[Larry Hickey]

Franck,

The EOE Working Group is pondering this same problem, as well as five other unidentified force-landed I./JG76 109s that came down during the late-1939 to spring 1940 period, none of which have reliable location or attribution info.

Just a few minutes ago, one of our members sent me this: "following the lines of Peter C.'s message I am inclined to make this the so far "anonymous" Emil of I./JG 76 lost on May 18th. Like I said before and as apparently Peter agrees this a/c had to belly land in the vicinity of Raucourt, close to Le Mont Dieu, which is about 50 km east of Réthel whereas La Fère, where Mannske is said to have come down, is a long way from where these photos were taken as it is close to Laon and thus about 100 km east of Raucourt. On one of the original photos I have got of this a/c it says that it was taken by the road from Stonne to Raucourt, whereas the photos up on eBay right now state that it was near Le Mont Dieu which would confirm the aforementioned location.

However, I have to point out again that "black 7" according to the photos I have was an E-1, whereas both losses on the 18th were reported as E-3s.

Although of course far from certain, I dare say that this was not Mannske's a/c, but rather that of a so far un-named pilot of 2./JG 76 who returned unharmed to his unit."

Unless someone else can clear up the E-1/E-3 discrepancy (the photos show an E-1, the Luftwaffe loss date shows both losses that day as E-3s) or has further info, this is where our work presently stands on this one. Unfortunately, I./JG76-II./JG54 is poorly documented for this sort of info, due the the fact that there were apparently few, if any, surviving and comprehensive photo collections that have ever surfaced from this unit. (Nor diaries, or other such supporting info). Thus most of these forced-landings remain anonymous as to dates, pilots or specific locations. We're about as close on "Black 7" as any of them. Perhaps Jim Kitchens or Christian Kirsch can chime in here and help solve some of these mysteries for us that are frustrating the hell out of everybody. We're pretty certain that Black 1 was the StaKap's plane, for 2./JG76. No proof that Oblt Joachim Wandel was flying it the day it pranged during the western campaign, but we've confirmed that it ended up in a salvage dump in the Arras-Cambrai area, before being sent to the repair depot at Antwerp, Belgium. Yellow 3 and 4 of 3 Staffel probably both came down during the fighting over the Sedan area in mid-May, 1940, with "Yellow 3," at least, probably coming down behind German lines. The I Stab a/c with the arrowhead stab marking probably dates back to either later, 1939, or early 1940. Strange camouflage pattern on that one.

Black 11 of 2. Staffel could be the Maanske loss but that is just conjecture at this point. Anybody else have anything to contribute to this one?

If anyone can help up put these planes at the correct places, on specific dates with names pilots, it would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,