Caudron CR. 714 in the Battle for France - GC 1/145 ('Les Polonais de Varsovie')

..the following is based on Grzegorz Slizewski's book  "The Lost Hopes - Polish fighters over France " with some important corrections and additional material from Comas/Ledet 'The Caudron Fighters' published by Lela Presse and the highly recommended book "Les aviateurs polonais en France" (B. Belcarz, Artipresse).

On 17 February 1940 French Air Minister Guy La Chambre signed an agreement with Polish General Sikorsky to establish a Polish fighter Group comprising two escadrilles in the Armee de l'Air. This would naturally be established from the DIAP (Depot d'instruction de l'Aviation Polonaise - Polish air training centre) then based in Lyon. On the opening day of the German offensive in the West, 10 May, the Poles of CG 1/145 were in Lyon with just a handful of Ms 406s and CR. 714s.  'Defence flights' for the city were quickly formed and the aircraft relocated to Mions outside Lyons - from where the air raid warnings sounded from the city could just about be heard (radios were defective). Eager to fight with whatever types the French could supply, the Poles had been accumulating training time on the CR. 714 even before the 'official' establishment of the first 'French' Polish fighter squadron. The first Caudrons arrived at Lyon-Bron during March 1940. But it was not originally envisaged that they would be deployed in combat. The French knew full well that the light-weight Caudron powered by its small Renault engine would be severely outclassed by Luftwaffe types, so had used the type as a cheap 'training' machine. But in the end there were no other types available in numbers. By 21 May some 16 machines had been taken on strength and the Groupe had relocated to Villacoublay, south of Paris (part of the 23rd Groupement de chassse) and close to the Caudron factory at Guyancourt for further deliveries. The French Minister of Air, Guy La Chambre, inspected GC 1/145 ('Les Polonais de Varsovie') on 25 May. The aircraft were being delivered straight from the production line and presented a litany of defects forcing the minister to  suspend all flying on the "Cyclone". He was told about the aircraft's poor climb rate, a weak landing gear and its faulty lowering mechanism, as well as an imperfect propeller pitch-changing device, engine cowling 'ballooning' during dives and unreliable dashboard instruments. While the Minister's reaction was perhaps the proper one, it served to deprive the Polish pilots in France of the only aircraft available to them. The French Air Ministry had originally ordered the Armee de l'Air to equip the Poles with the Bloch 152, aircraft which were not available. Despite Polish pilots having more hours on the Ms 406 they were not offered these aircraft either far less the D.520 - types for which they were probably not considered 'suitable'. The very next day, they elected to continue flying the defective Caudrons. On 2 June the squadron moved to the airfield at Dreux, some 30 km west of Paris. There were no facilities on the field and it was not until the ground echelon arrived that the aircraft could be dispersed and carefully camouflaged around the airfield. Two days later, the Poles finally received the long-awaited radios. Up to that point, they scrambled at the signal of an automobile horn. To beef up GC II/10, on 5 June the squadron was ordered to patrol in the Rouen area. This was done by Flight "B". Half an hour later, Flight "A" was moved to Bretingy-sur-Orge, south of Paris, with the task of defending the French capitol. The next day, the squadron was charged with the same duties.

In the evening of June 6, the squadron was attached to the 42eme Groupement de Chasse, defending a sector of the Seine Valley between Vernon and Meulan.

Two three-aircraft reconnaissance flights on the route Meulan-Magny-en-Vexin-Fleury-sur-Andelle-Vernon and along the Seine were the squadron's only activity on 7 June. The next day found the squadron with twenty-one serviceable aircraft. The remaining thirteen required much attention from the ground crews. Some were being generally checked after forced landings, while multiple tasks were performed on others; changing a stabilizer or rudder, replacing Plexiglas in a cockpit, a carburettor, parts of an electrical installation, and so on. That day "A" Flight was assigned to GC II/10. At 15:54 a section of five aircraft, led by kpt. Wczelik, took off to patrol over the Vernon-Meulan area. South of Rouen, the Poles attacked a group of about twenty Messerschmit 110 Cs of III./ ZG 26 escorting a group of Stukas. After several months of inaction the Poles were spoiling for a fight. They landed at 17:10. Officers Wczelik and Czerwinski claimed victories, but none of the other pilots saw the enemy aircraft crash. Commander Kepinski recognized only one of them as probable but soon after, around the area of that clash, the wreck of a single Me-110 was found, all five Polish pilots receiving a victory share as was usual French practise.

 por. Tadeusz Czerwinski  kpt. Wczelik, ppor. Aleksy Zukowski, ppor. Jerzy Godlewski and kpr. Piotr Zaniewski were credited with one Bf 110 each - for one aircraft shot down.  Belcarz points out that the only Bf 110 losses were over the German-Swiss border zone while in Comas/Ledet one notable French historian argues that the German loss does not appear in most recognised sources (including Vasco and Cornwell) since it was not reported until later in the year. The squadron suffered no losses, but most of the aircraft were shot-up and temporarily unserviceable.

