Yes Neil I did know about the airmen & women that crashed & were rescued. A lot were Americans & Canadians ferrying aircraft to the U/K. Declan is correct the Germans sunk at least 19 Irish ships during the war,there is a book about it, I think it is called the brave ships. My stepbrother during the war deserted the Irish army & went to Britain & joined the RAF, he was a navigator on Landcasters, he got shot down once but survived with bad burns. I also had two aunts that were nurses in London during the blitz & got killed without a trace, it lived with my grandma until she died @ 94 years old. I have always felt we in Ireland were neutral in name only. I also had an uncle working in Coventry throughout the war, building munitions. Mick B.