Peat bog spits out Spitfire 70 years after crash

THE wreckage of a Spitfire aircraft including its Rolls Royce engine was dug from a peat bog yesterday 70 years after it crashed in neutral Irish territory during the Second World War.

The operation at Moneydarragh, Co Donegal, was the latest chapter in the story of American pilot, Roland “Bud” Wolfe, who parachuted from the fighter plane into a diplomatic row between Britain and Ireland.

The 23-year old, a member of 133 Eagle Squadron, was on convoy when the engine overheated eight miles from his RAF base at Eglinton — now City of Derry Airport. Realising it would crash, he radioed back to base with a last message: “I’m going over the side.”