Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Coates
A detachment from Transportstaffel 40...
It would appear that the 'girlfriend' was possibly a signals auxiiliary...
I will try and dig out Lankenau's chronicle over the next couple of days and will post this up but I'll have to translate it first so please bear with any delay.
It goes without saying that I am very interested in anything more you might have on this. Is there any possibility a photo of Lex or his Fi 156 might exist. Is there a veterans association for the unit ? What is your interest ?
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Steve -
It would seem that this is almost certainly the first incident in question. Thank you so much! The fact there were three aircraft, that one landed & was captured, & the connection with the female auxiliaries is too much to likely pass as chance.
Unfortunantly I do not have any photos, but there's an off chance there could be one in the archives associated with the 41st Tank Battalion &/or the 11th AD (of whom the 41st was a part of).
I see the incident is mentioned on the 11th AD's website. I sent you the web addy via PM...I don't recall if we can post weblinks here.
I have a interest for a few reasons. A neighbor, who's sadly passed now, served in the 41st TB during the war. I had his recollections in my notes, and I've been going through the various oral histories I've collected, trying to flesh out the candidates for shoot-downs and the like as well. Just happened to run across his info the other day. Unfortunantly I do not have much to add, as he only could barely recalled the event.
Interestingly, I noticed on the 41st TB, Co D's combat diary entry for April 23rd notes that the airfield had "sixty planes intact", & that "two ME-109s" were seen over their area & that both were claimed shot down by AA fire. This doesn't jive with the 41st TB's general account of the incident, also on the website, which does jive with what my old neighbor had told me. Unless, of course, there was another incident that DID involve "two ME-109s" that is totally different than the main 41st TB's account. Or it could just be the normal confusion of the day put to paper.