[gilles collaveri]

Dear all

thanks to the support of everyone, I have been able to rebuild what happened that day and how Werner Bauch was killed.
Here is the story :

25 June 1944

On that day, a massive American air armada of more than 650 aircraft attack strategic targets in southern France. B-17s bomb the rail yards and port facilities at Sète, while four groups of B-24s target installations at Sète, Balaruc-les-Bains, and the Avignon railway yards. They are escorted by dozens of P-38s Lightning from the 82nd Fighter Group and P-51s Mustang from the 31st Fighter Group.
Around 9:30 a.m., the first engagements begin. They are difficult to reconstruct because of widespread confusion, incomplete reports, and conflicting accounts. Victory claims on both sides do not match the actual losses, illustrating how difficult it is to retrace these air battles accurately.

Nevertheless, thanks to archival research and the assistance of specialized aviation history enthusiasts, it is possible to reconstruct the broad outline of the events of June 25, 1944.

A P-38 Dives After Climbing Bf 109s

At approximately 9:35 a.m., Lieutenant Melvin E. Wiedbusch (credited with three victories), flying P-38J Lightning serial number 43-28774, reports enemy fighters climbing through the clouds toward the formation of the 95th Fighter Squadron. His wingman, Jack Jooley, later recalled:
"I was flying as Lieutenant Wiedbusch's wingman in Lieutenant Butler's flight, escorting bombers to their targets at Sète/Balaruc, France. We were on the right side of the bomber formation and had reached the Toulon area, flying inland about twenty miles from the coast. A cloud layer covering seven to eight tenths of the sky lay beneath us at an altitude of approximately 10,000 to 11,000 feet.
Suddenly, Lieutenant Wiedbusch reported enemy fighters below us climbing through the cloud layer. He dived toward them and I followed, but I leveled off above the clouds.
Lieutenant Wiedbusch got onto the tail of a Me 109 at close range. The last time he was seen, he was diving almost vertically into the clouds while firing at the enemy aircraft. He failed to return when the squadron regrouped, and we never heard a distress call from him over the radio. It is possible that he was unable to recover from the dive at such a low altitude."
Lieutenant Wiedbusch was indeed reported missing in action and is now buried at the American Cemetery in Draguignan.

Confused Dogfights Unfold

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6s of JG 200 climb to intercept the American aircraft. Werner Bauch is among them.
At around 10:00 a.m., combat breaks out near Avignon with P-51s of the 31st Fighter Group. German Freya and Würzburg radar stations operated by 9./Ln.Rgt. 51 track the engagement in real time and report a victory over an "unknown aircraft type," which is credited to Werner Bauch. It may have been Wiedbusch's P-38.
On the American side, three victories are claimed by Lieutenant Robert Riddle (who achieves the "ace" status that day), Lieutenant Carl H. Brown, and Colonel McCorkle.

In reality, however, only one Bf 109 crashes: Werner Bauch's. Another manages to belly-land with its pilot wounded.
On the Luftwaffe side, two B-24s are claimed by Fw. Lünsmann and Ogefr. Horst Rippert, the latter becoming famous 64 years later when he claimed in 2008 to have shot down the P-38 flown by writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.


The above text will be part of an article to be published soon.

Again, thanks all for your support with a special mention to Adriano, Nick, nogo99 and others..