On the evening of the 13th of December 1943 an aircraft was spotted perilously close to the ground and behaving erratically as it flew on two of it’s four engines over Dromineer heading towards Killaloe. At approximately 19.35 hours it came down in Seymours field outside Monsea, near Ballycommon. 

 

This aircraft was a Focke-Wolf 200 Condor commanded by Danzig native, Oberleutnant Egon Scherret. Scherret was a seasoned pilot having previously taken part in an operation which led to the sinking of SS Duchess of York and SS California on 11/07/1943.  The Condor in prewar had been a trans Atlantic Airliner so it had a far greater range than any Allied Aircraft. It could with the addition of drop tanks fly 22 hours continously. It was the 'scourge of the Atlantic' according to British prime minster Winston Churchill.

 

The 8 man Condor crew were of the 7 Staffel of Kampfgeschwader 40 (7th Squadron of Bomber Wing 40) operating out of Bordeaux-Merignac. Their mission initially would have been to bomb any convoys they spotted in the Atlantic but later in the war, with the Allied use of catapult launched fighters from the convoys they were now merely reconnaissance, radioing convoy coordinates to the Kriegsmarine H.Q. who would then direct U-Boat Wolf packs on to the position. 

 

On this particular day the Condor had two of its four BMW Fafnir engines knocked out by Anti Aircraft fire from 53 vessel convoy ON214 out of Liverpool. Coming in off the Atlantic they would have had little choice but to head for the nearest land. Limping back to Bordeaux would not have been an option. Scattered around the coast of Ireland are Stone markers spelling out Eire for any straying aircraft. However given a dark Winters night they most likely would have been oblivious of this.

 

At 19.35 UnterOffizier Hans Meidel performed a wheels-up landing (belly-landing) having previously lit up the surrounding area with flares. After landing and securing the area and ensuring the safety of the crew, Scherret’s priority would have been the destruction of the plane and it’s code books. This C-6 variant Condor also held an earlier version of the FuG203 Kehl series missile control transmitter and Henschel 293 missiles. This is what these days we would call an earlier version of a Guided Missile.  These could not fall into Allied hands.

 

The sight of the flares in the Monsea sky and the noise of the Condor engines brought the locals out to see what was occurring. Amongst them were the Local Defence Force (LDF). Converging on the now burning plane, the Germans tried to warn the locals to keep away but language barriers meant the locals didn’t understand they were being warned of an impending explosion..…

 

….And explode it did injuring local man Jack Loughnane who was injured as he tried to peer into the cockpit. He would later lose an eye and suffer a severe head injury. Another local man, Tommy O’Meara was seriously injured in his arm from the resulting blast. Another version has "Bonn" Morrissey as one of the injured LDF. The Condor crew grabbed their med kits and rushed to administer aid to the two wounded LDF men. An ambulance later arrived to remove the injured men to Nenagh Hospital.

 

The fire and explosion roused many of the locals as they made their way by foot and bicycle to the wreck site. The fire was setting off ammunition but nevertheless an opportunity to salvage was not to be missed. Indeed one character, fresh from a day’s drinking had to be reprimanded by the Gardai as he made his way off with one of the aircrafts MG-15 machine guns. The following day, the regular army arrived from Ardnacrusha to secure the wreckage and stop any further liberation of salvage.

 

The crew surrendered themselves to the Neutral Irish Authorities. They were to spend the night in Nenagh where Kevin Bernal from Brookwatson acted as interpreter. They were fed at the Carmel Hotel in Summerhill. Afterwards they were  removed to the Curragh Belligerent Camp.  They would not be the only Condor crew. The first had arrived in August 1940 having crashed on Mount Brandon, in Dingle.

 

So what of life in an Irish internment camp?

The Curragh Belligerent camp was a luxury facility as far as Internment camps go. It was purpose built at K-Lines, away from the camp at Tintown where IRA prisoners were housed. The facilities couldn’t have been more different. Both Allied and Axis personnel were interned there with adjoining compounds surrounded by two wire fences and watch towers on each corner. A galvanised fence topped with barbed wire separated the two compounds, 'B' and 'G' so the internee's couldn't see each other. One supposes that when the camp was built, the threat of an invasion of Ireland was very real. 

