Wexford to honour crew's heroic rescue of 168 German sailors during WWII
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A service to commemorate the 80th anniversary of one of the most dramatic rescue missions in Irish maritime history, where 168 German sailors were saved, is to take place in December.
During the rescue, a crew of 10 men carrying a cargo of oranges from Lisbon to Dublin defied Ireland’s neutrality and went to the scene of an explosion in the Bay of Biscay.
The men were travelling on the famous Wexford coaster The MV Kerlogue when they came across three German ships that had been bombed by the RAF and 700 men were left to die in the sea.
Captain Thomas Donohue and his crew spent the next 10 hours pulling 168 men from the water but unfortunately did not have enough room on their ship to save them all. Their heroic efforts made headlines around the world and the crew received medals of bravery from the Department of the Marine.
Mayor of Wexford John Hegarty said: “We do plan to mark the event on December 29 with a wreath laying ceremony on the quay in Wexford town."
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Former Mayor of Wexford, George Lawlor, who unveiled a specially designed monument in honour of the crewmen in 2015, said they should “never be forgotten”.
“This event remains quite simply the most remarkable maritime rescue in the history of the Irish nation," he said. “The selfless bravery shown by the crew of the MV Kerlogue towards the stricken German seamen was quite simply a deed that must never be forgotten or indeed its importance diminished."
The rescue only began to get the recognition it deserved in the 1990s when then-Senator Dick Roche spoke in the Seanad about his father’s role in the mission.
He said: “One of the proudest possessions I have is a decoration awarded to him and other members of the crew for rescuing German sailors in the Bay of Biscay in December 1943, when they hauled hundreds of young men from the water."
He added that his father had suffered nightmares all his life, over having to leave behind hundreds of men who died in the sea.
One of the granddaughters of German sailor, Richard Langer, whose life was saved during the rescue said he “locked himself away on December 29 every year with a bottle of alcohol and spent the day alone”.
Wiebke Hochhaus from Bochum said her grandfather kept his “miracle scarf” that he wore on the night he was rescued and placed it on family members when they were sick.
“That scarf was part of my grandfather’s uniform kit and was the only thing he had on him that night which he then brought back home," she said.
Following the rescue, the ship sailed into Cobh on New Year’s Day 1944 where the Germans were interred until they were moved to the Curragh. Many of them later settled in Ireland and married.