He 177 Montpellier 26 Jan 44

[Chris Goss]

The above aircraft an A-3 Wk Nr 535460 of 6./KG 40 and flown by Lt Siegfried Bonacker, crashed into the Etang de Mauguio on approach to Montpellier airfield on returning from an attack on Anzio. All the crew were killed but was the aircraft ever recovered?

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Maybe a tip for Gilles to go there and track it down? He has done some quite interesting recoveries...including of some KG 100 machines as you know.

[Larry deZeng]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

The above aircraft an A-3 Wk Nr 535460 of 6./KG 40 and flown by Lt Siegfried Bonacker, crashed into the Etang de Mauguio on approach to Montpellier airfield on returning from an attack on Anzio. All the crew were killed but was the aircraft ever recovered?

If name changed and presently called Étang de l'Or, then it is consistently only 10' (ten feet) deep throughout, according to Google Earth. In the event no one knows with certainty, then it may be safe to assume that it was recovered between the end of January and July 1944.

L. deZ.

[gilles collaveri]

Hi everyone

indeed, étang de l'or is same as etang de Mauguio;

Many aircraft are there. There is a famous Bloch152 that dozens of people here in France have been dreaming to take out of the mud (engine failure at take off, crashed in the swamp, and slowly sank),

I also heard about a JU88, and a He177 is possible as well. Maybe was this He177 recovered, it is difficult to know, the witnesses of that crash would be 90 year old + today..

Someone with a lot of money and a lot of political leverage (to get the authorizations) would find treasures in that lake;

However, it is salted water, so, an aircraft taken out such lake would suffer from strong and quick corrosion (such as the Do24 taken out of Biscarosse lake in the 80's, which ended up in a junk, failing a full restauration, a pity) a full electrolysis would be necessarry, as for the Do17 currently being restored in Cosford. So, a lot of money, again !

Have a great sunday, everyone..

GC

[Larry deZeng]

Stab/Lw.-Berge-Btl. IV, Lw.-Berge-Kp. z.b.V. 29 and Lw.-Berge-Kp. z.b.V. 30 were in South France at that time, with the Stab at Salon. They recovered and salvaged aircraft all over South France using Italian P/Ws and local labor. I think some or a lot of this units records survived and can be found at BA-MA.

L. deZ.