P-39Q French Airacobra crashed in Switzerland July 1945

[uhebeisen]

hello
I was redirected from the WW2aircraftnet forum because maybe I could get better support here. So let's start:

I am looking for information about two P-39 Q that were lost in Switzerland short after WWII has ended. These two Airacobras were flying along the river Rhein on a low level flight on 16. July 1945 (cloudy, bad weather) from (probably) Basel towards the lake of Constance. Near Eglisau they crashed into the hill (Irchel). There has been a story about this accident in the Swiss Newspaper "Tagesanzeiger" in December 2017.

Can anybody give more information about these two aircrafts (escadrilles, colors, armament). The names of the pilots are known as Sgt Francois de Laurens Castelet and Louis Francois Delvolvé they were both killed in the accident. Getting in contact with a Swiss hisotrian I know that one P-39 did have the number 43914 and it had a four blade propeller. Therefore I assume that they were P-39Q versions.

I would like to know as much as possible about these two aircrafts, maybe I will then build them in scale 1:72 as models. It would also be very interesting to know where these Airacobras were come from and what their mission was.
Maybe they were on a routine flight from France to the french occupation zone in southern Germany. According to the sparse information I currently have they could belong to GC II/9 "Auvergne".
I am more familiar with German or English reports about losses and sorties but I assume that these kind of information would also be kept for the French aircraft and their pilots somewhere.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Ueli

[Stig Jarlevik]

Ueli

The two aircraft are not included in a published list of accidents etc between 8 May to 31 Dec 1945 published by Service Historique de la Défense.

Quite odd indeed with so much information known.

Hope someone else can help you with this one.

Cheers
Stig

[jschreiber]

Grüss Gott Ueli


Those two pilots belonged to the GC II/9 Auvergne.


You will find memorial informations for Louis Delvolve here :


http://www.memorialgenweb.org/mobile...0&hauteur=1050


I've found nothing yet for François de Laurens, but don't despair


J Schreiber

[uhebeisen]

I think it is indeed tricky because of
- the accident wasn't in a combat
- it was not in France or Germany but in neutral Switzerland
- it was after the war ended in Europe (8. May 1945 versus 16. July 1945)

At that time Switzerland still was under the law of war. As the article mentioned it was only a short message given to the press about the two crashes.
Best chances would be to find somewhere the logbooks or the complete history of the GC 2/9 until it dissolves.

[Leendert]

A little article on page 2 in the newspaper Nouvelliste Valaisan (26 Jul 1945) about the memorial services here: http://doc.rero.ch/record/187760/files/1945-07-26.pdf

Remains were repatriated to France.

Regards,

Leendert

[Leendert]

And on page 1 here (http://doc.rero.ch/record/97408/files/1945-07-27.pdf) a picture of the memorial service.

Regards,

Leendert

[jschreiber]

Hallo Ueli


Another press article (Journal de Geneve, 25th July 1945) - see attachment,

I oppened a thread on the French side ( http://www.aerostories.org/~aeroforu...p?nummsg=76640 ), and Francois de Laurens Castelet was born in Benquet (dpt of Landes) the 19th March 1920. You will find a photo of Francois de Laurens here : http://www.aerostories.org/~aeroforu...p?nummsg=76641


Have you checked at the Kantonspolizei or where their papers are archived ? Knowing Swiss Gründlichkeit, something should exist.

Due to the number of people involved at the ceremonies, it's obvious : an accident report is (or was) somewhere in the French archives (Service historique de la Défense, Vincennes). But access is now complicated for everyone not living nearby.

Regards

J Schreiber

[uhebeisen]

I totally agree with you jschreiber, there must be some information in one kind of French archives but unfortunately I am not familiar with the way the French keep track of their Air Force or Aircrafts.
I have already done a search in the Swiss Federal Archive at Berne (Bundesarchiv) but the result doesn't help much. There are about eight documents filed there all dealing with the costs of the transfer of the dead pilots.
You won't find any information in the local archives because at that time the military still was ruling even the war was over for about eight weeks or so.

@jschreiber: great that you opened that thread in the French forum. I have found that one a few days ago but I don't understand how it works and I hardly can understand what is written there. So if you can watch what's going on there that would be very kind of you.

[Leendert]

François de Laurens-Castelet, born 19 March 1920 at Benquet (Landes), son of Count Joseph de Laurens-Castelet and Christine de Poyferré de Cère.

Regards,

Leendert

[Rainer]

Hallo Ueli

Have you tried to obtain copies of the documents held by the Swiss Federal Archives about this incident? They can be found with this reference: https://www.swiss-archives.ch/detail.aspx?ID=1751394