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Re: Mosquito Attack on Irish ship on 23.10.1943
Hallo Darius,
1. Unfortunately this story is true as you will have seen by now.
The Polish crews excuse of attacking a French ship is utter nonsense on their part. Vichy France ceased to exist in November 1942, a year earlier. Any French-flagged vessels in 1943 were allies of the Poles. They clearly identified it as 'French' but continued the attack for 20 minutes. All Irish merchant and fishing vessels were unarmed throughout the war, so the crew of the Kerlogue could not have fired back at the Mosquitos.
2. LCI 309.
I have no idea if the Polish aircraft were involved but it is possible. According to the monumental BRITISH AND EMPIRE WARSHIPS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR by H.T. Lenton (Greenhill Books, 1998) HMS LCI 309 was bombed by German aircraft in the Bay of Biscay on this date. It seems unlikely this happened in the Bay of Biscay for several reasons. These LCIs were not deep-water going vessels normally. Also it had no business in Biscay at that time. It could perhaps have been part of a convoy of such vessels travelling from the UK to the Mediterranean - or vice versa. I can't find anything further on it in various books.
Regards,
Martin Gleeson.
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