Question sur le vol des AF I-16 républicains espagnols vers la France ?

[FLYBOYJ]

J'ai lu "Some Still Live" du pilote mercenaire Frank Tinker. Il était dans un escadron (1ère Escuadrilla de Chatos) commandé par Andrés García La Calle. D'après ce que je comprends, García La Calle est finalement devenu le commandant des opérations de combat républicain. À la fin de la guerre, García La Calle a envoyé un lot d'I-16 (et peut-être d'autres chasseurs) en France (pour éviter qu'ils ne tombent entre les mains des nationalistes) où lui et ses collègues pilotes ont été arrêtés (c'est une autre histoire). Quelqu'un a-t-il des informations supplémentaires à ce sujet, des photos de l'avion confisqué, de leur disparition définitive ?

 

[nuuumannn]

Hi Joe, I'd never heard of this before, so I did some digging and found this:

"Wishing to make some original "aviation" envelopes on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War, I decided to commemorate the landing of Republican aircraft in France on February 6, 1939.

"Below, profile that I made of the Polikarpov I-16 CM-244 based on a photo of the aircraft published in Docavia n°8. During the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, many Republican planes sought refuge in France. Among these was the Polikarpov I-16 CM-244 which took off from Villajuiga with the CM-193 and 202 and landed on its stomach near Bordeaux on February 6, 1939.

"Based on the field of Vilajuiga, the last Republican airfield in the northern zone, José FALCO took off on February 6, 1939 at the controls of the Polikarpov I-15 CA-205 to try to reach the Toulouse Francazal airfield in France. He was accompanied by the I-15 CA-077 and CA-230. Attacked by Messerschmitt 109 of the J-88 squadron, José FALCO shot down two of them before having to re-land in disaster on his starting ground. José FALCO, ace of the Spanish Republican Aviation with 8 victories, will still join France with the hundreds of thousands of refugees of the Retirada and will remain there until his death in 2014."

Apparently a Republican DC-2 landed in France in March 1939, too. From here:

06/02/1939 : CHATO et MOSCA sur la FRANCE

Désireux de réaliser quelques enveloppes ''aviation'' originales à l'occasion du 80eme anniversaire de la fin de la guerre d'Espagne...

philatelie-aviation.blogspot.com

Andrés García La Calle landed at Toulouse-Francazal aerodrome and was interned in a rather nasty concentration camp near Perpignan.

Andrés García La Calle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Argelers concentration camp - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Photos might be difficult to come by, but there is a magazine reference above, Docavia No.8.

I hope this helps a little.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Hi Joe, I'd never heard of this before, so I did some digging and found this:

"Wishing to make some original "aviation" envelopes on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War, I decided to commemorate the landing of Republican aircraft in France on February 6, 1939.

"Below, profile that I made of the Polikarpov I-16 CM-244 based on a photo of the aircraft published in Docavia n°8. During the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, many Republican planes sought refuge in France. Among these was the Polikarpov I-16 CM-244 which took off from Villajuiga with the CM-193 and 202 and landed on its stomach near Bordeaux on February 6, 1939.

"Based on the field of Vilajuiga, the last Republican airfield in the northern zone, José FALCO took off on February 6, 1939 at the controls of the Polikarpov I-15 CA-205 to try to reach the Toulouse Francazal airfield in France. He was accompanied by the I-15 CA-077 and CA-230. Attacked by Messerschmitt 109 of the J-88 squadron, José FALCO shot down two of them before having to re-land in disaster on his starting ground. José FALCO, ace of the Spanish Republican Aviation with 8 victories, will still join France with the hundreds of thousands of refugees of the Retirada and will remain there until his death in 2014."

Apparently a Republican DC-2 landed in France in March 1939, too. From here:

06/02/1939 : CHATO et MOSCA sur la FRANCE

Désireux de réaliser quelques enveloppes ''aviation'' originales à l'occasion du 80eme anniversaire de la fin de la guerre d'Espagne...

philatelie-aviation.blogspot.com

Andrés García La Calle landed at Toulouse-Francazal aerodrome and was interned in a rather nasty concentration camp near Perpignan.

Andrés García La Calle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Argelers concentration camp - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Photos might be difficult to come by, but there is a magazine reference above, Docavia No.8.

I hope this helps a little.

THANK YOU!!! I posted this twice, figured that maybe one of our French speaking members might know something!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Exactly what I was looking for! Yes, that concentration camp was horrible! Something I would have expected better from France as they somewhat supported the Republicans. What's funny is Andrés García La Calle son became a movie star in Mexico! Andrés García - Wikipedia

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Hi Joe, I'd never heard of this before, so I did some digging and found this:

"Wishing to make some original "aviation" envelopes on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War, I decided to commemorate the landing of Republican aircraft in France on February 6, 1939.

"Below, profile that I made of the Polikarpov I-16 CM-244 based on a photo of the aircraft published in Docavia n°8. During the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, many Republican planes sought refuge in France. Among these was the Polikarpov I-16 CM-244 which took off from Villajuiga with the CM-193 and 202 and landed on its stomach near Bordeaux on February 6, 1939.

"Based on the field of Vilajuiga, the last Republican airfield in the northern zone, José FALCO took off on February 6, 1939 at the controls of the Polikarpov I-15 CA-205 to try to reach the Toulouse Francazal airfield in France. He was accompanied by the I-15 CA-077 and CA-230. Attacked by Messerschmitt 109 of the J-88 squadron, José FALCO shot down two of them before having to re-land in disaster on his starting ground. José FALCO, ace of the Spanish Republican Aviation with 8 victories, will still join France with the hundreds of thousands of refugees of the Retirada and will remain there until his death in 2014."