 

Each incarcerated group were housed separately. They were granted daily parole privileges to nearby Newbridge, Killeen and Kildare and weekends in Dublin. Parole consisted of signing a declaration thus: 

" I hereby promise to be back in the compound at ____o'clock and, during my absence, not to take part in any activity connected with the war or prejudicial to the interests of the Irish state"

 

The internee's had good rations, access to education and an allowance which they could spend in the town. They were paid £3 per week to Officers and £2 to other ranks, the respective governments being billed by the Irish Government. Internee's were encouraged to use the allowance to buy Civilian clothing to wear while on parole. The British uniforms would have made them very obvious targets for members of the I.R.A. and likewise there were plenty of Allied supporters willing to take a shot at the Germans. Invariably both sides kept to their own establishments.

In February 1941 it was agreed by the Curragh Golf Club committee that both Belligerent Internees, Allied & German Officers, would be allowed to play golf for the subscription of 5 shillings a month. This was later changed to quarterly or half yearly subs. It is known that the British contingent used a Golf bag to smuggle in and manufacture a steel ladder which could straddle both wire fences and escape. on 09/02/1942 the British put this novel piece of D.I.Y. into use, the Germans next door got wind of it and climbed the roofs of their own huts to heckle and jeer at the would be British escapees. This of course roused the Irish guards who put a halt to the  escape attempt. They could of course walk out in daylight but then they would have been shadowed by Special Branch. I have seen mention that the guards were under orders NOT to fire on escapee's but haven't found any corroboration as yet.

 

One’s first duty as a P.O.W. is to continue a war of attrition and escape in order to cause the enemy to devote time, material and personnel in attempts to recapture. But what about neutral states, where you’re allowed out of camp anyway, with access to booze, entertainment, education, arts and female company? In reality, if the pilot landed and could take off again, he was refuelled and sent on his way and designated as a ‘lost traveller’. 

 

One chap based in Northern Ireland crashed his Eagle Squadron Spitfire at Moneydarragh in Donegal. He wound up in the Curragh but on 13th of December he signed his parole and left the camp and headed straight for his base in Derry. He was Pilot Officer 'Bud' Wolfe, an American flying with the R.A.F. During the intervening period of his capture and internment Pearl Harbour had been bombed on the 7th and no doubt influenced his desire to leave. Unfortunately his Commanding Officers in Derry had a different attitude and promptly sent him back across the border to internment in the Free State in order to maintain the status quo. Technically, Wolfe wasn't a U.S. citizen as he was flying under a British flag. However, when he escaped again in 1943 he was sent to the USAAF in the States where he saw out the remainder of the war.

 

The commander of the Monsea Condor, Oberleutnant Egon Scherret took on the Camp Commandant over parole restrictions. Everyone in the camp had access to the local dentist every Monday. Scherret had a broken bridge and wanted it repaired. The local Dentist was't allowed to do this as there were too few teeth missing so Scherret had been visiting a Dublin dentist and paying for consultations himself. Repairing the bridge necessitated an overnight stay in Dublin so Scherret applied for an overnight stay. He however had a bad record of late returns from dances and still had unsatisfactory explanations on some paroles. When his overnighter was refused he immediately went to a 'higher authority', probably the German Embassy in Dublin. He won his parole. Scherret would later move to Berlin after the war where he worked as a Dentist.

 

There was one final happy outcome related to this plane….on 08/08/1945 it was reported in the Belfast Telegraph that one of the crew members, 24 year old Karl Schwarzkopf was wed to 23 year old Ettna Rae of Italian descent who was born in Dublin. During his internment Karl had taken advantage of the opportunity to  study Chemistry and Physics. With his studies completed he found work on a farm in order to save money for his wedding. Following the wedding breakfast Karl would return alone to the Curragh as there were as yet no married quarter facilities for internee's within the camp.

 

And what of the remains of the Monsea Condor…. apart from one or two photo’s in Irish Military Archives nothing else appears to remain. A team of 17 salvagers, a crane and three low-loaders removed 7 tons of Focke Wolf Condor. Railway sleepers had to be borrowed from Nenagh Railway station to prevent the removal equipment from sinking in the quagmire from the churned up soil. The farmer would later be compensated after the state the field was left in. The opinion is that what was salvaged was divided between the already existing Aluminium Factory in Nenagh who turned the salvage into pots and pans and the Army Ordnance Corps who used the material as casings for smoke grenades. One wonders if it all went to be scrapped or if a lone BMW Fafnir 9 cylinder engine or propeller blade languishes in a barn somewhere in Monsea or Ballycommon.