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Old 17th January 2005, 21:23
klemen klemen is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 20
klemen
Hi Laurent & Bertrand!

To Laurent first:

Quote:
The book "Aviateurs de la liberté" will list all members of the FAFL killed during the war (definition of a member of the FAL being people who joined a FAFL unit (not an ex-Vichy one) before 30 June 1943 and their fusion with the Armée de l'Air in North Africa).
Thank you Laurent for recommending me this book. However ther eis just one "tiny-biny problem" and that is that the crewman in question survived the crash and war. He recovered from his wounds, went with the squadron to England and eventually took part in the Normandy invasion, but not anymore as an air crewman. According to his newphew he did not fly anymore after around 1943, but served instead as an expert in the communications and radio transmissions as part of the squadron's ground crew. He was apparently very talented in this, so they kept him to take care for radio equipment in Douglas Bostons.

Is there perhaps any book in France where a man could look for the names of all air and ground crew of the GB 1 respectively No. 342 (Free French) Squadron "Lorraine"?


And now to Bertrand:

Quote:
The man you are looking for could be Henri SOULAT. On 5 december 1941 their Blenheim collided with another Blenheim from 45 sqdn. Capitaine De Maismont was injured ( then killed on 15 october 1944 at Harfordbridge) and Sergent Fifre dead some hours later.
Nice try Bertrand, but he isn't he I am afraid. According to his nephew his uncle told him that his aircraft has been hit from the ground (and not in air collision or dogfight) and he claimed that this took place during the time of El-Alamein battle, so I guess this puts this story very well into 1942. During the crash the pilot was dead, while he somehow survived. He was found about a week later half-dead and immediately taken to a military hospital in Alexandria. The rest of his story I have written in my reply to Laurent.

Quote:
Please note the Pierre Fenaux de Maismont came from Légion Etrangére then navigator in Syria before joining the GB1.
Yes, but this is not the man I am looking for, I am sure of this. he served in the Légion Etrangére in Syria until got himself transferred to the FFAF. He was not a Frenchman by birth like Pierre Fenaux de Maismont. I at first thought that he enlisted the Legion and FFAF under a second name, but his nephew says that on all his military service records and even marriage certificate (he married in 1944 in London) there is his real name and not a fake name.

Let me at the end again thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help. It was very helpful and I appreciate it very much.

Yours sincerly,

Klemen
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