A Second World War plane has been dug up in the Republic of Ireland - the first time a licensed excavation of a US warplane has taken place.

The remaining parts of the P-38 Lightning aircraft were recovered near Castleblayney, County Monaghan, close to the Northern Irish border.

The aircraft crashed into a stony field on 17 December 1942, forcing its American pilot, 2nd Lt Milo E Rundall, to eject.

Image: Children from Foyle College took part in the excavation

The 22-year-old from Iowa had left Langford Lodge, an RAF base on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, not far from Belfast and Antrim, when he got lost.

He should have been returning home to his base at Londonderry Eglinton airbase, now Derry City Airport, but ended up over Irish airspace.


Surveyors from Queen's University Belfast and pupils from Foyle College in Derry and Ballybay Community College in Co Monaghan worked with officials from Monaghan County Museum to retrieve what was left of the twin-engine fighter on Saturday.

Image: The P-38 Lightning was one of the main US fighter planes used in the Second World War

The Irish Defence Force recovered most of the wreckage in 1942, but a survey using ground-penetrating radar revealed earlier this year that some parts of the aircraft were still in the ground.

After the dig, Liam Bradley, curator of Monaghan County Museum, said: "This excavation will be the final project in our three-year examination of the impact of the Second World War on our border county."

"The retrieved items will be preserved and put on display as part of our nationally acclaimed exhibition The Monaghan Spitfire - Life On The Border With A World At War, which runs in the museum until the end of 2019."

Image: A field where the remnants of a P-38 Lightning US fighter aircraft were recovered

Ireland was neutral in the war but thousands of allied personnel were based in Northern Ireland, which meant the countryside south of the border saw occasional incursions.

An earlier excavation in Monaghan in 1917 yielded a Battle of Britain Spitfire, which also came down in 1942.

2nd Lt Rundall continued his fighter pilot career, taking part in the North Africa campaign for the allies against Germany, but was shot down and taken prisoner in January 1943.

He was released at the end of the war and returned home, dying in 2006.

Image: A family photo of the US pilot, 2nd Lt Milo E Rundall, aged 22

His daughter Merryl Rundall has been told of the dig and has said she intends to visit the exhibition to see what is left of his plane.

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was remarkable for its unusual shape - with distinctive twin propellers and a central cockpit - and it was nicknamed the "fork-tailed devil".