Trying to ID crashed British (?) a/c and pilot's grave WC/FC in France or Belgium

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

I know that there is very little to go on here in terms of either wreckage or surrounding geography, but can anyone either help ID the type of a/c (likely a single engine fighter, because apparently carried only one crewman), or the timing and location of this crash? This looks like the plane came down from altitude with the pilot still aboard and violently smashed into the ground. Someone may recognize some of the pieces and parts here as specific to an a/c type. The seller caption says this is France. This could well show the crash location of a British airman MIA to present day.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...E:L:OU:US:3160

The hand-written caption on the back says:

"Die verbrannte Leiche des Engl.Fliegers haben wir schoen beerdigt und Ihn ein Kreuz gesetzt."

"We have buried the burned body of the English flyer and put up a cross for him."

I know that it's a long shot, but anything will help. I won the photo, so we may be able to get the words written off the cross when it arrives, but they are very unlikely to help further ID the pilot. Probably says "unknown British flyer" or something like that.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator