The-Military-Archives-IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_012_A.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Interviewer:
But there's a different theory. There's a different story about the factory bombing and the Belfast bombing. Yeah.
Tony Kearns:
Yeah, well, the bombing of Belfast was deliberate. And that was by the Pathfinders. Marked the bomb, marked the area. Now I should, I should say in relation to the bombing of Dublin. One of the units, the first of the units that was ever formed as the as the Pathfinder. Now, the Germans never didn't call them pathfinders. They called them Firelighters, which they which was what they were, but it was called a Kampfgruppe of Kampfgruppe 100. Kgr 100 for short. And they, they had the special X system, and they, they were the first of the Pathfinder units, but they were not operating that night because they were heavily involved in trying to protect the Bismarck, which the Royal Navy had succeeded in locating in the Atlantic and JGR 100 were because they were specialist navigators. They were out trying to protect and attack the the Royal Naval Ship, the battleships and and destroyers, and so they were not operating that night .
Interviewer:
Of the Dublin bombing.
Tony Kearns:
Of the Dublin bombing. So I mean, that proves again that the Y system was not operating at the X system and also the the other the only targeted bombing episode in, in, in the history of the emergency was the bombing of Campile.
Interviewer:
This is south of the border.
Tony Kearns:
This is in Wexford.
Interviewer:
Yeah. It's the only one in the south of the border. Yeah.
Tony Kearns:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And this was deliberately targeted because there was a co-op factory there, and they believed that supplies were being delivered from Campile on the Rosslare to Waterford railway line. Okay. Now, two aircraft were deployed to carry out this this attack. And the two aircraft were Heinkel one elevens. And they were identified by the lookout post at Carnsore. Now these these were very highly qualified personnel in the lookout post because they were the ones who were seeing probably most of the the by far the largest number of German aircraft in, in the area because they were attacking shipping in the George's Channel and they were identifying these and are very good at identifying aircraft. And they identified these two Heinkel one elevens. Now, I have never been able to establish the unit that they came from, but I believe it was probably one of the coastal units operating from France. And when the two Heinkels crossed over cancer, they were in formation. And then shortly after, one of them detached from the formation and went straight on for they, they, they factory to go up factory. And the other one went to Duncormick, where there is a viaduct on the railway line, and he dropped bombs but missed the viaduct, but they did explode nearby and caused a little bit of damage, but the other one went on to the factory and dropped a couple of bombs in there, causing extensive damage and killing one of the employees. Okay, now two things about this that makes it clearly deliberate was the timing. They timed the bombing of the factory, knowing that the staff would be out having their lunch and wouldn't be in the factory. And. The other thing was the type of explosives used. The one that bombed the viaduct had impact bombs. In other words, as soon as they hit them, they exploded. Whereas the ones that bombed the factory had delayed fuses.
Interviewer:
So it was time for that.
Tony Kearns:
So they were timed.
Interviewer:
So they go off.
Tony Kearns:
So Go.
Interviewer:
Off. More damage. More people. Sorry. Yeah.
Tony Kearns:
And so that people would know that the bombs were in there, hadn't they? Exploded and they could stay out. Okay. Now, the other aspect is people have said that they thought it was Wales. They couldn't have thought it was Wales because the weather was perfect, the visibility was perfect. And the late captain, he was lieutenant, then Andy Woods, who was detailed to take off in a Gloster Gladiator after the bombing and fly down the coast.
Interviewer:
This is an aircore pilot.
Tony Kearns:
This was an aircore pilot in a Gloster Gladiator. He flew down and he reported back that visibility was 75 miles. And he could clearly see the coast of Wales. So there's no. Yeah, there's no excuse.
Interviewer:
Okay. Pretty interesting.
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