Spitfire down: The WWII camp where Allies and Germans mixed

Floyd Montana

Interesting insight filed by Dan Snow
An attempt to recover a Spitfire from a peat bog in Donegal will
highlight the peculiar story of the men - both British and German - who
spent much of World War II in relative comfort in neighbouring camps in
Dublin
It was an odd existence. The guards had blank rounds in their rifles,
visitors were permitted (one officer shipped his wife over), and the
internees were allowed to come and go. Fishing excursions, fox hunting,
golf and trips to the pub in the town of Naas helped pass the time.

One American..

On 13 December 1941 he walked straight out of camp and after a meal
in a hotel, which he did not pay for, he headed into nearby Dublin and
caught the train the next day to Belfast. Within hours he was back at
RAF Eglinton where he had taken off two weeks earlier in his defective
Spitfire.

He could not have expected what was to happen next. The
British government decided that, in this dark hour, it would be unwise
to upset a neutral nation.

The decision was made to send Wolfe back to The Curragh and
internment. Back in the camp, Wolfe made the best of it, joining the
fox-hunting with relish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13924720

Addickted

That was one keen Yank - I know a few of them volunteered but Pearl Harbour wasn't until 7th December.

Greenie

Great story, Dan Snow knows his stuff.

Another brilliant read is this book The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann.

Clostermann's war story is something else and arguebly the best WW2 RAF story bar none, including Baders.