D-Day: The Irish postmistress’s weather report that helped Allied forces avert disaster
“Please check, please repeat.” A frantic telephone call from a woman with a cut-glass English accent took Maureen Sweeney by surprise.
A short time earlier, the Irish postmistress had filed her hourly weather report: “Force six wind and a rapidly falling barometer.”
It was her 21st birthday but she and her soon-to-be husband Ted, keepers of the Blacksod Lighthouse, had their job to do.
Their son Vincent recalls: “My mother said, ‘oh my God, were my readings wrong?'” They were not wrong, but they had caused alarm for those planning the imminent D-Day landings.
Some 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft had transported 156,000 Allied troops in readiness for the beachfront offensive at Normandy.
It was Maureen’s 21st birthday when she sent the weather report on 3 June
The scene at Omaha Beach in Normandy during the Allied invasion on D-Day. Pic: AP
But there was one thing UK, US and Canadian commanders had no control over – the weather on 5 June, the date they had earmarked for invasion.
It is small and unremarkable in appearance, but the lighthouse at Blacksod Point in County Mayo was about to claim its place in history.
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Ted and Maureen Sweeney played a critical role in the success of the D-Day landings
Situated on the western edge of Europe, flanked by a pretty fishing village, immaculate beaches and the neighbouring Achill Island, it surveys the vast Atlantic Ocean.
Vincent, who is the current lighthouse attendant, explains: “We have the first gaze into the Atlantic.
Maureen’s report persuaded officials to postpone the landings by a day
“Any weather that is coming in will come in over us.
“But this depression, with northwest winds, was coming in directly over Blacksod, down through the UK and into the Channel.
“That would have hit Normandy in about five hours, so it was critical.”
Despite Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World War, it continued to supply weather forecasts to Britain under an agreement in place since independence.
Maureen never imagined for a moment that the fate of tens of thousands of Allied troops hung on her readings.
Maureen and Ted’s son, Vincent, is the lighthouse attendant today
Her report on 3 June indicated a cold front lying halfway across Ireland and moving rapidly south-eastwards, towards Normandy.
Had the plan gone ahead, Allied troops would have faced catastrophe, trying to steer boats through rough water and scramble on to the beach in driving rain.
Maureen’s weather warning, checked and double-checked by Ted, persuaded those in charge to postpone by a day.
In the early hours of 5 June, at General Eisenhower’s morning briefing, another report from Blacksod confirmed that the cold front had passed.
A loud cheer went up in the room, the long-awaited weather clearance had arrived and he gave the order for Operation Overlord to proceed.
Maureen’s efforts were recognised with a medal by the US House of Representatives
Shortly before her death last year aged 100, Maureen recalled those three days in June 1944.
“Eisenhower was making up his mind… but when he saw the report from Blacksod, it confirmed that he was right, and he went ahead then,” she said.
It was more than a decade after D-Day, when weather forecasting arrangements changed, before Maureen and Ted learned the critical role they had played.
Vincent explained: “They had a fair idea that there might be something up because the weather went in every hour on the hour and then came the call to please check, please repeat.
“But it was 1956, when the weather station moved from Blacksod, when an official came to assist with the relocation.
Maureen discovered how key she had been to D-Day more than a decade later
“He said, ‘by the way Ted and Maureen, do you realise the significance of the weather forecasts you sent on the 3, 4 and 5 June 1944?’
“‘I can tell you now that those forecasts were the decisive factor before Operation Overlord could proceed’.”
Observations were taken at various locations by Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and United States Army and Air Force meteorologists.
But the forecast from the Irish Meteorological Service, based on readings from Blacksod on Mayo’s Mullet Peninsula, proved crucial.
A certificate praising Maureen’s efforts
Had Maureen not accurately read the signs, the D-Day campaign, the turning point of the Second World War, would almost certainly have ended in failure.
The US House of Representatives acknowledged her contribution with a medal and certificate recognising her “laudable actions” for perpetuity.
Her grandson Fergus Sweeney, a tour guide at the lighthouse, says his grandmother saved the most ambitious invasion in history from disaster.
“It would certainly be a different world today. You can imagine what would have happened to the allies had they gone during the bad weather.
Fergus believes it ‘would certainly be a different world today’ without Blacksod
“The invasion would have been a disaster… but of course, that would have changed the world we live in.
“The world we live in today is dictated by what happened at the end of the Second World War and so everything that we know now would be vastly different,” he said.
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Blacksod Lighthouse remains a vital landmark for passing seafarers and is now a refuelling station for search and rescue helicopters.
The keepers of the light here are still saving lives 80 years on.
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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