B-17 rumour

[Guinness]

Guy's (especialy Tony),

I've heard a rumour that the IAC once had a B-17 bomber which landed in Ireland during WWII .

The IAC never flew it as they were short of trained pilots on this type.

I can't find anything on the net on this so maybey one of you can help me.

Sounds cool though..... B-17 with IAC roundels '>

Hope to hear,

Guinness

[Taj]

Plenty of downed allied aircraft were salvaged during WWII and some were put into service. B17's did make forced landings here but none were ever recovered and put into IAC service. Usable parts from these aircraft including engines found their way north of the border. The only american type ever salvaged here that was put into service was a Lockheed Hudson, which found it's way to Aer Lingus after the war.

[Tony Kearns]

Hi Guinness,
Taj is correct. The Hudson was a RAF Coastal Command aircraft which force landed in 1941. There were a number of B17 's which crashed, forcelanded and made emergency landings at Rineanna (Shannon Airport) and Dublin Airport. The B17's which landed at the airports were refuelled and allowed to continue their journey. The others were salvaged by the Air Corps and returned to the USAAF if and when requested. There were also a number of offshore losses of many types of USAAF aircraft and more serious a fully bombed up B17 flew across Ireland after the crew had baled out over England following engine problems.
Regards
Tony K

[Guinness]

Tony and Taj,

thanks for that!!

Tony, you mentioned that the planes were refueled and took off again.... did they do that with Luftwaffe planes as well ?

Guinness

[Taj]

"Neutral" Ireland was less neutral than you might think. Aircrew and aircraft were whenever possible returned to their rightful employers/owners.

[FiSe]

...and luftwaffe aircrew destroyed their planes as per instructions and usual practice when landed - crashed - on hostile ground.
Except one

[Tony Kearns]

Hi Guinness,
Ireland's neutrality very much favoured the Allies. In the early years there were about 35 Allied airmen interned for the reason that it was claimed that they were on operational missions, but policy as it evolved, less were interned and after 1942 no new Allied airmen were held.The USAAF aircraft were mostly on ferry flights and the other Allied landings gave as a reason that they were on ferry and or search and rescue missions (even though it was obvious the opposite was the case). All Luftwaffe and Kriegesmarine personnel were interned as all flights by the Luftwaffe were considered to be operational. As Fise states the Luftwaffe always endeavoured to destroy their aircraft. The Ju88 Night Fighter which landed at Gormanston on 5 May 1945 was defecting from Denmark and remained intact it was handed over to the Allies. Ireland's policy could best be described as pragmatic.

Tony K

[sealion]

Remember also, the Luftwaffe bombed the North wall, the Allies didn't.

[Tony Kearns]

Quote (sealion @ 03 May 2007,11:30)

Remember also, the Luftwaffe bombed the North wall, the Allies didn't.

I think you mean the North Strand, it was by off course aircraft and not deliberate. The only deliberate incident was the Campile and Ambrosetown attack in August 1940.
Tony K

[Fouga]

Quote (Tony Kearns @ 03 May 2007,11:37)

The only deliberate incident was the Campile and Ambrosetown attack in August 1940.

Can you tell us more please Tony?

[Turkey]

This might be of interest:
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/index.html
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/bombings.html

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi there
The story about the B17 in the Don was that it was stripped of all war-related goods (guns, bombsight,etc) and "donated" to the Don as a training aid, as it was more modern than anything else, in the Don.It came to a sad demise, after, it is alleged,an apprentice selected gear up and the whole lot flopped onto it's belly, narrowly avoiding crushing his classmates. It was then hauled to the dump and cut up.
Given the slowness of delivery of spares, the "windfall" aircraft kept the rest of the fleet going.
regards
GttC

[Tony Kearns]

Quote (GoneToTheCanner @ 04 May 2007,13:10)

Hi there The story about the B17 in the Don was that it was stripped of all war-related goods (guns, bombsight,etc) and "donated" to the Don as a training aid, as it was more modern than anything else, in the Don.It came to a sad demise, after, it is alleged,an apprentice selected gear up and the whole lot flopped onto it's belly, narrowly avoiding crushing his classmates. It was then hauled to the dump and cut up. Given the slowness of delivery of spares, the "windfall" aircraft kept the rest of the fleet going. regards GttC

The B17 at Baldonnel was a B17G (the model with the chin turret) the chin turret had been removed as well as all the armament and bombsight pror to its landing in Baldonnel. So what parts were used to keep the rest of the fleet going? petrol perhaps. The engines were given to UCD Engineering Dept (open to correction here).In the incident of the undercarriage retraction , it appears that an airman was standing at the forward entrance hatch looking up into the B17 when it came down and a very shaken airman now found that he was now in the aircraft!!
Tony K

[pym]

Tony, thank you once again for the photo and the information provided in this thread, the B-17G is something I never knew about.

[Tony Kearns]

You are welcome PYM.
Tony K