The story of 2nd Lt Alphonsus J Thornton, and his Walrus

2 nd Lt Alphonsus J Thornton: Army Air Corps. On Jan 9th 1942, he flew an Air Corps aeroplane (Walrus No 18) from Rineanna Aerodrome (Shannon Airport today) to Cornwall without permission. He along with three others were trying to fly to Cherbourg and defect to the German Luftwaffe. They were Republicans and wished to fight the British. Their navigation skills were poor, and they landed in Cornwall. They were arrested and returned to Ireland. Thornton was tried by courtmartial and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment without hard labour.

‘… a few hardliners remained and wanted to fight against the British on the side of the Germans. One such man was Irish Air Corps pilot Alan Thornton who by late 1941 had become increasingly frustrated with his country’s position and he convinced three of his fellow servicemen to join him in defecting to the German Luftwaffe. With the promise of adventure fuelling the spirit of resistance against the British the three men agreed to follow him. On the 9th of January 1942 the four men made their move; secretly fuelling Supermarine Walrus No.18 and then quickly taking off. There was much confusion at Baldonnel (Rhynanna in the newspaper reports)as to what was happening but when it was realized that the aircraft didn’t have permission to take-off an Irish Air Corps Westland Lysander was quickly scrambled to go after them. However the defectors had got too much of a head start and the Lysander was unable to locate the lumbering Walrus as it flew south east. Thornton and his followers were aiming for Cherbourg where they intended to display their aircraft’s neutral colours to any intercepting Luftwaffe fighters in the hope this would be enough to avoid getting shot down on sight. This was an extremely dangerous thing to do as Luftwaffe pilots were well aware of the shape of the British-designed and built Supermarine Walrus aircraft that regularly operated in the channel. Knowing they couldn’t fly directly over the extremely heavily defended UK they planned to fly around the tip of Cornwall and then make a dash for the French coast. While they had passion and enthusiasm by the bucket-load it soon became apparent that they were somewhat lacking in their skills as navigators particularly over the Irish Sea where there are few landmarks to plot. They began wasting valuable fuel trying to get their bearings but with a large landmass in sight they decided to risk flying over it to try and identify just where they were. To their horror they soon found they were heading straight for Cornwall itself and no sooner had this realization come to them that they truly experienced what a country at war is like when four high speed monoplanes swooped down on them. They were another Supermarine product – Spitfires.

The high speed fighters contrasted sharply to the lumbering biplane amphibian that solemnly lowered its landing gear and touched down, its crew knowing they had failed in their attempt to join the Luftwaffe. As the aircraft was taxied off the runway it garnered a lot of fascination by the RAF personnel many of whom were unfamiliar with the orange, white and green Irish markings which led to some believing they were looking at a Dutch aircraft despite Holland having been overrun by Germany almost two years earlier.Thornton and his men gave no resistance as they were arrested by the RAF Police.

This is the actual plane that flew to Cornwall.The Supermarine Walrus L2301 is now located at Yeovilton FAA Museum in Somerset. .