The first German loss on French territory in WW II.

[Horst Weber]

Originally Posted by Larry Hickey

Hello,

The response here has been excellent to a complicated problem, My conclusion is that this was not on French soil, but was on German soil in a temporary no-man-land between the two sides. After apparently crash-landing the badly burned pilot either made his own way, or more likely was rescued from the crash site by German soldiers. It isn't clear whether the plane was then set on fire and destroyed, or came down on fire and was destroyed in the subsequent fire. There is an interesting story here about the retrieval of this badly wounded pilot, which I hope we can find more information about. I'm also hoping that we can find a photo of the crash, even if the plane was largely destroyed.
Can anyone be of further help?

Good evening Larry !

This area was at Sept. 20th, 1939 a military ruled area. No civilian so far. On my opinion, there was no interest from the German side anyhow, to publish a photograph of the crashed plane. It seems, that the French Forces were not in reach of the distressed aircraft anytime.

A chance for more informatin could be reports from the German unit(s) Kriegstagebuch (KTB) in this area that day.

It seems, that the crash location was in the area of responsibilty of the (German) 34th Infanterie Division (ID) those days. This unit was subordinated to XXX. Armee-Korps (A.K.), which was subordinated to 1st German Army.

It is slight possible, that the left neighbour of the 34th ID, the 15th ID, was involved into the accident, too. This Division, in neighbourhood, was that day subordinated to IIX A.K, but also under the command of 1st German Army.

Best Christmas and a happy New Year !

Horst Weber