Luftwaffe Dewoitine 520

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

Finally i found the time to search my magazine collection and I found the right one (with a couple other interesting ones I had forgotten and will be reading tonight ): it's in Aéro-Journal n°6 (April-May 1999), where there several articles on D520 use by Italians, French (in 44-45) and Germans.
The latter article has a list of losses between 19 March 1943 and 20 August 1944. There are only two losses in air combat, the ones liste above in Febrary 1944. In both cases the D520 was flying a training flight when it was surprised by marauding Allied fighters.

For losses under Allied losses, the list is the same than what wrote Matti with the following exceptions:
_ the four losses listed by Matti on 27 March 1944 at Chartres were on 28 March 1944 according to the list in Aéro-Journal.
_ these losses include the D 520 1584 according to Matti, the number is 584 in Aero-Journal

On the other hand, another French article in the Magazinz Avions n°88 (July 2000) shows that the 4 D520 of JG 105 were lost under Allied bombs at Chartres on 27 March (with a Bf 109 and an AR 96 of the same school). Chartres was bombed again the next day but only a Fi 156 was destroyed.

So I guess the only thing to correct in Matti's listing is the 1584 serial. By the way the Avions' article has also the WNr as 1584 (probably coming right from German loss lists), but as it had been said above, this serial was never produced.

[CJE]

The list was provided to me by someone whose name may be familiar to many: Winfried Bock.
I corrected myself the serial number (1584), which obviously was a typo in the original file (the Germans used the French serial numbers as Werknummern).

Chris

[brewerjerry]

Originally Posted by Ota Jirovec

Hello Geoff,

Back to your original question. A few combats of RAF fighters with Luftwaffe-operated Dewoitines are mentioned in 2nd Tactical Air Force, Volume 1, by Christopher Shores and Chris Thomas, as given in the following excerpt:

"Although 266 Squadron was not a part of 2nd TAF at this time, an event occurred on this date (9 February 1944) which is noteworthy because it provides an opportunity to correct an item included in the authors´ earlier "The Typhoon and Tempest Story". During a Ranger to the Chartres area, Plt Off D. Erasmus of this squadron claimed a Bf 109 shot down. This was in fact a Dewoitine D.520, an ex-Armée de l´Air fighter taken over by the Luftwaffe and used by JG 105, which was based at Chartres. D.520 No 483 was shot down and Uffz. Woll was killed. Four days later (on 13 February 1944) Sqn Ldr G.B. Warnes of 263 Squadron, also a Typhoon unit, claimed another Bf 109 in the same area. Again this was a D.520 of JG 105 - No 664 in which Uffz. Bartl was killed. It is interesting to note that at this time the Luftwaffe operated four such Jagdgeschwader in France, which would continue to operate until August 1944, when there was a general withdrawal back to Germany. The other units were JG 101 at Pau, JG 103 at Chateauroux and JG 107 at Nancy."

Hope this helps,

Ota

Hi
Erasmus actually claimed he shot down an "enemy mustang" on the 9th Feb.
Unfortunately i have a different pilot, anyone able to confirm I have the wrong name from the luftwaffe loss lists.

Below from my notes used for Harrowbeer in focus"


On the 9th the squadrons sent Typhoons out on a sweep again, this time P/O Erasmus of 266 Squadron spotted an enemy aircraft which looked at first like a ME-109, and as he turned in to attack it, the enemy aircraft carried out violent evasive action, but after two bursts of fire, the enemy aircraft caught fire and crashed into a wood to the south east of Chartres, P/O Erasmus noted that the enemy aircraft was painted grey/green on the upper- surfaces, and yellow underneath with large black crosses on its wings, and the Squadron diary records it as having been a captured P-51 Mustang , It was in fact a captured ex French aircraft, a Dewoitine D520, Wn 483 , Flown by Uffz Wedelin , from JG 105, who was killed in the crash.

Cheers
Jerry

[Matti Salonen]

Jerry, correct name is Wendelin Woll. You have for some reason hirst first name (without "n") as a surname.

Matti

[brewerjerry]

Originally Posted by Matti Salonen

Jerry, correct name is Wendelin Woll. You have for some reason hirst first name (without "n") as a surname.

Matti

Hi Matti,
Many thanks for the info.
Cheers
Jerry

[bearoutwest]

Gentlemen,
Thank you all for your input. It's all starting to cross-reference itself nicely.

Regards,
...geoff