Roland "Bud" Wolfe (January 12, 1918 – January 28, 1994), was an American

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

who parachuted from an RAF

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the ...

plane into a

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

on the

Inishowen peninsula Inishowen () is a peninsula in the north of County Donegal in Ireland. Inishowen is the largest peninsula on the Ireland, island of Ireland. The Inishowen peninsula includes Ireland's most northerly point, Malin Head. The Grianan of Aileach, a ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, Ireland, on 30 November 1941. The incident initiated a diplomatic row between Britain and Ireland. The 23-year-old, a member of

No. 133 Squadron RAF 133 Squadron RAF was one of the famous Eagle Squadrons formed from American volunteers serving with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. History 133 Squadron was first formed in 1918 at RAF Ternhill. It was a training unit fo ...

, originally from

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, was on convoy patrol when his engine overheated, eight miles from his RAF station at Eglinton – now the

City of Derry Airport City of Derry Airport , previously known as RAF Eglinton and Londonderry Eglinton Airport, is a regional airport located northeast of Derry, Northern Ireland. It is located on the south bank of Lough Foyle, a short distance from the village ...

. Realising he would certainly crash, he radioed back to his station with a last message: "I'm going over the side." He then pushed back the Spitfire's canopy, released his safety harnesses, jumped out of the plane, and parachuted down, landing in a peat bog on Irish soil. The plane penetrated deep into the peat when it crashed. Seventy years later in 2011, historians Jonny McNee, Steve Vissard, Jeff Careless and Gareth Jones began searching for the missing Spitfire, following numerous failed attempts by others, in June 2011 they discovered the wreckage near Moneydarragh, Co Donegal with the aid of specialist detecting equipment. The team of archaeologists, also found the plane's six Browning .303 machine guns and about a thousand rounds of ammunition buried 15 feet deep. Because he joined the British war effort while the US was still neutral, he was stripped of his US citizenship. The RAF pilot was interned at the

Curragh The Curragh ( ; ) is a flat open plain in County Kildare, Ireland. This area is well known for horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is on the edge of Kildare town, beside the Japanese Gardens. Pollardstown Fen, the larges ...

army camp in the neutral state of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. On 13 December 1941, he walked out of camp, caught the train from Dublin to Belfast and was back at RAF Station Eglinton within hours. He was subsequently arrested and held for two more years while the authorities in the UK and Ireland debated how to handle his escape. In 1943 he escaped again and this time was sent to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) where he served for the rest of the war. He later served as a pilot in Korea and Vietnam, and died in Florida in 1994. He retired as a lieutenant colonel, with 12,000 flying hours logged and approximately 900 combat missions to his credit in all three wars. The dig was filmed by

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

-based TV company 360 Productions for a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

series on military archaeology, and the Spitfire plane is preserved at the Tower Museum in Derry. The machine guns recovered were found to be in relatively good condition and one was actually fired.

References

External links

Oral history interview with Barbara Wolfe Kucharczyk, 2003''4th Fighter Group WWII'' Official WWII Association Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Bud 1918 births 1994 deaths Royal Air Force officers Royal Air Force personnel of World War II United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II United States Air Force officers United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War American Korean War pilots American Vietnam War pilots Diplomatic incidents

References

Further reading

External links