It is an interesting photo. I would love to learn more about it, especially the propeller.

I wonder where the original poster is at??

:confused:

This actually doesn't look like the plane ditched there. You can see the grass in the background is perfectly alright, no sign of a swath being cut through it.

Additionally, there is no evident combat damage. It rather looks like an abandoned plane that has been set to the outskirt of a makeshift airfield to be stripped off vital parts (armament).

Therefor I'd say it was ferried to France, but before it could receive unit designations the airfield was run over and the crew took out anything they could use for spares and left it lying in the field.

The probability of survival is directly proportional to the angle of arrival......AND speed.


There is not necessarily going to be a ditch behind the airplane. It has clearly made a gear up landing as evidenced by the propeller and it looks like the aircraft has rotated ~120 degrees which is common when the gear collapses / wing drag occurs.

You can set one down gear up and off runway with surprisingly little ground damage. Friend of mine did it about 4 months ago in his Bonanza....

No big ditches here either...

http://www.southwestairfields.com/page14.html

Airplanes are funny like that when ditched. Sometimes they will plough up the pavement or like my friends Bo, barely break a few grass stalks.

I think this A/C may have been shot down.
Nothing lets think it was abandoned; other abandoned A/C usually show as at least a little bit burnt-out wrecks due to standing order to destroy whatever is left behind...and they were usually on their wheels!

Nothing like that here:

- thoroughly sawed-off propeller blades
- everything easily removable removed (access panels, covers, spinner...)
- identification marks supporting surfaces removed, not absent! on the rear fuselage one can clearly see the tubular structure because someone removed the canvas...

All this means souvenir hunters, german ones in this case...This was typical of the time (1940) and of the curiosity of advancing troops when seeing a shot down aircraft!

Beside I believe the half black+ half light green or blue underwing colors have been used on England-based aircraft, not French-based, but I would not be certain about this.

JV

You really think looting the airplane dates it to just 1940?

I would think souvenir hunting is a human activity not restricted to a time period in six years of conflict.

I agree. There was also multiple Hurricanes brought down over Occupied Europe in 1941-42.

As for the "1940 distinguishing features" of the aircraft such as the armor, I know some Luftwaffe units flew early war aircraft all the way until the end. Jabostaffle, JG5 for example flew FW-190A2/3's until 1944-45 time period.

Certainly not common for such an early variants to be in use that late in the war but it did occur.

An aircraft to be operating a few years past its manufacture date is not unusual at all though.

My thought's on being shot down differ. I think this aircraft was most likly used in an early type of Zirkus Rosarius, and had a mishap on landing one day. Because of the damage and lack of replacement parts, she was left at the fields edge and forgotten.

New Photo.
 

Hi all,

As the OP I'd like to say that I appreciate your inputs. Yes, it's an interesting photograph. The soldier appears to have LW piping on the collar tab.

This second photograph of a Hurricane is similar. The rear has German writing upon it and indicates June 1940 with probably a French location.

http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/a.../schere-38.jpg


Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

(quote)
This picture of an RAF Hurricane Mk 1 shot down in the Battle of France ( probably May 1940)



I was just wondering how you reached this conclusion (battle of France), did the first photo also have writing on it's back, if so, could you post an img of it, thanks

First photo had nothing on the back. But there are similarities with the second photo.

As regards the first photo, the lack of RAF markings on the fuselage,fin and wings make it unlikely that it flew from England in 1941/2. And the countryside is very much French.

I'm sure that there is a lot that happened during the Battle of France that is not in the Text Books. And this applies to perhaps all historical periods. That is why photos such as these are so interesting.

Best Regards,
MB_Avro.