Seeking crash location, presumably France, for Recon Do17P of 4.(F)/121 Missing on 28.03.40

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

This information relates to a missing Do17P that disappeared on 28 March 1940:

"28 March 1940: 4.(F)/121 Dornier Do17P-1 (4166). Failed to return from reconnaissance of airfields south of Toul. (Ff) Lt Felix Böcher, (Beo) Fw Georg Mikusky, and (Bf) Uffz Franz Mückisch killed. Aircraft 100% write-off."

Does anybody have any information on what happened to this a/c and where it came down with all crew killed? Based upon its mission, it probably crashed somewhere in France on 28.03.40, or perhaps overnight. Toul is in NE France, far from any coastline, so you would expect that it came down on land somewhere in France. If it came down on land, do any photos exist of the crash?

Thanx for any help.

[ARADO001]

Hello Larry,
This is what I found on VDK. The crew are all buried at Andilly War Cemetery, France - Block 15, Row 4, Graves 270 (FF), 267 (BO) and 268 (BF) respectively. The loss area is given as Mancourt but it probably should be Marcourt, near Rendeux, province Luxemburg in Belgium. Hope this info is usefull.

Best regards,

Patrick

[Larry Hickey]

Patrick,

I've forwarded this on to Peter Cornwell, our LW Loss List manager, to see what he says. This suggests that the plane may have come down in Belgium and not France, although the cemetery is in France. Obviously this as an incident that merits further research. A loss well before the main blitzkrieg on 10 May should be well documented in the records of either France or Belgium, whichever place the plane crashed. Any additional information on this one, either photos or the specific crash place, that anyone can locate will be much appreciated.

[ARADO001]

Hello Larry,

There also exists a small village named Moncourt, east of Nancy, Département Moselle in France. This might be a better candidate for the crash location because they were on a sortie to Toul which is west of Nancy.

Regards,
Patrick

[Bertrand H]

Hi Larry,


According to the war diary of Forces Aériennes 103 the "claim" for this loss is to the meteorologist of FA 103 the slt Cubast !

Why ? because there is an heavy snow storm and the a/c crashed at 10 NW of Etain at Maucourt.

It is Maucourt-sur-Orne (Meuse)

Bertrand

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Great work on this one. It would appear that this a/c is no longer missing, but crashed due to bad weather, a heavy snowstorm, at Maucourt-sur-Orne (Meuse), 10 kms NW of Etain, France. This is in the same part of NE France as its mission target, Toul. So this all fits.

Now that we know the correct loss details, we still need to find photos for this one, which would be 7A+_M. We're likely looking for a Do17P smashed to pieces somewhere near Maucourt-sur-Orne around the end of March, 1940. Anybody got any photos of that one?

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Bertrand has cracked the story and location of this "missing" Do17. Peter C. has now revised this entry to read:

"28 March 1940 Western Front Amend: 4.(F)/121 Dornier Do17P-1 (4166). Met adverse weather conditions during reconnaissance of airfields south of Toul and crashed in a heavy snow storm at Maucourt-sur-Orne, north-west of Etain. FF Lt Felix Böcher, BO Fw Georg Mikusky, and BF Uffz Franz Mückisch all killed. Aircraft 100% write-off. (Bertrand)"

I still hope that we can find photos of this crash site, which will probably only yield only badly smashed wreckage.

My thanx for your help in getting the story on this one correct.