Word: baldonnel
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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During those fretful days when two Germans and an Irishman bent over maps in the mess hall of Baldonnel Airdrome, little did they reck the possible consequences of their flight. Theirs at that moment must have been a single-tracked mind. They meant to fly from Dublin to New York; they were taking all the risks, facing the supreme danger with shining faces. They asked no man to do what they were doing...
...followed day. Impatient, fretful, the three Germans waited for clearing weather. There was nothing to do but pace the turf of Baldonnel Airdrome, inspecting and reinspecting their Junkers plane and its powerful Junkers engine. Talk in idleness led to argument. Baron von Huenefeld spoke a fiery word. Mechanic Spindler packed his bag, left, and then there were only two. No one dared ask the tight-lipped Prussian exactly...
...Germans and the Irishman were bending over maps and weather reports. Twice before that day the weather news had disappointed them. Also, word had come from Paris that Frenchmen were tuning up rival planes. The Germans decided, Fitzmaurice rushed from the room, burst into the Officers' Mess at Baldonnel. "Crack goes the whip, off go the horses, and round go the wheels at 5 o'clock!" he shouted. The report just received from the British Air Ministry said that almost ideal conditions might be expected as far as mid-Atlantic, though beyond lay possible danger...
Long before 4 o'clock on the morning of the 12th, the roads to Baldonnel were burdened with men, women, children, donkeys, cycles, motorcars. The Bremen was trundled from her hangar and poised for flight, away from a perfect dawn. Koehl and Fitzmaurice, devout Catholics, made their confessions and Father O'Riordan blessed the plane. Baron von Huenefeld, doffing his yachting cap, hung a silken flag of the old German Empire beside that of the Irish Free State. President and Mrs. William T. Cosgrave, the German Consul-General, the Chief of Staff of the Army and other officials...
...engine "rested," then Koehl gave her the gun, Fitzmaurice waved, and five tons of man, hope, and machinery lumbered down the long runway. Once they rose and bumped, but, with the ditch in sight, the Bremen took the air, swung sharply to the right to avoid the hills encircling Baldonnel, climbed to 2,000 feet. . . . Men and women fell to their knees, as their eyes followed the vanishing ship into heaven...