Seeking photo of Bf109D of 3./JGr152 that crashed near Niedergailbach, Germany on 24 Sept 1939

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

In reworking some of the Phoney War/Sitzkrieg losses along the French/German border, we've identified a crash at a location about 500m E of Niedergailbach, Germany, from 24 Sept 1939. This would have been a Bf109D-1 of 3./JGr152. I know that it's a terribly long shot, but is there any chance that contemporary photos exist of this wreck site? There may have been very little identifiable wreckage because the pilot bailed out. It's possible that much of the civilian population may have been evacuated from the area at the time, but German ground troops would have been in the area, which is quite near the French border. The plane would have had a yellow numeral or numerals on the fuselage with a thin black outline and had a tail-centered swastika. This is NOT "Yellow 12" that came down on the French side of the border on the same day. This was at a time right after the outbreak of the war when aircraft crashes would have still been a relative rare occurrence, so a crash may have attracted a lot of soldiers to the site, and thus perhaps resulted in the existence of photographs.

Keeping my fingers crossed.