Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Gleeson
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.
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Every crew got a report of possible own shipping, so seeing a French one where it should not be at all, they could easily assume it was ex-Vichy and not repainted for some reason. There were worser mistakes.
On the other hand it could have well been an intentional attack, if British wanted to reduce Irish presence in the area. Use of Polish Air Force would lessen any tensions as could you imagine if those were Britons attacking Irish ship?