Mosquito shot down by RAF MUstang 9 April 1945

[mhuxt]

Re: the Mosquito. One of the sites referred to in the previous thread states that on 29 March '45 the French Mustangs covered a 22-mile stretch of the Rhine between Karlsruhe and Speer (must be Speyer, precisely the right distance away).

Barely more than a week later, Moore claimed to have been shot down by French Mustangs, only around 25 miles from Speyer, deeper inside Germany.

If Moore had claimed to have seen FFAF Mustangs over Flensburg or some place similar, it would be a different matter. However, as he claimed to have seen them in an area where it can be demonstrated they were operating at the time, it's not a leap of faith to assume he's correct.

[Brian]

Many thanks Mark

Game, set and match!

Cheers
Brian

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello, I am bouncing this old thread, as I have searched this Mosquito today.

In the book "Pilotes français sur l’Alsace et l'Allemagne", by Daniel Decot, there is a detailed listing of the French missions this day.

The F-6 of GR II/33 flew three missions this afternoon:
_ starting at 1700 hrs, Capitaine Jenny-Clark and Capitaine Giraud flew a visual recce on the path Emmendingen-Hausach-Stuttgart-Mainhardt-Heilbronn-Pforzheim-Freudenstadt-Hausach-Offenburg.
Report: no activity at Stuttgart, fires at Baden-Baden, horse carts between Offenburg and Achern, 20 trucks or less on the whole of the path, landed at 1825 hrs at Colmar

_ starting at 1730 hrs, Capitaine Collongues and Lieutenant Sainflou flew a visual recce on the path Dornstetten-Stuttgart-Aalen-Göppingen-Tübingen-Hausach-Riegel. Report: no activity at Stuttgart, all quiet elsewhere. Landed at 1840 hrs.

_ starting at 1735 hrs, Lieutenant Villetorte and Sous-lieutenant La Caze, another visual recce on the path Freiburg-Neustadt-Tübingen-Donaueschingen-Geisingen-Tuttlingen-Messkirch-Radolfzell-Singen-Waldshut-Lörrach-Schopfheim.
Report: train activity restarted in the whole area well before dusk. 5 smoking locomotives at Geissingen and 2 at Singen. Three camouflaged locomotives near the Bodensee. One rolling train west of SIngen, two other near Waldshut station, 2 others at Radolfzell. Also about 50 trucks seen. Flak fired at Freiburg, Tuttlingen and Donaueschingen. Landed at 1920 hrs.

The closest to the Mosquito loss place is the first, with a leg north of Stuttgart up to Heilbronn, about 20 km from the place the Mosquito went down. Also from the timing of the mission, they should be there roughly at the middle of the mission time, so around 1740-1745 hrs, the right time too.

But:
1) they were only two F-6. AFAIK all sorties by GR II/33 were flown by 2 aircraft only, as was the norm for tactical recon then.
2) visual reconnaissance was flown at low altitude according to some extracts of the book (but no number is given)

If the French pilots shot down the Mosquito, then there was a cover-up, because there is nothing about it in the book. On 7 October 1944, a French Spitfire shot down a US P-51 (or more probably a F-6) and this was not hidden. But in this case the pilot was not hurt, so it was less serious.

On the other hand, I wonder if the roundel sighting by Moore is reliable or not. The first sighting, in a quiet situation, could well have been a pair (not three) of French F-6. The fact that they turned left is coherent with the flight plan (on the Stuttgart-Mainhardt-Heilbronn-Pforzheim part, all turns were left).

But then when he was circled while under his parachute, he saw the same aircraft, but was then burnt, had still sunglasses (probably dirty now) and going in and out consciousness. Also if he bailed out at 800 m, these planes could not have turned around him for several minutes.

So I have still no idea of what happened but adding what I have found.