Athenry News & Views Winter 2025

Winter 2025

for the Irish Government to justify releasing them without breaching neutrality. Therefore, it is quite possible the “fighter encounter” was downplayed or left unrecorded officially to avoid complicating Ireland’s careful balancing act under international law. On the day after the crash local people reported that Dr. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister for Ireland, visited the site and according to one woman who wrote “I believe Hempel and more of the ‘snakes’ were down first thing next day crawling all over the Fortress and spying out the land’. It is unlikely that he and his officials would travel to the scene of the crash, apparently looking for evidence of an altercation, unless they knew or suspected it was involved with the downing of a German Fighter. James Kemp McLaughlin the co-pilot published his wartime memories in his book, "The Mighty Eighth in WWII: A Memoir" published first in 2000 and included a chapter that told of his impromptu visit to Athenry. ‘By this time we'd been airborne for nearly ten hours, and we began to worry about fuel. Suddenly, one of the low-fuel warning lights flashed on, indicating about twenty minutes of remaining flight time. At that time he instructed me to go back and tell General Devers of our fuel shortage and of our plan to crash land the airplane. He also told me to tell Devers that we did have enough fuel to climb the airplane to five thousand feet above sea level and allow the general and his staff to parachute to the ground rather than face the risk of a crash landing. After I explained the situation to General Devers, he said, "Son, what are you going to do?" I said "Sir, I'm going to help Captain Hulings land this airplane." He said, "All right, son, we’ll do whatever you're going to do.” We circled and noted that nearly every field large enough to land an airplane on had a large post in the center. The Irish had done this to make certain that no British airplane would land without wrecking or at least incurring damage. We set up a long approach and dragged our B-17 in with full flaps, landing gear down. She settled in after we crossed the eastern fence. We both stood on the brakes as the airplane hydroplaned on the wet grass for the rest of the length of the field. The landing gear was knocked off as we hurdled the far wall fence, and the airplane came to rest on its belly in the next field. Of the seventeen people on board, none was injured. Just after we landed, I saw an Irish Home Guard soldier with a rifle running through the trees toward us, yelling in Gaelic and waving his arms. General Spaatz had given me three letters to be delivered to Gen. Ira Eaker and two others at 8th Bomber Command. Not knowing what they contained, I was alarmed that they might fall into the wrong hands. I asked General Devers what I should do with them. He said, "Eat them." I quickly and quietly consumed them without further ado. The Irish soldier could speak only Gaelic, and none

Members of the Crew of the B-17 Flying Fortress Bomber

of us could converse with him, so we began to unload our personal effects. As the local folks began gathering around, my two cases of wine and basket of fruit soon disappeared. The Irish, like the English, hadn't seen any tropical fruit since the war began. Staff Sergeant Teaford blew up the IFF (Secret Identification Equipment) so it would not be captured intact. By this time, a few Irish people began to gather around us, along with a very elegant Irish lady on whose farm we had landed. She carried a stone jug of Irish whiskey and several coffee mugs. The local parish priest accompanied her. She greeted us very cordially and insisted we have a cup of whiskey. General Devers suggested we all accept her gracious hospitality, so we each had about six to eight ounces of straight Irish whiskey. It was now noon and, not having eaten since the night before, that cup of whiskey quickly wiped away my strongest apprehensions. In fact, I couldn't hit the ground with my hat and, totally relaxed, everything suddenly became kind of funny. The priest presented me with a religious medal for good luck. Shortly the locals found some automobiles and drove us to a hotel near the town of Athenry. They immediately opened the bar and we began to have more drinks while they prepared our lunch. By the time lunch was served we were all three sheets to the wind, and after having been up all night I could hardly keep my head up as we supped on a delicious breakfast of steak and eggs. After arriving back at Bovingdon, I fully expected an investigation except for a letter of explanation that Lt. Tom Hulings wrote, nothing happened.’