Hello,
Many thanks for details of incident on 11 January. I knew about one person killed only.
About GC 2/6 you are right. P-39 remained on strength till VE Day. But wrong type identification is a common mistake. I accept possibility it could be one engined fighter "any-type".
Some French Thunderbolts were lost or damaged on 4th February but mission flown at that day by GC 1/4 "Navarre" and GC 1/5 "Champagne" were headed in north of Switzerland. For example:
The P-47 44-20665 Sergeant Lecea was hit by flak during a mission on Bremgarten, it crashed southeast of Neuf-Breisach, the pilot was killed.
The Cdt Marin La Meslée 04/02/45 GC 1/5 "Champagne" shot down by German flak and find death in the P47D 44-20384 near Rustenhart - Dessenheim.
The CMS Uhry of GC 1/5 "Champagne" was shot by Flak and was killed in crash of his P-47 near Rustenhart.
Captain Hirschauer GC 1/4 Navarre was hit by flak along the Rhine, and crash-landed his P-47 44-20809 on north of Colmar.
Three other P-47 of GC 1/4, were hit by German Flak in the same area as the previous ones and will return to Tavaux severely damaged:
The P-47 driven by SGT Edmond Gille returned with a huge hole in the fuselage.
The P-47 D 30 44-20357 of SGT Jean Barberis returned without wingtip.
The P-47D 42-20055 CNE Hubert Boitelet returned with difficulty, with cylinder cut off by a 20mm shell, and huge hole in the tail and at the turbo caused by 37mm shell.
Quote:
In fact the USAAF lost 2 x P-47s in combat in N. Italy on 4 Feb 45, but too far from Chiasso, it appears.
That day 2 a/c of 66th FS, 57th FG went missing on a B-25 escort mission to the Brenner Pass area.
|
These two losses of 66th FS are familiar for me. I have detailed MACR account and both losses were reported in Vicenza area - 200 km from Chiasso/Como.