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 directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

who parachuted from an

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...

plane into a

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

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 muskeg; a ...

on the

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

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, 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 state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, 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 A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

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 ( ; ga, An Currach ) is a flat open plain of almost of common land in County Kildare. This area is well known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the ...

army camp in the neutral state of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. 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 Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

, 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 in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

-based TV company 360 Productions for a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

series on military archaeology, and the Spitfire plane is preserved at the

Tower Museum The Tower Museum is a museum on local history in Derry, Northern Ireland. The museum is located in Union Hall Place, within a historic tower just inside the city walls, near the Guildhall. The museum has two permanent exhibits; ''The Story ...

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 Korean War United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War American Korean War pilots American Vietnam War pilots Diplomatic incidents

References

Further reading

External links