At Bernay, on 9 June the squadron joined up with Flight "B", to fly a sweep at full strength over the front-line area. Eighteen aircraft took off at 2:30 p.m. Led by maj. Kepinski were Commandant de Marmier, kpt. Laguna, kpt. Wczelik,por. Zdzislaw Zadrozinski, por. Jan Obuchowski, por. Julian Kowalski, ppor. Czeslaw Glowczynski, ppor. Jerzy Czerniak, ppor. Lech Lachowicki-Czechowicz,ppor. Jerzy Godlewski, ppor. Bronislaw Skibinski, sierz. Jan Palak, plut. Andrzej Niewiara, plut. Mieczyslaw Parafinski and kpr. Edward Uchto. Over Vernon, the squadron attacked an enemy formation of about 50 Dornier Do 17s escorted by about 20 Bf 109s. Due to  radio malfunction the attack was poorly coordinated.

 Czeslaw Glowczynski recalled;

 ".. My radio didn't work so I wasn't aware of any warnings. I soon noticed a group of about 30 Bf 109s, some 3,000 feet below. Since our leader didn't react. I come close to him and waggled my wings. I pointed down; he nodded to indicate that he had seen them and continued straight and level. I gave him a sign that I would attack. I thought that at least a part of our group would follow me in this attack, but I found myself alone, with the exception of my wingman, ppr. Czerniak. Our position was advantageous since we attacked from above, with the sun behind us. At top speed, I swept down on the rearmost Bf 109. The swiftness of my attack caused the whole German formation to break up. One of them went down steeply, smoking heavily. Immediately, I went after another one, which, after few bursts, crashed in a forest south of Rouen. I was then shot at from behind. Several bullets came near my head and shattered my instrument panel. I managed to force land on a front-line strip at Evreux. Czerniak got one Bf 109 as well, and he landed with me. It took the whole evening to fix my machine and I returned to the unit the next day.."

 Jerzy Czerniak recalled;

 "... The weather was beautiful and flying in the direction of our assigned zone of operation, we were climbing slowly. At 12 or 15 thousand, we started to look for game. For over thirty minutes, the flight was uneventful, and looking at Czeslaw, I could tell that he was greatly disappointed that there were no Huns around. That's when I saw aluminium flashes  glinting below us. I gave Czeslaw a sign, and we altered our course a little to put the sun directly behind us. Next, Czeslaw dived and I followed him, releasing the safety catch on my armament in case there was a scrap. And there was  one. We closed on the Messerschmitts and Czeslaw coolly positioned himself right behind one of them and opened fire. Others maneuvered themselves behind Czeslaw who continued spraying his wiggling victim. All this time, I flew behind my colleague, observing the scene. One Messerschmitt started to shoot at him and that's when I intervened. I jumped at the German and gave him a burst right in the cockpit. He must have got it since he flipped over, going down. I served him another portion and stayed with him till he crashed into a French farmer's yard.."

(p55 Comas/Ledet - The Caudron fighters)

 Ppor. Glowczynski was credited with one Bf 109 destroyed and one damaged, while ppor. Czerniak got one Bf 109 destroyed. Plut. Parafinski also scored, destroying a Bf 109, while kpt. Wczelik and sierz. Markiewicz shared one Dornier 17 destroyed. Two planes crashed south of Andelys and others near Louviers. This time, the squadron suffered a loss of three pilots. Killed in action were por. Obuchowski, ppor. Lachowicki-Czechowicz and kpr. Uchto. por. Kowalski was slighty wounded, while ppor. Godlewski force landed at Villacoblay. The rest of the pilots landed at 3:50 p.m. A few aircraft were unserviceable. Godlewski tried to join his unit on a new plane but nose-dived during the takeoff. He come out of the accident unscathed, but couldn't catch up with the squadron. The Poles clashed with the Emils of II./JG 27 (some sources state III./JG 26). The pilots from this unit claimed three Moranes shot down. Credited with victories were: Gruppenkomandeur Hauptmann Werner Andres, Feldwebel Karl Witzel and Feldwebel Karl-Heinz Bendert. In reality, the Luftwaffe lost three Bf 109s. Leutnant Hans Bosch ( Hptm. Andres wingman ) and Feldwebel Karl-Heinz Kranich become POWs. Leutnant Hermann Kugler went missing. Slightly wounded, Hptm. Andres force landed near Creil...