Apparently a Republican DC-2 landed in France in March 1939, too. From here:

06/02/1939 : CHATO et MOSCA sur la FRANCE

Désireux de réaliser quelques enveloppes ''aviation'' originales à l'occasion du 80eme anniversaire de la fin de la guerre d'Espagne...

philatelie-aviation.blogspot.com

Andrés García La Calle landed at Toulouse-Francazal aerodrome and was interned in a rather nasty concentration camp near Perpignan.

Andrés García La Calle - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Argelers concentration camp - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Photos might be difficult to come by, but there is a magazine reference above, Docavia No.8.

I hope this helps a little.

Well it turns out I totally brain farted and remembered I had this book in my library! It is in French but I'll go through it. I'm interested in finding out what France did with all the I-15s and I-16s. So far I seen that some of the larger aircraft (DC-2s) were returned to Spain.

 

[nuuumannn]

Well it turns out I totally brain farted and remembered I had this book in my library! It is in French but I'll go through it. I'm interested in finding out what France did with all the I-15s and I-16s. So far I seen that some of the larger aircraft (DC-2s) were returned to Spain.

I remembered that the Musee de l'Air has an I-153 and that it might have a Spanish Civil War connection, but it doesn't. It was captured by the Germans in Russia and was exhibited in an enemy aircraft exhibition in France and remained stored until after the war, so no help there. I guess you could keep an eye out on French language aviation forums, something might spring out of the woodwork. There might not have been a whole lot of people with personal cameras in Toulouse in the late 1930s, but who knows, something might turn up.

 

[nuuumannn]

Joe, here's a bit more I stumbled on...

José Falcó Sanmartín — Wikipédia

fr.wikipedia.org

"On January 26, 1939, Franco's troops entered Barcelona. The Republican camp has shrunk to a small territory between Barcelona and the French border. The night fighter squadron, which now had only three out of six aircraft, retreated to Vilajuïga,where the last Republican air forces were regrouping. On February 6,the pilot of one of the three Polikarpov I-16s who went on a mission did not return: he passed into the nationalist camp and he told them the positions of the last units. In the afternoon, six Fiat CR 32 fighters strafed the Villajuiga field. José Falcó did not have time to take off and he shot the attackers with a Mexican rifle. He hit an Italian pilot who, injured, had to land further. This victory will not be counted against him. Then new Republican planes arrive, in order to leave in the direction of France. In the morning, new planes appear: they are Messerschmitt. The Polikarpovs took off to escape and reach France. Falcó, in his own, decides to engage in combat. he rushes towards two Messerschmitts by shooting, touching one, crosses them. After turning around, he sees an attacker a Grumman Delfin. He attacks her in turn, unleashes several bursts. In a somewhat "borderline" maneuver, the Chato's engine stops. As it is too low to hope to restart, Falcó lands in gliding flight in a field, more than ten kilometers from the ground. He returns by requisitioning a horse, then a motorcycle. The airfield is deserted. there he finds a Messerschmitt resting on his stomach. The pilot, dying, was finished off and the Republicans deposited his body in a vault in the cemetery of Villajuiga. As for the first aircraft hit, it crashed not far away, killing its pilot.

After these last two victories, he was awarded the rank of captain, but all that remained was to abandon the field. José Falcó reached the French border by car, to Le Boulou, where he hid for several days with some comrades. Then they are taken to the concentration camps of Boulou, then Argelès-sur-Mer, where the living and hygiene conditions are particularly deplorable."

Falco and La Calle were in Argeles-sur-Mer at the same time, although Falco escaped to France by car.

 

[nuuumannn]

I found the following, which explains what happened to the Moscas that went to France:

"On 31 March 1939, the Spanish Republic surrended to the Nationalists.

At that time there were no longer serviceable I-16s in the Central Sector, but many intact ones were found at the High Speed Fighter Training Camp at El Carmoli near Cartagena; further fifteen planes were built with parts of Moscas found in the Servicio de Aviacion y Fabrication SAF-15 factory at Alicante. Seven further I-16s were returned from France to Spain."

From here:

I-16 Type 10

This guy's site is a mine of useful information on the I-16.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I found the following, which explains what happened to the Moscas that went to France:

"On 31 March 1939, the Spanish Republic surrended to the Nationalists.

At that time there were no longer serviceable I-16s in the Central Sector, but many intact ones were found at the High Speed Fighter Training Camp at El Carmoli near Cartagena; further fifteen planes were built with parts of Moscas found in the Servicio de Aviacion y Fabrication SAF-15 factory at Alicante. Seven further I-16s were returned from France to Spain."

From here:

I-16 Type 10

This guy's site is a mine of useful information on the I-16.

Excellent and once again many thanks! Between the book I "rediscovered" and this information, I'm going to have to digest all this. I'm looking to do some modeling of an I-16 and CR-32 side by side. I did a CR 32 many years ago but it got destroyed during some moves.

My last trek on here is to locate information on a pilot who flew with the 4th Mosca Squadron (Groupo 22). His last name was MORALES, LOL! I know he flew a Type 5 I-16 CM 125 as I seen this mentioned a few times in some of the texts I've come across. There's a decal sheet mentioning this as well.

Again many thanks!

 

[nuuumannn]

Again many thanks!

Welcome, Joe, anytime.

That sort of thing is interesting and it adds to collective knowledge. I was kind'a hoping there might be some long lost Mosca sitting in a barn in France somewhere, but alas not.