Above; Czech Aero 101
Below; franz. Beute Flugzeug Caudron C.445 Goéland (Innenraum Cockpit)
Below; C.445 "TE+WC" was no 945/9681 which left the factory on 17 January 1943 for the Luftwaffe to serve with FFS A2. On 16 April 1944 this machine made an emergency landing near Luxeuil after coming under attack by Allied fighters - damages assessed at 40%. It was repaired and reported at Toulouse in December 1945 and served with GC I/3 from January to March 1946. It was destroyed in a takeoff accident at Friedrichshafen on 17 March 1946.
According to F. Picard in his 1976 book "L'Epopée de Renault" the Germans discovered some 75 part-constructed C.445 Goélands at Issy les Moulineaux in June 1940 and subsequently requested that these be completed and handed over to the Luftwaffe as 'war booty'. In view of the fact that all these machines were part of a French government order and had been already partly paid for, the directors of Caudron requested an order to this effect from the Vichy authorities enabling an 'official' restarting of the production line. In the end Vichy 'ordered' and financed the completion of construction on these 75 aircraft, took delivery of them and then handed them over to the German authorities. The first C.445 completed for the Germans was no. 253 delivered to the Luftwaffe on 6 September 1940. Johannes Kaufmann;
".. we liked flying the C.445 and we had good 'specialists' on hand to give advice. It was a nice machine and featured one innovation - the radio compass.."
It is an indisputable fact that French industry was responsible for training hundreds of German fighter and bomber pilots and radio operators - also leaving German industry free to produce those more 'important' types. In total some 515 C.445s were constructed for the Luftwaffe from new. In late 1942 those C.445s still in the former 'zone libre' were shared out with the Italians. Heinz J. Nowarra;
".. During 1942-44 when I worked for Junkers at their factories throughout central Germany I often saw C.445 Goélands in the air, most notably over Nietleben (Halle) where there was a radio operators' training school. The C5 FFS pilots school at Neubrandenburg also used the type. The aircraft also served for liaison and communication flights. The ace Marseille's outfit -I./JG 27 - had at least one of them in North Africa. The Goéland was also employed as an air-sea rescure type. "SK+XM" was used by III./JG 2 while 'CD+YF' flew the commanders of L.fl. 2 to Italy.."
from Cortet and Espérou in "Le Caudron Goéland" - the first aircraft monograph from Lela Presse (undated)