Below;  when CG 1/145 evacuated the airfield at Dreux they left behind some fifteen Caudrons. The reverse of the image below - an expired Ebay.de auction - is captioned, 'Dreux 22 July 1940'. Compare with the image on page 180 of  "Les aviateurs polonais en France" (B. Belcarz, Artipresse). First machine visible "1" is the aircraft assigned to plut. Markiewicz.

Above; reproduced on p55 of the Comas/Ledet title and p181 of the Belcarz ' Les aviateurs polonais en France', three 2e escadrille machines at Dreux on 22 June 'white 10 and 'white 13' with 'white 7' in the background. 'White 13' was flown by the future 56th FG ace Boleslaw Gladych. 

1/145 pilots had 12 victories 'officially' confirmed (Bf 110s, Do 17s and four Bf 109s) for the loss of 3 Caudron pilots KIA. Ppor. Jerzy Godlewski -officially MIA- reached England and joined 72 Sqd

"The Caudron fighters - the Cr. 714 and variants" authored by Matthieu Comas and Michel Ledet 

"Les aviateurs polonais en France" (B. Belcarz, Artipresse).

And a rare page-view look into the huge Belcarz book on the Cr. 714 "Cyclone" - details of the cockpit/instrument panel

Dr Belcarz founder of Stratus and Mushroom recently succumbed to cancer RIP

Latécoère 298 torpedo bomber in the Battle for France

"..On 23 May 1940 some eighteen Latécoère 298s dive-bombed bridges and road junctions between Boulogne and the river Somme...".  (William Green in 'Warplanes of the Second World War' volume 6)

The best aircraft in the world in its class in 1939 according to Morareau and Ledet in their book " Le Latécoère 298 ". First flown in May 1936, at the outbreak of the war, Laté 298s were operated by no fewer than seven escadrilles de Torpillage in the Aéronavale. But the Latécoère 298 never launched a torpedo in anger, being largely deployed on missions for which it was hardly suited and for which its crews had not been trained - bombing and ground-strafing missions against German columns in northern France. The following account provides a rare glimpse (in English) of the reality of what happened to the Latécoère 298-equipped escadrilles (squadrons) of the French naval air arm in May 1940..

Having evacuated Boulogne on 21 May 1940 and come under fire from French anti-aircraft guns over Dieppe, the Latécoère 298s of escadrilles T2 and T3 had reached the relative safety of Cherbourg on the Cotentin Peninsula.

On the morning of 23 May, led by their CO, Lt de vaisseau Marraud, six Laté 298s of escadrille T3 were airborne at 05h00 from Cherbourg tasked with bombing any German armour encountered in the vicinity of Boulogne ; the secondary target was the rail bridge over the shipping canal near Noyelles-sur-Mer. Marraud's T3.1 was hit by anti-aircraft fire south of Boulogne, succeeded in getting as far as Outreau before being hit again and having to carry out an emergency ditching off the Cap d’Alprecht, south of Boulogne (off Le Portel). Marraud and his crew escaped unhurt. Second-maitre Etienne in T3.2 had escorted the CO out to sea and ensured that his crew were picked up by the French torpedo boat Mistral. Crossing back over the coast in search of targets Etienne strafed anti-aircraft positions on the Samer-Montreuil road. He jettisoned his bombs before returning to Cherbourg, his munitions exhausted. Near Le Touquet, two more sections (2x2 aircraft) were also met by anti-aircraft fire but there were no German columns on the road. The aircraft jettisoned their bombs on the Noyelles bridge over the Somme - without hitting it - and returned to Cherbourg at 09h25. Two other  Laté 298s were reportedly shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109s.

