We’ve decided to ‘conjoin’ Moore Marines blog with Moore Groups blog from today. So we’ll be transferring posts over the coming days, starting with:
Lough Cummeennapeasta
On the 17th December 1943, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, 43-30719 crashed into Knocknapeasta mountain 700m up the MacGillacuddy Reek Mountain range in County Kerry whilst en route from North Africa to England. On Board were 2nd Lt. J.L. Scharf, 2nd Lt. L.E. Goodin, 2nd Lt. F.V. Brossard, S. Sct. W.T. Holstlaw and Sct. A.A. Schwartz. The plane appears to have become lost during a storm and crashed into the mountain with the loss of all five crew members.
Legend had it that various portions of the plane were to be found in a small mountaintop lake at Cummeennapeasta. Recently Eoghan and Jamie from Moore Marine visited the crash site. They hiked on foot the 6km to the crash site. Having discovered the wreck site, they then dived the lake.
The dives recorded that the only fragment of the plane in the lake was a portion of the planes right wing. The wing was badly damaged but still in a good state of repair, with a clearly distinguishable five pointed USAAF white star. Investigation of the nearby area revealed that portions of one of the planes engines was still to be found on the northern side of the mountain.
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