Cause of P-51 a F6 to crash 27September 1944

[Matthias Radu]

Hi Stig,

thanks for pointing to the pic of 5M * W in Ivie's book, I missed that when looking this issue up in the morning. Anyway, compared to the drawing of "Chumps Chance" in the same book, when still coded 5M * AI, the style and position of the name is very similar. I think there is a good chance of 5M * W being "Chumps Chance" indeed.

What I do not know is if it was "Chumps Chance" which crashed at Hochscheid, but the description in Ivie's book as well as Tom's account might suggest that Warenskjold was the one crashing into the meadow at Hochscheid.

Oberkleinich (position of the Flak) and Hochscheid are next to each other (you can zoom-in at the map in the link). This claim of the Flak at Oberkleinich should have nothing to do with the second F-6 loss, being hit near Dieuze, south-east of Metz.

I assume that the cause of the loss of Warenskjold had not been established when the MACR was filed, because the wingman had already turned around and the claim of the Flak was probably not known to the US officials.

Best Regards

Matthias

[Tom Kinnard]

Thanks Matthais,

This could be his AC>

FYI

His wingman said "Our mission that day was to reconnoiter a small railway network about 20 miles North of the City of Saarbrucken. Fact that the weather was very bad that day complicated things quite abit since the area we were to fly in was very hilly. We took off from Saint Dizier Airfield in France and took a course straight toward the objective. We flew from the beginning under a very low overcast and as we crossed the front line, which at that time ran along the Maselle River, it didn't appear that there would be any break ahead. We were about 16 miles fromt he target when I first noticed a definite mechanical failure in my plane. I called Lt Warenskjold and told him what had happened and that I must return to the base. Knowing the importance of the mission Lt Warenskjold instead of returning, decided to go on alone and accomplish as much as he could in spite of the weather." This was about 7Pm.