searching for Potez, few polish precisions I/55

[Mattcom]

Hi every body
I'm junior on this forum but i have one question and i want to say one or two things about the "big" post auround 14th of my good friend "Petit Poucet" !

As some knows on this forum (Many or Petit Poucet for examples) i'm working for long times around the "strange" I/55 unit who take place in France at : Etampes, Villacoublay, Tours, Avord and finaly Bordeaux at the end of june. Pilots were french, czech & polish. There is no archive around this unit but after more than ten years of reasearch and many friends help the history is now quite clear and i hope i'll finish a book in less than a year...

As my other french colleague : sorry for my poor english !

So first, i would like to had some precisions around things i read on the forum :
- Zumbach critics around french : in his report of his activity in France Zumbach is really critic (agressive ?) against french. He's angry and it's very comprehensive because he was not put in a very operationnal and very organised unit ! Planes were in awful conditions, no alert system... and more. So is feeling is very natural. But feeling is not truth... when he says polish and czech flyed more than french it's wrong. I've log book from most of french and most of polish (thanks to my friend Bartek)... and they do, all in all, the same hours of flying from may to june...

- victories : i can say it today MOST of things (even by me ) written around th fight of 3rd june is wrong.
Karubin was never credited of any victorie at this date and do not mention anything in his log book. So Franek is right.
Benausse... never flew at Etampes, he was at Avord base and his victories happen 5th june (i met him and i have his log book).
Balmer fight but didn't claim any victories (his victories came from and wrong interpretation of his citation - who don't have any date - in truth he claims victories at the end of may > log book source. But franek's citation can let us imagine that Karubin participate).
Zumbach and Krasnodebski fight but by technical problems were not able to do anything... The french DOucet and the Czech Vopalecky were shot down. At the end a catastrophic fight with no victories and two losses...

Last details : Zumbach didn't have any victories in France. Mister Brown is a complete "romance". The only valuable source is his testimony available at Sikorski institute.

I do not want to create any debates, but the history of this unit touch me so... I read a lot of french and polish reports and as always things depend of people. In some case relations wher friendly and really good (GC III/1, Tours, Henneberg at Châteauroux...) and sometimes really bad...
But i have to say that i've been shocked by some french report around poles wich are unobjective and pretentious, most of them do not come frome "fighters" but from headquarter...

So now i have to say if some have more details around Etampes DAT patrols i'm really open

And now my question :
I'm searching for pic (even bad or ebay capture) of a Potez 63.11.
a bit of history : Tours DAt pilots used Potez, and one as shot down. For long time this loss was undetailled but recent documents from a veteran give me details : the plane was losse early in the morning by flak near Chartres on may 17th. This Potez COULD BE (i'm not sure) n°247...
So if someone can help me...

Best regards to all and sorry again for my poor english !

Matt

[Franek Grabowski]

Hi Matt
I am afraid that most of the questions should be addressed to Zumbach himself, but as he passed away more than 20 years ago, we will probably never know, especially as you have already noted, his book seems rather fictional in parts (That said, actual event were often even more fascinating). The one must not overestimate value of a log book, however. Its quality is often depending on pilot, who owned it (but not necessarily filed), and it is not uncommon that some entries were back dated.
Nonetheless, I must note, that harsh comments, like a Zumbach's one, were quite common. It is sad, that nobody bothered with them some 30-20 or even 10 years ago, when it was possible to explain with participants. There is perhaps a handful of Polish pilots of French Campaign left, not to mention their health.
Cheers

[Mattcom]

i'm fully right with you !