José Falcó Sanmartín

[Håkan]

Hello,

Spanish newspapers reports the death of José Falcó Sanmartín (http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/spain_falco.htm).

His passing seems to have happened during May but I can't find any exact date. Is there anyone with better knowledge in Spanish than me that have an exact date?

He seems to have been the last living ace from this conflict.

RIP!

//Håkan

[Leo Etgen]

Hello Håkan

According to this http://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2014/0...7668b4571.html article he died on 10 May 2014 at Toulouse in France at age 97. May he rest in peace as well.

Horrido!

Leo

[Håkan]

Hello Leo!

Thanks for the Quick reply!

Best wishes/Håkan

[Nick Beale]

Wikipedia has it now as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Falcó_Sanmart%C3%ADn

[Håkan]

Hello Nick and thanks for the input.

However, I think the wikipedia article is "wrong". He indeed shot down Nirminger but he survived and was later killed in an air accident on 11 May 1939. On 6 February, Falcó also shot down Unteroffizier Windemuth, who was KIA.

//Håkan

[fran]

The whole matter is very confusing but I am almost sure he did not shot down neither Nirminger nor Windemuth. Going farther, I'd say rather Falcó was himself shot down by Nirminger.

[newcomer]

Hi to all,

AFAIK, in one of the past 'Avions' magazine appeared the article about Hose Falco. In that article published the photo of gravestone of two german pilots from Condor Legion identify by the author as the victims in air battle by Hose Falco. Author also wrote that those two fallen aviator didn't noticed in diary of Condor Legion.

What is the truth?

kind regards

Newcomer

[fran]

Windemuth crashed while strafing when did not pull up in time.
Nirminger gravestone was located in León, the Legion Condor repair depot, were he died in a postwar flying accident.
The two Falcó victories are a myth.

[Arsenal VG-33]

Originally Posted by fran

The whole matter is very confusing but I am almost sure he did not shot down neither Nirminger nor Windemuth. Going farther, I'd say rather Falcó was himself shot down by Nirminger.

Hello,

Why are you so sure, and why didn't you ask to Falco himself, in time when it was possible?
http://www.aerobuzz.fr/spip.php?article3351

His variant of the story is fully credible, at least in the confusion of the day: first he went to the Villajuiega airfield and saw grouded 6-96 plane. Inside he founded papers on Nimringer name, that he transmitted to remaining headquaters (others were already en route for France), for claim confirmation.

It was not Windemuth's plane the 6-98 that was later shown in newspapers, also in a place that looked like Villajuiega. The fact is that numerous participants and witnesses of the scene (Bravo, Arias, Jacob, Sanz...) never recognized the badly damaged 6-98 on photos, for the almost intact 6-96 they really saw that days, that collided the groud very tangentially and suffered little damage.
Then Falco himself never new or quoted Windemuth name before his hollidays in 1963, when he was directed to a stone monolyth with this name by local inhabitants, along the Figueras to Valencia road.
From Juan Arraez and others historians enquests.

BTW, the mystery remains, Sanz for instance did not saw Falco's I-15 that day firing over Nimringer's plane...And there is not a problem for me to imagine that germans could have slyly distort their own archives.

Regards

[Håkan]

Hello Fran,

According to the German sources I have, two Bf 109s were lost on 6 February - one (6-98) flown by Windemuth who was KIA and one flown by Nirminger who survived to be killed in an accident on 11 May 1939.
According to German whitnesses Windemuth's Bf 109 was on fire when it crashed into the airfield at a steep angel.

Best wishes/Håkan