german night fighters in north eastern France

[hautemarnechris]

I'm researching the crash in July 1944 of a Sterling aircraft carrying special forces troops. After 9 years of effort I know just about everything concerning the crash except its cause. The most plausible explanation seems to be pilot error in very adverse weather conditions. The aircraft was making a box search for the Drop Zone when it hit high ground (about 500 metres) near the village of Graffigny-Chemin in Northern France. It had just exited a severe electrical storm. The navigator who survived the crash told me that he was trying to fix the aircraft's position using Gee just before it crashed. Also, that his flight plan shouldn't have taken them lower than 2000 feet except for the run-up to the DZ itself.

However, there remains some doubt in my mind because, for example, a contemporary report says that the aircraft was on fire before it hit the ground. I know that German nightfighters were active in the area (two Lancaster bombers were shot down during the same week in the same area). I think, but am not certain, that nightfighters were based at nearby Neufchateau in July 1944.

I think the witness may have confused the exhaust flares from the engines for a fire on the aircraft. Also, my impression is that nightfighters operated against main bomber forces at relatively high altitudes rather than against single aircraft flying at low altitudes.

Nevertheless, I do want to deal with that aspect of the crash as thoroughly as I can. Can anybody suggest how I could find if any German nightfighters claimed a kill of a low-flying four engined aircraft in that area during the night of 22/23rd July 1944? Also, whether the airfield at Neufchateau was being used by Nightfighters in July 1944?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[jvmasset]

The closest night fighter bases were Saint Dizier (I./NJG5), 75 km away and the much further located Laon/Athies (III./NJG5), Juvincourt (III./NJG4) and Florennes (I./NJG4) in Belgium, all of them more than 200 km away.
It would seem plausible that fighters from St Dizier were routinely patrolling in the area, but if the weather was this horrible this particular night, nightfighters would have been quite unusable, especially at this low an altitude.
Furthermore if the Stirling was carrying special troops it was probably flying alone, not within a bomber stream and at 2000 ft anyway very difficult to detect...

I believe it just stroke the hill in bad weather like many other bombers engaged in these highly risky missions (just out of my head I can think of at least 5 Halifaxes and 1 B-24 lost to weather conditions or danger of low flying at night in hilly/mountainous terrain for which I knew of the crash sites).

Incidentally I do not think that there was an airfield in 1944 in Neufchateau, and certainly not a nightfighter base...AFAIK the only Neufchateau airfield used by Luftwaffe was in Belgium, in 1940.

Cordially

JVM

[Laurent Rizzotti]

There is a book listing NJG claims and it has nothing for the night of 22-23 July 1944.

In awful weather, the nightfighters usually stayed on the ground. And will certainly not chase low-flying SOE aircraft.

On the other hand, a Stirling flying at 2000 ft might have been fired on by light/medium Flak. But I think that a weather-related accident is far more plausible, especially if the survivor didn't report that the aircraft was hit by enemy fire.