French P-39 Airacobra crash (July 1945, Switzerland)

[uhebeisen]

I am looking for information about two P-39 Q that were lost in Switzerland short after WWII has ended. These two Airacobras were flying along the river Rhein on a low level flight on 16. July 1945 (cloudy, bad weather) from (probably) Basel towards the lake of Constance. Near Eglisau they crashed into the hill (Irchel). There has been a story about this accident in the Swiss Newspaper "Tagesanzeiger" in December 2017.
Can anybody give more information about these two aircrafts (escadrilles, colors, armament). The names of the pilots are known as Sgt Francois de Laurens and Francois Delvolvé they were both killed in the accident. Getting in contact with a Swiss hisotrian I know that one P-39 did have the number 43914 and it had a four blade propeller. Therefore I assume that they were P-39Q versions.

I would like to know as much as possible about these two aircrafts, maybe I will then build them in scale 1:72 as models. It would also be very interesting to know where these Airacobras were come from and what their mission was.
Maybe they were on a routine flight from France to the french occupation zone in southern Germany. According to the sparse information I currently have they could belong to the GC I/9 "Limousin" or the GC II/9 "Auvergne".

 

[P-39 Expert]

Well, I'm embarrassed that I don't know.

 

[uhebeisen]

hello P-39 Expert,
but you know about the P-39 serving in the Free French Airforce, don't you? I am trying to bring all the information about these "Escadres" together. It's like a puzzle
I am not very familiar with the French story during WW2 especially not regarding their airforce. I have to start from zero.
What I know so far is that one of those two aircrafts carries the number 43914 (Bell serial 44-3914) this was a P-39Q 21 with a four blade propeller. She was flown by Sgt François de Laurens-Chasteltet.
It was big luck for me to find a photo of that particular aircraft in the old magazine Aero Journal No 39. The photo is signed with "Collection T. Mutin". If anyone knows about that collection that would help me to get the original photo maybe.
On the photo one can see that there isn't a number on the front of the fuselage (as most of the french fighters carry) and the spinner won't be yellow (it is to dark on the photo), therefore I assume it could be red. This aircraft belongs to the 1ère Escadrille of CG 2/9 Auvergne located in La Vallon during that time.

 

[captain Frey]

Hello,
you can ask on this french forum :
Master194.com - Page d'index

Good luck !

 

[fubar57]

Here are the French Squadrons...

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...I'll go through the book and see what I can find.

 

[fubar57]

Nothing. The squadrons are listed on Pg. 98. It says they received -Ns and then some -Qs but by then the much preferred P-47 was being flown. The latter page numbers talk about the P-63

 

[GrauGeist]

Is it entirely possible that they were attached to the Soviet Air Force?
Many French pilots flew for the VVS and the Soviets had an extensive P-39 inventory.

 

[uhebeisen]

I think the French Free Airforce gets their aircraft as part of the "lend-lease act" and yes the P-39 were "N" and (in my particular case) "Q" variants. Sure all units would prefer either the P-47 or the P-51 as they are much more powerfull. They P63 Kingcobra is a improved version of the Airacobra.
The article in the Aero Journal No39 describes the one aircraft as from "1ère Escadrille of CG 2/9". And in your book furbar57 it depends wether it covers the unit during the war or even so after the war. The accident in Switzerland happend just 8 weeks (or so) after the war ends in Europe.

 

[Milosh]

You could ask here, Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum - Powered by vBulletin Lots of knowledge on crashed a/c there.