3./KGr.zbV 9

[Jaap Woortman]

Pieter,

I am glad that we have been able to show why the loss of the Ju 52/3m did not show up in Peter Cornwell's book.

I have to make a remark about “aircraft crashed in the sea, probably close to the shore”.
In Chr-J. Ehrengardt, ‘Petite chronique d’une aéronavale en guerre (1939-1940)’, in: Aérojournal nr. 18, (2001) pag. 14 you can read the French version of the statement made by Scitiveaux but I prefer the English version as can be seen in a thread started by Hans Nauta at TOCH on January 7th, 2006. There he has asked for information about a “French claim 10th May 1940”. Laurent Rizzotti quotes in this thread from "Les victoires de l'aviation de chasse française, tome 1. 10-15 mai 1940", by Arnaud Gillet the same statement in English "I saw a big three-engine German Arado aircraft. I attacked it five times and always from the rear. After each attack my gunner fired too when I disengaged. I stopped after the fifth attack, being wounded on the right arm, and I saw the German aircraft dive very fast, with two motors burning and the direction panels falling in small pieces. I came back to Marck at slow speed."
From this quote you cannot learn that his victim has “crashed in the sea, probably close to the shore”.
On the contrary, the German pilot tried to escape from his attacker in a dive and gave full power to his engines. In such a case black smoke will come out of the exhaust pipes of the engines and will give the observer the idea of a plane with the engines on fire.
This escape is indirectly confirmed by Scitiveaux because he didn’t report that he saw the plane hit the ground/water and his claim could only be that he has damaged a German plane. But I leave that to the French.

Therefore I will propose to my colleagues in the Study Group Air War 1939-1945 to delete T0329 from the database.

Stig,
Ju 52/3m floatplanes were not operational during May 1940 along the Dutch coast. They were operating in Norway in KGrzbV 108.

There is even a fourth possibility and that is "friendly fire".
Has Scitiveaux had a battle with an Latecoere 298? They were in the "neighbourhood". I cannot believe that in such a case he would not have recognized his own mates, but if you want to make it complete it should be mentioned.

Jaap Woortman
Study Group Air War 1939-1945
Documentation Group Volkel