[Pieter H]

Larry,

I can not claim to have definitive proof for either of the theories, but I see at least a few arguments in support of your theory that this is the a/c of Obfw Heinz Heidenpeter that came down May 17.

1. The landscape definitely looks more like the north of France than "40 km N. of Paris". It is flat, almost tree-less, quite in contrast to the region N. of Paris with plenty of hills and woods. Also the region with the mining "terrils" (the french word for these artificial mountains of cole slacks) is a broad belt going from around Béthune, and then through Lens and Douai towards Belgium around Charleroi. Not being from that area it is impossible to say which Terril and which village church those on the picture might be, but the likelihood of being around Douai is much larger than that of the area of Paris.
2. Secondly the number of victory bars. Taking the list on Tony Woods web site, I find no claims of Heinz Heidenpeter. However, this is the "corrected and cleaned-up" list, and I can easily imagine that Heidenpeter had claimed one aircraft in the first week of the campaign. Wilhelm Roth however had already 4 claims by the time he was shot down: on 18, 19 and 29 May, and June 1. It would be highly unlikely that he had not taken time to have them painted on his a/c. So his Messerschmidt should have shown at least 3-4 victory bars by June 3.

So I would say you do have a point.
Kind regards,

Pieter