Local history: B-17 bomber crash landed in north Mayo in 1944

By Tom Gillespie

SEVENTY-NINE years ago, on Saturday, January 24, 1944, the quiet of the Belmullet coastline was disturbed by the arrival of an American B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.

The aircraft was on the final stages of a very trying delivery flight from Goose Bay in Labrador to Nutts Corner, outside of Belfast.

The weather encountered from the mid-Atlantic forced them first to climb to almost 30,000 feet to avoid cloud and severe icing.

Their radio aids were unable to assist them in the poor weather with the result that on arrival in Donegal Bay the pilot was forced to turn back out towards the Atlantic as a safety measure to avoid a possible crash into high ground.

Finally, running low on fuel and having exhausted their attempts to get to a base in Northern Ireland, the captain elected to force land the aircraft in the countryside outside Belmullet.

The crew survived the crash landing and avoided a possible repeat of the previous December 9 crash of a B-17 on Mount Truskmore, Sligo, in poor weather.

The crew would live to fight another day but there would be one fatality from this incident, the death of a member of the salvage crew sent from Northern Ireland to recover the aircraft.

The following details have been compiled from the contemporary reports made out by the Irish authorities. The latter are now held in the Irish Defence Forces Military Archives in Dublin.

The B-17 was first reported to the Irish authorities at c.13.00 hours (local time) on January 24, 1944, by the Annagh Head Look-out Post (LOP) in Co. Mayo. Later, between 13.30 and 14.30 hours, it was seen circling near Annagh Head and Erris Head, before moving inland.

The crew force-landed the B-17 wheels-up in a field beside Termoncarragh Lake, three to four miles N.W. of Belmullet, at c.14.50 hours (or c.14.30 hours, actual landing time is uncertain).

The place where the landing occurred was commonage, owned by the Land Commission. Damage to the aircraft was relatively light and the crew were uninjured.

The gardaí arrived about 35 minutes after the landing. Five of the crew were taken to a hotel in Belmullet at 16.15 hours and the rest at about 19.00 hours. All were accommodated in that hotel for the night.

An army guard from the 1st Infantry Battalion arrived on the scene at c.20.00 hours, although at least one officer was there at 18.00 hours. Civilians and members of the Local Defence Force were probably first on the scene.

The crew gave as the reasons for the force-landing to the authorities bad weather conditions, that they were lost and would have run out of fuel soon afterwards.

The pilot and one of the officers from the crew were allowed return to the B-17 later that evening to ‘make some adjustments’. What these were are unclear.

The American legation in Dublin contacted the crew that night.

The following day the crew were taken back to the aircraft to retrieve their luggage, etc.

The Royal Air Force liaison officer, Flight Lieutenant Rory Moore, went with them. After a meal in Belmullet that evening at 20.00 hours they were taken northwards to the border with Northern Ireland, arriving there at 01.30 hours on January 26.

The aircraft itself was dismantled on site. Work began on January 25, 1944, and involved at first members of the Irish Air Corps.

Later personnel from the RAF in Northern Ireland came south with low-loaders to retrieve the B-17 in sections.

Three American technicians also assisted. These were probably all civilian employees of the Lockheed Overseas Corporation based at Langford Lodge in Northern Ireland; one certainly was.

However, a tragedy occurred on February 18 when one of the three died in a drowning accident. George Kroushrop was washed out to sea while photographing the nearby coast.

The final loads of aircraft parts finally left the area on March 3, 1944, for Northern Ireland.

The removal of the large Boeing bomber from the ground in Belmullet required the involvement of Irish Army technicians as well as specialist recovery personnel from American bases in Northern Ireland.

Among the personnel sent to the recovery site was a team of civilian technicians from the Lockheed Overseas Corporation. This was a subsidiary organisation which performed certain maintenance and repair services for the US government overseas. They were based in particular at Langford Lodge airfield outside Belfast.

Among the team was 34-year-old George Marshall Krouskop from Kittitas, Washington. George received mention in two of his local newspapers in 1943/44 about his wartime roles.

The Irish Army report on the salvage operation records simply that an American technician named George 'Kroushop' was swept off rocks near the crash site while on free time. He had been taking photos and was in the company of a member of the Irish army.

Records suggest that his body was never recovered from the sea, however he does have a death certificate issued by the Irish General Register Office. This followed an inquest held on September 27, 1944.

George was the son of Ernest and Blanch Krouskop. He was born in Loveland, Colorado, on June 29, 1909.

The crew of 42-97743, listed on the crash report and in Irish records was:

2/Lt. Donald G. Karr, pilot from Illinois.

2/Lt. John E. Haight, co-pilot from Illinois.

2/Lt. Joel H. Apel, navigator.

2/Lt. Richard M. Condon, bombardier from Connecticut.

S/Sgt. Kenneth M. Krise, engineer from Pennsylvania.

Sgt. Phillip Finkelstein, waist gunner from Bronx, New York.

S/Sgt. Morris J. Woodell 14188230, radio operator from North Carolina.

Sgt. Paul M. Rogers, waist gunner from Washington State.

Sgt. Charles L. Edwards, ball turret gunner from Illinois.

Sgt. Eugene H. Paprota, tail gunner from Erie, New York.

(Thanks to https://ww2irishaviation.com/krouskop.htm for details and information relating to this article).