Clifden remembers US Navy airmen who survived Atlantic crash

The extraordinary tale of how five US Navy airmen survived a crash landing into the sea off Ballyconneely 75 years ago will be commemorated at a ceremony attended by the newly-appointed US Ambassador to Ireland.

After re-dedicating a plaque erected by the aircraft’s pilot Lieutenant James Trudeau on the 50th anniversary of their miraculous survival, Ambassador Edward Crawford will be awarded the Freedom of Connemara.

In September 1944, Captain Jim Trudeau took off from Norfolk, Virginia, on a flight to the UK, with a crew of nine, on a heavily armed PB4Y-1 bomber named Damnyankee.

When they hit a fierce storm, he was forced to make an emergency landing. While attempting to scramble into the life raft, four of the men were lost at sea. The others spent 33 hours clinging to the tiny vessel, which capsized three times.

According to a book by Thomas Walsh published in 2008, the men were forced to bail out water with their shoes and make a sail from their clothes. A fifth man, Henry Beckwith, died from exhaustion and exposure.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.