At 10h09 on the morning of 23 May, four Latécoère 298 floatplanes from escadrille T2 were dispatched from Cherbourg  to find and bomb German armour reported between Samer and Boulogne. Lt de vaisseau Jacques Lamiot was one of the pilots who flew the mission and he later recalled;

"... We overflew the coast at Boulogne and followed the road in the direction of Abbeville. Keeping our eyes peeled we scoured the road and the surrounding areas but could spot no signs of life, neither friendly nor enemy, neither civil nor military. We headed back to Boulogne flying at 1,000 metres, a height that would enable us to thwart any diving attack and which allowed us to be able to see what might have been hiding under the tree cover. Suddenly we were caught in a hail of anti-aircraft fire. Initially we were unable to spot where it was coming from although my gunner finally indicated that he could see muzzle flashes some way behind us. With there being no sign of any armour the decision was made to attack this battery which was on a small hill. I gave the signal. But while we'd had our eyes fixed on the ground we had failed to take notice of a line of fighters some way off heading in our direction and which, based on the assurances that I had been given prior to departure, I had assumed were RAF aircraft defending the sector. Just as I was about to let down on a firing pass I found myself caught up in a burst of tracers; what I took for Hurricanes were in fact Messerschmitt Bf 109s and the lead aircraft just avoided colliding with me by a whisker..."   (Icare No 61)

The  Laté 298s of T2 paid a heavy price - Lv Lamiot carried out an emergency landing, engine ablaze, his gunner (Quartier-maître Paul) dead and his radio operator (Second-maître Thénaisie) badly injured. In the Laté flown by EV1 Huet, his gunner, SM Coucal was killed before the pilot ordered his radio operator to take to his chute; Huet put down at sea but the Me 109s strafed the aircraft injuring the pilot. T2-2 got back to Cherbourg QM Payol wounded while T2-4 was reported missing ; the crew (seconds-maitres Halgand and Le Pezron, both wounded and quartier-maître Tassel, who died of his injuries) were taken captive. At 12h15, four more Latés from Cherbourg attacked the Fort de la Crèche (a coastal battery outside Boulogne) : although the target was hit, information that the Fort had been occupied proved unfounded. There were no losses. Later that afternoon four Laté 298s of T2 carried out a strike on a rail bridge over the Abbeville canal at St Valéry sur Somme, which the Laté 298s of T3 had failed to hit that morning. The sortie was again a failure but all the aircraft returned.

(Below; Laté 298 downed on 23 May 1940)

Feldzug im Westen - campaign in the West 1940

an evocative (and occasionally gruesome) album belonging to a Luftwaffensoldat who, according to the seller served in the close reconnaissance Nahaufklärergruppe 12 during the invasion of France. At the time of writing the auction still has five days left to run here. The album opens with pictures of men lounging around on their satellite field in the Eifel (Bitburg) during April 1940 and takes in all the 'hot-spots' of the French campaign from Sedan to Amiens via Hesdin and Le Touquet. One shot is even captioned in French, " c'est la guerre" - this is war ! Towards the end of the album there is a picture of German  field artillery (I presume) photographed in Boulogne-sur-Mer - the guns are lined up along the quayside in the town (Sealion preparations?). Some of the final shots in the album depict Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe Hermann Göring in Wissant, which is a small village just along the (Channel) coastal road from Cap Blanc Nez (four miles south of Calais) the white cliffs that look out across to Dover, Kent, England. Click on the images for a full screen view.

Arsenal VG 33

Interesting French fighter type that has featured on the Luftwaffe blog before, including rare views of the machine being tested at Rechlin courtesy of Jean-Yves Lorant.

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/arsenal-vg-33-tested-by-luftwaffe-at.html


The Arsenal VG 33 was the most visible model of a ‘family’ of light, fast and manoeuvrable French fighter types being developed during 1939 - 1940 to replace the Ms 406. In fact many sources quote the VG 33 – of which only a handful of examples approached service due to production difficulties – as being somewhat superior to the Dewoitine D.520 although this judgement is dubious...read more here

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/arsenal-vg-33.html


Two views -new to me- of an Arsenal VG 33 still under French ownership (judging by the beret-wearing figure in the lower image) courtesy of Kurmark Antik and shown here courtesy of the seller Oliver Rogge - click on the images for a full screen view..

