[Marc-André Haldimann]

Thanks Freddy, for sharing your knowledge of the Udine area, and your detailed study. Ah, field archaeology at it's best;-))

Back to the Ainring hypothesis, my issue is that the general "feel" of the vegetation shown around W.Nr. 770 22x does not match the Austrian vegetation, but much more Northern Italy. Notice the conspicuous absence of all pine trees. If you can consult Jerry Crandall's publication on the JV 44 Doras, you will notice that fruit and poplar trees are not to be seen neither in the quite abundant 1945 photos of that airfield, neither in nowadays shots. Besides that, it's rather hard to find an angle for photography excluding the surrounding mountains, the more so in direction of Saalach river.

On another level, the list of aircrafts found in Ainring as written down in the Technical Intelligence report no 34 is partially published in Crandall 1999, p. 52. All told, seven Bf 109's were accounted for. The sketch plan showing the position of five of them is published in p. 48, and none is "kleine Weisse 7". Agreed, this is no hard and absolute evidence against it's presence in Ainring. Maybe Jerry can help us out here quoting what were the tactical marking of the last two Bf 109's, knowing that one was a burnt out Bf 109 G-10 which was blown or strafed before the airfield was overrun as documented by the photo of p. 62 ?

So there we are, left with our question, Freddy. In my eyes, vegetation is a good lead, and, as seen from Geneva, I would rather stick to North-East Italy...

Cheers
Marc