west of the Bull Rock Lighthouse. The crew of the plane were very lucky and were able to escape by getting into their rubber dinghy just before their plane sank.

The four airmen made their way to the Bull Rock, where to the surprise of the light keeper, they landed on a Sunday evening. The keepers helped them off their dinghy and gave them food and beds for the night. The next day they contacted the shore base at Dursey South explaining what had happened and that message was transmitted to the Irish Lights Tender Nabro which was based in Castletownbere. Following receipt of the message, the Nabro, under the command of Capt. Clem Busher, left to the Bull Rock where the survivors of the plane were collected and brought back to Castletownbere.

The news had gone out about the event and a large crowd had gathered at the old wooden pier to await the arrival of the Germans. On arrival they were met by members of the Garda and the Irish Army from Bere Island, and taken to the local Garda Station at Castletownbere, where they were later that night picked up by a military escort and taken to Collins Barracks in Cork.

From there the men were taken to the internment camp at the Curragh of Kildare where they were imprisoned until the end of the war. The names of the crew of the German plane who landed on the Bull Rock were: Feldwebel Ludwig Popp; Heine Kapp, Adolf Cekers and Rudolf Ippisch. Practically all the people involved in the plane crashes in Beara are now deceased, as are the members of the Coast Watchers who were at Lookout Post No 32, at Garnish.

After the Emergency ended in 1945, there was a big march past of various army units in Cork before some of them were disbanded. At this particular parade, the orders were given in Irish, and as the units passed the saluting base they were given the order "dearchaigh ar chle" ("eyes left"), and when passed they got the order "dearchaigh ar aghaigh" ("eyes front").

There were thousands of spectators watching the parade which was led by military bands. Among the watchers were a group of women and one of them was an authority on different units of the army. She was giving her friends a commentary on the the parade, and would call out "They are the 5th Infantry Battalion" and so on.

The story goes, that in the parade there was one old sergeant, who didn't have much Irish and used to give orders in English. But when reaching the base, he gave the order "dearchaigh ar chle" but could not remember the Irish for "eyes front" so the unit kept going with their eyes turned to the left. The woman who was calling out the names of the units as they passed, was speechless.

She could not make head nor tails of the lads with the "twisted necks". "Who are dem, Maggie?" she was asked. "Come on now, you are the expert."

Then it suddenly dawned on her, and with a big smile of triumph she says, as the crowd held her breath, "Dem," she says, "are the Coast Watchers."

Before we leave the plane crashes that occurred in the Beara area during the Second World War, we must mention another plane crash, this time of an air liner which took place in August 1949 of the Clare/Galway coast. We include this crash because it too had a Beara connection, as the person who first spotted the plane in difficulties, was a Castletownbere man, Tim Harrington, who was a native of Droum South, which is an area near the town on the north shore of Berehaven Harbour.

Back in the 1920's and 30's, the men living in that area were all connected with boats and fishing, as were their neighbours across the harbour on Bere Island. All were engaged in small boat fishing for scallops, lobster and trammel net fishing. At the time Castletownbere was a base for several fleets of British steam trawlers, which came and went on a regular basis.

They were from Milford Haven, Swansea, Cardiff and Fleetwood, and whenever these vessels arrived at the entrance of the harbour, there was a mad race out to meet them by both the Droum and Bere Island fishermen as whoever got on board first would get the job of piloting them into the pier in Castletownbere and by doing so would earn ten shillings.

These British steam trawlers were also the means of many local small fishermen going 'steam trawling' as they got berths on board one of these boats, the steam trawler 'Stalberg' out of Milford Haven. While the 'Stalberg' was fishing off the south west coast on August 1949, Tim Harrington was on watch in the wheelhouse and despite the early morning darkness, he spotted a plane which appeared to be in trouble.

Tim alerted his skipper and shortly afterwards, they saw the plane come down in the sea. After alerting Valentia Radio Station, the Stalberg immediately hauled its nets and proceeded to the area of the plane crash. One can only imagine the confusion as eventually the vessel manoeuvred among the survivors, who by now were in rubber dinghys.

Soon after the news of the crash was announced by Valentia Radio, the steamer 'Lanahrone' a vessel owned by the Limerick Steam Ship Company and which was on a passage from Antwerp to Galway, she was then off Loop Head, got the message that there was a plane down in the sea not far from their course, and proceeded to the scene.

In the meantime, the pilot of the plane had informed the skipper of the Stalberg, that everybody had got out of the plane, wearing their life-jackets.

At this point the trawler had picked up 49 people and had them on board, with seven still unaccounted for. By then the Lanahrone had arrived and the skipper of the trawler suggested to her captain, that he would proceed with all haste to Galway, first stopping at Kilronan, Aran Islands to pick up a doctor as some of the survivors needed medial attention.

The 'Lanahorne' was them left to look for and pick up casualties in the water, they had to launch one of their small boats in order to do so, and soon picked up four bodies. They later picked up another three. As the weather was getting worse, the vessel towed the small boat with the bodies to Mutton island where they anchored and were able to hoist the boat on board.

It later turned out that on board that plane were Captain Edward Bessey, nine crew members and thirty eight passengers. The passengers were displaced persons flying from Rome via Shannon with final destinations Venezuela. The Aviation Safety Network give details of the plane, a Douglas C-54A-DO from Transoceanic Air Lines. It says that one crew member and seven passengers died, and that the probable cause was "The failure of the captain to exercise the proper supervision over the crew during flight planning and while en route.

This all happened fifty six years ago, and even then was not much featured in the newspapers. The role of Beara man Tim Harrington, and the crews of a trawler and a Cargo ship, in saving the lives of those people, was never really acknowledged. Tim Harrington later married and settled in Swansea where he died some years ago.

His son Stephen, who was born and worked in Swansea, on retirement returned to Castletownbere and now lives in the old family home at Droum South. Another interesting part of this story is that the steamer 'Lanahrone' was well known on Castletownbere, where she and several of her sister ships, 'Clonlara', 'Foynes', "Maigure', 'Luimneach', 'Moyally' and 'Mungret', were all regular visitors to the port in the 1920s and 30s, when engaged in shipping out copper ore from the Allihies mines to Swansea and salt mackerel to America via Liverpool.

Courtesy of The Southern Star
27 May 2006