A TEMPORARY road sign in south Co Wexford on Saturday morning pointed to “Campile: Scene of 1940 German Bombing”.
A woman in the village confided to The Irish Times: "They shouldn't have said 'German'." She thought Germans living in the area or tourists might find it offensive, especially as they were "bailing us out" in Europe. She needn't have worried.
German ambassador Busso von Alvensleben was received with warmth and affection when he attended the opening of a memorial sculpture garden to commemorate the 70th anniversary of an air raid during the second World War.
Mary Ellen Kent (30), her sister Kitty (26) and Kathleen Hurley (27) died when a Luftwaffe aircraft bombed the Shelburne Agricultural Co-operative Society on August 26th, 1940.
Relatives of the three women were among a crowd of 500 people who heard the ambassador “remember and mourn” the victims and acknowledge that “the war inflicted by Germany on neighbouring Britain did not spare Ireland”.
Five survivors also attended, including Jimmy Whelan (86), who recalled working in the co-op building on the fateful day as “a 16-year-old serving my time as a harness maker”. He credits his survival to having left the canteen after lunch to go outside “to feed a few greyhound pups”.
Despite a theory that the co-op had been deliberately targeted by the Germans for allegedly supplying butter to the British army, Mr Whelan believes it “was an accident” and that the pilot had intended to target a town in Wales.
Mr von Alvensleben hoped “the memorial sculptures will recall the horrors of war and preserve the memory” of the women who had died. He was delighted that the artwork was a joint project between German sculptor Anika Untermann (19) from Aachen and Wexford sculptor Ciarán O’Brien (34).
The ambassador noted that relations between Ireland and Germany had improved “since those sad days”.
CAMPILE BOMBING NAZI GOVERNMENT EXPRESSED REGRET:
THE IRISH chargé d’affaires in Berlin raised the Campile bombing with the authorities in Berlin.
In October 1940, the then Irish Department of External Affairs issued a statement in which it noted that the German government “because of their desire to act in the spirit of their friendly relations with Ireland, are prepared to admit the possibility the bombs had been dropped by a German aircraft, the pilot of which had lost his way owing to bad visibility”.
The statement added that the German foreign office had expressed its “regret” for the incident, offered “sincere sympathy” to those who suffered and expressed its willingness to “pay compensation for the loss and damage sustained”.
It is not known if any compensation was paid by Germany but, the following year, the Dáil passed the Neutrality (War Damage to Property) Bill in 1941 and set aside State funds to pay compensation.
Eighteen claims were received from residents of Campile.