Note the alternative ventral radiator configuration in the lower image - this prominent feature may have made operations from grass strips somewhat problematical

Kurmark Antik's current Ebay sales listings can be viewed here

http://www.ebay.de/sch/kurmark-antik/m.html?item=390605754676&pt=Militaria&autorefresh=true&hash=item5af1ead134&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Daily Ebay Luftwaffe photo find - Fw 190 JG 26, Galland's Bf 109 Emil WNr. 5819, Willi Nemitz 6./ JG 52 RK award ceremony, Hptm Hans-Karl Mayer I./ JG 53

A slightly different angle on WNr. 5819 - nice image - click to see the full view. Galland took over this machine on 7 September 1940 and returned his 31st victory on 11 September 1940. It was his 'regular' aircraft until mid-April 1941. The 'victory' markings were painted on a pale blue panel either in red or black - see "Galland's Emil" by Michael Payne in Aviation News, May 1992. Over the winter of 1940-41 this aircraft was thoroughly overhauled, repainted in the new grey colours (RLM 74/75/76) and re-engined..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOP-FOTO-GRUPPE-ME-109-STAFFELWAPPEN-ABSCHUSSE-/330841568573?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

and two more recent views of WNr. 5819

See these pages elsewhere on this blog devoted to Galland's Emils and Friedrichs

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/adolf-gallands-emil-and-friedrich.html

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/der-reichsmarschall-bei-oberst-galland.html

http://falkeeins.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/galland-bf109-e-4n.html

 Ofw Willi Nemitz of 6./ JG 52 (7th from the left in the front, first image below) following his Knight's Cross 'award ceremony' held in the field, late March 1943 Anapa/Taman. 4th from the right, wearing the Feldmütze, is Lt. Günther Kurz, an ace who achieved 33 victories and who was KIA on 11 October 1943. The two aces are photographed here with men of the Ungarn (Hungarian) Staffel. Nemitz filed some 81 claims before being KIA -  in combat with Russian fighters on 11 April 1944 eye witnesses saw his aircraft plunge  earthwards out of the cloud deck north of Nishne-Bakanskaja and bury itself deep in the ground. He was given the rank of Leutnant posthumously. The aircraft that serves as backdrop to these images is Bf 109 G-4 "gelbe 3" WNr. 14898, which is the machine in which the ace went to his death....

http://www.ebay.de/sch/m.html?item=380531144984&pt=Militaria&hash=item58996c7918&_ssn=macflly41&_pgn=2&_skc=25&rt=nc

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Foto-Westfront-Flugzeug-FW-190-Focke-Wulf-Kennung-4-11-Flugplatz-orig-/380533737935?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Another view of 'brown 4' from II./ JG 26 as featured in Der Adler, May 1942

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Fotos-Messerschmitt-ME-109-JG53-Bordkanonne-Charleville-Frankreich-1940-/300829449228?pt=Militaria&hash=item460ad51c0c&_uhb=1

Atmospheric views of Charleville, north-west of Sedan and briefly home to Gruppen of JG 53 during the Westfeldzug..also on offer from this seller, two later portraits of one of JG 53's leading aces during the campaign in the West, Hans-Karl Mayer, subject of a recent Chris Goss Flypast feature. Mayer was awarded the RK during September 1940, but disappeared on a test flight over the Channel during October - he was most probably caught up in a fight with RAF fighters, but according to at least one German-language source had taken off with unloaded magazines. His body was washed up on the beach between Dover and Folkestone and he was subsequently buried in the cemetery at Hawkinge where he still lies, a rare Luftwaffe Ritterkreuztraeger still on British soil...

some current Ebay seller listings - "Histofakto" Bf 109 Emil 'white 5' JG 27

Here is a link to the Ebay sales of French seller histofakto who is currently featuring sales from the albums of a veteran of Flak Rgt. 49

below - Bf109 E-4 (E-3?), "Weisse 5" 1./ JG 27 taken at De Panne (La Panne) in the vicinity of Dunkirk during May 1940. Thanks to 'ouidjat' for the pointer. This same beached Emil has appeared on Ebay on a number of occasions recently. Camouflage style and number size are typical for I./JG 27 in early 40s. The fact there is no I./JG 27 emblem is also typical for that period and unit.

The Hs 123 with the Schlacht 'Mickey' emblem is also advertised as being photograhed in France above. More Histo-Fakto sales from the albums of Private James V Ferry, ASN 33148634, born 1918 in Harrisburg (Penn.), member of the 3rd Armoured Division

Sales listing for seller dok.archiv