Memorandum by Joseph P. Walshe for Eamon de Valera (Dublin)
'Release of German Planes'

The German Minister called to see me today at 12 o'clock. He spoke about the German plane which, with eight members of a crew, had made a forced landing at Portroe yesterday.¹ He said that this was a training plane and he asked for the release of the crew.

I told him that we had no evidence that the plane was in effect a training plane, since the crew had blown it up after landing. Indeed the explosion was so great that it was heard fifty miles away, and I could not imagine a training plane having so much explosives aboard. We never accepted the word of the British or the Americans as to the character, operational or otherwise, of a plane. We always had to examine the plane and see for ourselves. We could not do in his case what we could not do for the British and American representatives.

I then explained to the German Minister that we could not regard any German plane coming into our territory as a training or non-operational plane. The reason was simple. The British planes were training from over 1,000 or so aerodromes every day. Nothing that we could do would prevent them overflying some part of our territory contiguous to their own. American planes coming from America to Britain naturally got lost and flew too far south on their way to Britain. But a German plane appearing on or over Irish territory was essentially an operational plane since it had come hundreds of miles right into an actively belligerent area and must therefore be ready at any moment for combat. In any case, it could not be conceived that a German plane could come into such a highly belligerent area as the waters immediately beyond our territorial area without being fully armed. Geography itself was a decisive factor in the character of the planes which overflew our territory.

The German Minister said that, though he had requested the release of the airmen on the basis that they were flying in a training plane, he did not accept the distinction that we made between operational and non-operational planes. He was simply asking for the release of the crew because we were releasing the British and the Americans.

I did not hold out any hope that his men could be released, but I feel sure he is reporting the whole matter home.

Incidentally he informed me that he had not yet met the members of the crew. On the other hand, he had spoken with Captain Mollenhauer² who had given him the information about the type of plane.