3./KGr.zbV 9

[Stig Jarlevik]

Excellent discussion Gentlemen

I never thought we would be treated with three different possibilities.

The basic problem is that we don't know exactly what de Scitivaux ment in his report. If Aeronautique Navale used any intelligence interrogator after missions that individual obviously did not question the wordings either. Was the use of 'Type Arado' a common practice in France to describe a German unknown floatplane? With no access to the actual mission report I have read what Gillet says a couple of times (I don't read or speak French so I have to translate it), and I at least have no trouble to interpret what he ment as a German floatplane, not necessarily an actual Arado, but in fact a German floatplane of unknown design.
Were there by any chance any Ju 52/3m on floats around this day?

The T.VIIIw alternative is quite good in my opinion. We already know the general bad aircraft recognition which existed at the time (well, all through the war in my opinion). The question quite rightly asked by Jaap is of course would it be possible for an experienced pilot, flying over Dutch territory and at least somewhere mentally know Dutch aircraft might be around, to fail to see the quite distinctive Dutch National markings?
I have to agree I am a bit hesitant, since de Scitivaux after all made five attacks, but we cannot be sure about his 'mental' status and his eagerness to prove himself and so on. His angle of attack may have been such that glare could have obstructed a clear view and if he only saw the black paint he could mentally have taken this to be part of the German cross and not the Dutch triangle.

It is so easy for us 'armchair aviators' to dismiss a large number of factors involved in combat, and after all the Dutch (if the T.VIIIw WAS the actual victim) choose to shoot back on de Scitivaux, no doubt rather convinced he was a German Bf 110. I feel pretty certain I would have done the same thing if a Potez 631 had started shooting at me.... Both the T.VIII and the Potez were probably rather unknown aircraft on both sides and especially the T.VIII being very obscure.

The mentioning of the book Blitzed was interesting and also show how dangerous it is to make interpretation without access to complete data.
Bingham clearly choose to rely on all the wrong things in these reports with a final end result completely wrong.

Thanks again Guys
Stig