[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

To follow up on the 40-05-09 theory, we carry this in the EOE Luft loss/casualty DB as:

"May 9, 1940: Stabsstaffel KG2 Dornier Do17Z. Wrecked in crash-landing at Homburg-Saar (Germany). Crew unhurt. Aircraft 80% damaged - write-off."

I note that Homburg is in the Saarland of Germany and very close to the French border.

For the 40-05-17 incident:

"May 17, 1940: Stabsstaffel KG2 Dornier Do17Z. Damaged in taxying accident at Ober-Olm. No crew casualties. Aircraft 50% damaged but repairable."

Both Ober-Olm and Mainz-Finthen (see Bf110 entry above) Airfields are in the Rhineland-Palatinate District of Germany. I can't account for the difference in location, subtype and damage % between our listing and the one provided by Bf 110, but neither are in the Saar and are quite far from the French border. So it would appear that if the photo caption is correct, then the May 9th incident is far more likely. The plane was apparently more severely damaged than the limited photography suggests, but by the rippling in the fuselage skin in two of the photos, I suspect that the internal structure of this a/c may have been badly bent, and hence the fact that the a/c was considered a write off do to the failure of structural integrity.

I'd very much like to nail this one down, including the W.Nr. The bid price is pretty high already so it may be difficult to win this one on eBay, but if anyone would like to go in with me on it, I'd appreciate the offer to share it. I'm currently working a/c selections for 91 different color profiles for KG2 from the 1939-40 period, and, if we can nail down the W.Nr. and the correct swastica position, this could well be one of them.

One other comment, if my understanding of the KG2 fuselage nose-band color coding is accurate, the diagonal nose band IS the unit insignia and it, and the letter "D" should be medium blue (for Gesch. Stab). If someone knows different, I'd like to hear about it. There is a KG2 Stabstaffel insignia adopted prior to the Battle of Britain, but this plane does not carry that emblem. That issue has been addressed in another fairly recent post on this Board.

One other note, the steeple in the background could tell us a rather precise location for this incident, if anyone can ID this village church (in Homburg?).

Regards,