Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

1943-11-11, 2./JG 101, Bf 109E-7, 5145, 5 rote, Bei Argèles, Absturz. Bruch 100 %.
Flugzeugführer Gefr Riemer, Kurt, tot
Grab: Berneuil/Frankreich, Block 8, Reihe 12, Grab 301

Matti

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Hello Matti,

Still the same difficulties with french cities & places names.
- Argèles does exist as Argèles-sur-Mer but on mediterranean side far from Pau/Tarbes area.
- Argelès does exist too as Argelès-Gazost in Pau - as well in Hautacan area.

Can we suspect a wrong data/writing in original german documents or a wrong transcription?

Since date, type and unit match, we can consider that it's the one Gilles is looking for: most probably.

Cheers, Franck.

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Thank you VERY MUCH Matti, that's the one.

You are right Franck: these crazy French city names then you have three or four cities with almost the same name !

(although I remember a customer of mine spending three hours in UK in a taxi because the taxi driver took him to a remote "Farnborough" village, totally different from the airshow one..)

Anyway, this is it: Argeles Gazost is close to Lourdes where JG101 was based, so it is 99% sure this Me109 Emil is the good one.

Thanks again to both of you.

GC

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Salut Gilles,

And you know as I know that it's a difficulty even for us French! :mad:
Note: 2./JG101 was based in Pau-Ost (?) during that period; Lourdes did concern 3./JG101 following that page http://www.ww2.dk/air/jagd/jg101.html. But what was Pau-Ost? Tarbes? Ossun? A simple Airstrip....?

Regards, Franck.

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

:D...
Ooooo One more note:
Matti wrote that Gefr. Kurt Riemer grab was in Berneuil. Still - again and again - we can find at least two Berneuil; One in Picardie and the other one in Charente.

What ever the place it's strange to get his body from Argelès-Gazost to ... Berneuil, Charente one. Any explanations? Something to do with, let's say, South-West LW High command place?...

Regards, France.

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Hi Franck,

Actually sometimes after WWII, the German dead in Southern France were gathered in big war cemeteries. As a general rule, all dead of Southwest France were gathered in Berneuil and all dead of Southeast France in Dagneux, near Lyon.

Berneuil war cemetery now has 8 342 graves coming from 15 departements.

See http://www.volksbund.de/fileadmin/re...20Berneuil.pdf

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Merci Laurent!

Re: Me109 E crashed near Lourdes on 11 November 1944
 

Merci à you all.

I shall write an article about these Me109 Artifacts I discovered on site.

Have a good semaine;

GC

more French nit picking:
 

you have the Charente (Dept Number 16) and the Charente Maritime (17). These are different Departments

Berneuil is in Charente Maritime, so, I typed a mistake when I wrote "Berneuil in Charente"

I was told of my mistake today by a Charentaise (girl from there)..

Difficult to be a "mistake free" historian !

Cheers

GC