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Old 20th July 2012, 21:17
Pieter H Pieter H is offline
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Re: Seeking ID of Crashed French a/c Maldingen, Belgium 12.5.40

Larry, all,

Since you posted it on both boards, I copy my answer on this thread, which is indeed the better one.

To start, I think Maldingen is correct, and not Maldegem. The pictures are taken by German soldiers on May 11, and by that time they were still very far from Maldegem. Maldingen is some 10km south if St Vith in the Belgian Ardennes.

Next I think this simply involves a Battle, the only type lost in this area (and unfortunately in high numbers). Since they attacked German columns and were shot down doing so there are pictures of the crashed and burning aircraft. There are similar pictures of a crshed and burning No. 226 Sqn Battle.

The caption/text on the first picture shows 10.5 which is then corrected into 11.5. This seems logical because on 12.5 no aircraft were lost anymore this north. On the 12th all Battle actions were targeting Bouillon.
However, on May 11 two attacks took place against the roads around St Vith, which is a few km north of Maldingen in the Ardennes.
Around 11.00 a.m. four Battles of No. 218 Sqn and four from No. 88 Sqn attacked. Seven were lost, the eighth (of 88 Sqn) being written off on return.
Of these seven, six have fairly accurate crash locations, none of which is close to Maldingen. There is one lost "towards St Vith":
Battle K9325 of No. 218 Sqn, the crew of F/O Hudson, Sgt Thomson and AC1 Ellis. They succesfully escaped (by parachute). No crash location or aircraft code known.
It could be this one.

As always speculation by deduction.
Of course open to any better explanation.

Regards, Pieter
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