Remembering when the German Luftwaffe bombed the the Wexford village of Campile.
The peace of the small County Wexford village of Campile was shattered on 26 August 1940, when a lone German bomber appeared without warning and dropped four bombs on the Shelburne Co-op which employed approximately one hundred and fifty people.
Teddy Drought was fifteen years old at the time and working at the Co-op. He saw the bomber approach from where he was seated on a wall with a friend, and was lucky to escape with his life,
We didn't know at that time it was a bomb, came down through the roof and alongside the two of us.
Three young local women lost their lives in that day. Sisters Mary Ellen and Catherine Kent and their colleague Kathleen Hurley were at work in the Co-op's restaurant when the three bombs fell, reducing almost all of the creamery complex to rubble.
Greater loss of life was narrowly avoided, as most workers had already finished their midday meal and had left the restaurant when the bombs were dropped. Even so, many on site received injuries. The fourth bomb landed and exploded in a field nearby.
Many theories have been put forward as to why Campile in neutral Ireland was targeted by the Nazis, the most credible being that the pilot was lost and believed that he was over Wales.
Following the tragedy precautions were taken in the creamery for the remainder of the Emergency, says area manager of Waterford Co-Operative Tom Connery. A siren would sound at the creamery whenever any plane flew overhead, and the memory of the bombing remained in the minds of the locals,
People used to be awake at night wondering if it was them again.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 24 August 1990. The reporter is Michael Ryan.
