The Question, did the coastwatchers really see submarines off the North Mayo Corner in the early days of WW2 ?
The logbooks of the Coastwatching Service are a five-year war diary of Ireland’s involvement in the Second World War. They provide a contemporary account of the conflict that took place in Irish skies and on the margins of Irish territorial waters during the Second World War. G2 knew just how important a chain of coastal listening posts would be to building up a picture of enemy operations in the vicinity of Irish coastal waters and skies. Without regular reports from LOPs, G2 would have been blind to events around the Irish coastline.
There were 2 sightings of “submarines” from LOP63 in October 1939, which could easily have been interpreted as questionable in the early days of Coastwatching .
On the 24th September 1939, written in the logbook “submarine SW of Stags”. On the 11th October 1939, written in the logbook, “submarine sighted 1 mile off, due west, heading North, partly submerged”. However when reading the daily report summaries from G2 for Co. Mayo in the same time frame, a submarine is sighted off North Iniskeagh Island, another between Broadhaven light house and the Stags, and moving from Erris head towards Eagle Island. See text below and documents above.
It’s therefore safe to assume that what the Coastwatchers saw at this time were actual submarines (possibly German?)
Individual Coastwatchers were reporting only what they saw in their given locality, they did not have the bigger picture available to them and never knew how their collected reports were collated and interpreted by the Command Intelligence Officer and his superiors in G2. Nor did Coastwatchers necessarily know exactly what they had sighted. Training was often poor, particularly in the early stages of the war, sightings were often momentary, hindered by poor equipment, weather phenomena, and the lack of adequate information on what was being observed.
Submarines were sighted and recorded in the early entries of the LOP63 logbooks. It was thought that these could have been mistaken for upturned boats or other floating objects in the early recording of what was sighted at sea. However on looking at the G2 daily report summaries, there is confirmation that there were submarines sighted from other LOPs in the area.
16/09/1939.Co.MAYO 14.00 LOP BLACKSOD POINT - submarine off NORTH INISKEAGH ISLAND, remained for half an hour then went in a north westerly direction
19/09/1939 Co.MAYO
17/09/1939 05.35 LOP ERRIS HEAD. Sighted submarine between BROAD HAVEN LIGHT HOUSE and STAGS ISLAND
30/09/1939 Co.MAYO 13.20 LOP BLACKSOD POINT reports submarine 1 mile off ERRIS HEAD moving in towards EAGLE ISLAND. Remained on surface for 10 minutes
12/10/1939 Co.MAYO 11/10/1939 08.30 L.O.P. BENWEE HEAD reports unidentified submarine sighted 1 mile off, due west, heading North, partly submerged.
FROM THE LOP63 LOGBOOKS
LOP_63_01 page 4 24th Sept 1939 12am -6pm watch A.Garvin J.F. Burns Submarine SW of Stags 2.5 pm 24/09/39 Submarine SW Stags ?? not found in the Daily report summaries
(note Stags of Broadhaven Bay, 5 islands visible at sea to the left of the post)
