[Larry Hickey]

Pieter,

I went back and reviewed my correspondence with Philippe Dufrasne about T6+LR and he says: "This Ju-87 crashed exactly at Fouron-le-comte / Fouron-saint-Martin ‘Ottegraeven’ 300M from Farm Dodemont . It was shot down by fire from the fort ‘Aubin-Neufchateau. The place is 20KM NE of Liège and 20KM WSW of Aachen, 13KM SE of Maastricht.” So we have a 7./StG2 force-landing at that location, but Philippe wasn't able to pinpoint a date, which you indicate should be May 10th. The problem, of course, is that 9./StG2 had four Ju87Bs shot down in the Maastricht area that day, but No losses were recorded to 7 Staffel that day.

Our updated EOE Luftwaffe loss list for May 10 records:

9./StG2 Junkers Ju87B-1. Lost during collision on sortie over Vroenhoven and crashed at Maastricht-Hazendans (the Netherlands). FF Fw Werner Herden and BF Gefr Helmuth Fischer both killed. Aircraft 100% write-off. (Note: one photo via Peter Taghon in the EOE photo DB).

9./StG2 Junkers Ju87B-1. Lost during collision on sortie over Vroenhoven and crashed near the Maaseik bridge, near Roosteren (the Netherlands), 2km north-west of Maastricht. BF Uffz Erich Unger killed, FF Lt Wilhelm Kaiser baled out injured – later returned. Aircraft 100% write-off.

9./StG2 Junkers Ju87B-1. Crashed in Mechelsesteenweg at Kapelle-op-den-Bos (Belgium) following possible collision due to AA-fire from ship ‘ City of London’ during attack on bridge at Kapelle-op-den-Bos 7.15 p.m. FF Fw Alfred Nitschke and BF Uffz Ernst Bröckner both killed. Aircraft 100% write-off. (Note: two photos via Peter Taghon in the EOE photo DB).

9./StG2 Junkers Ju87B-1. Crashed in Veldstraat at Kapelle-op-den-Bos following collision due to AA-fire from ship ‘ City of London’ during attack on bridge at Kapelle-op-den-Bos (Belgium) 7.15 p.m. FF Uffz Udo Gilon killed, BF Obergefr Heinrich Cechini baled out and captured unhurt. Aircraft T6+ET 100% write-off.

We have photos of the crashes/graves relating to the first and third of these crashes, but nothing can be seen of markings in the smashed wreckage. We are still seeking photos of the other two crashes from 9 Staffel that day. Since all four of these crews were either killed or baled out, there is no possibility that either of these intact 7 Staffel force landings could be confused with these 9 Staffel losses.

The loss of the 7 Staffel aircraft on May 12th, quoted in an earlier post in this thread, is the first one reported by 7 Staffel that could relate to photos of either of these 7 Staffel a/c: T6+LR and T6+FR. Peter C. assigns T6+LR to the "Gembloux" area crash on May 12th. So where does all this leave us?

Regards,