Aircraft used by De Gaulle North Africa

Thanks for the info and PM’s , Laurence (and youtube:)), got it all now! Giraud’s arrival from the Martin looked uncomfortable! (Still he had to go in a submarine then a seaplane to travel from Vichy to newly liberated Algiers)

As UK based members cannot see the original film on De Gaulle, this YouTube version is available:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQSlI83g6J4

I have also taken screen shots (not good quality, sorry) of Lodestar (F)C-AXM, Hudson FK53(?2), and of General Giraud scrambling out of (I presume) a Maryland. The original film was by Arte.TV (link in my post 6 above).

D1566: in the programme I saw there was a shot of another French general arriving out of the lower hatch of presumably a Martin 167.

longshot: I cannot capture a frame, nor can I find anything relevent in the credits. Maybe if I send you the link by email, and also the long list of other sites where it is available, you may be able to open it one way or another. I shall send you a PM now.

I just happened to catch a programme on one of the Satellite channels last night that included coverage of the Casablanca conference and it showed De Gaulle arriving it a Martin 167.

Yes, that’s the one of Dione. I shall try to capture a still from the programme, and also check the credits.

Sadly we can’t watch that documentary on the link in the UK.Does it perhaps list the newsreel sources in the credits? There is a Universal newsreel of deGaulle with the DH86 ‘DIONE’ at Fort Lamy I think on
http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675052426_General-Charles-De-Gaulle_Colonel-Leclerc_native-troops_arrival

Thanks for all that information, longshot.
I have watched the De Gaulle programme again, available for a few days more on:
http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/de_gaulle_le_geant_aux_pieds_d_argile-6725638.html

It is rather long (84 minutes) but the main AXM sequence is from 30.10 to 30.20, although it is also probably visible fleetingly at 19.31.
As I watch it taxying in I see that there could be an “F” in the shadow of the tailplane, so from what you say it could be that it carried the full FC-AXM.
Incidentally DH86 “DIONE” is seen at 19.48 (G-ADFF).

‘Lockheed Twins’by Peter Marson has FC-AXM registered as F-BAMM after 11 June 1945 but not taken up, destroyed Tripoli, Libya, 30 September 1945 still registered as “AXM”. There is newsreel of General Cattroux arriving at a base in the Hudson FK532 on
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/general-catroux-aka-gen-catroux

Good newsreel of F-ARTF with the Reseau Aerien Militaire Francais/Air France, the successor to L.A.M on
http://www.ina.fr/histoire-et-conflits/decolonisation/video/AFE00002979/le-general-catroux-recoit-des-notables-arabes.fr.html

L.A.M. Registration sequence

I’ve not seen photos of L.A.M aircraft marked in the style C-AXM or F-CAXM but they did start carrying just the last three letters, I think after a Free French administration was installed in Algiers after the American led invasion of North Africa in late 1942 (which the Free French were not aware of in advance) . ‘Vichy’ aircraft ‘captured’ on the retaking of North Africa however,continued with their former French registrations e.g Lodestar F-ARTF and Farman 2200 F-AOXF.
The Free French operated some Lodestars in the series FC-BAA…FC-BAJ and also F-EFAA and F-EFAB which I think later flew with the last three letters only marked.This clip shows de Gaulle arriving Algiers in Lodestar ‘Paris’ ‘BAF’ (with wrong aircraft ID and the wrong date…should be 1943)http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675066946_Charles-De-Gaulle_Lockheed-B-34-Ventura-aircraft_aircraft-taxis_people-crowd-around-aircraft
De Gaulles personal Lodestar ‘France’ around the time of D-Day carried the Lockheed c/n 2609 on the rear fuselage as a ‘registration’ (2609 was also allocated FC-BAI)
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/eisenhower-de-gaulle-eisenhower-eden/query/01474000

Towards the end of the war the three letter codes were replaced with ‘correct’ registrations in the F-BAxx series, I think.
Magazines ‘ICARE’#102 and Les Ailes Francaises 1939-1945 #12 have pics and info but the distinction between FL- and FC- is often unreliable

Thanks longshot. They both fit in. I was not familiar with the FC- series. I wonder why it was marked just C-AXM in the news footage.
I presume also that this was the same Lodestar that became F-CAXM and crashed at Tripoli on 30/8/45 (or 30/9/45 which I have also seen noted).

The Hudson sounds like FK532 and FC-AXM (formerly FL-AXM) was a Lodestar. The FL-(France Libre) and later FC-(France Combattant) registrations were used by L.A.M. Lignes Aeriennes Militaires De Gaulles Free french ‘Airline’ based at Damascus …some info here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thread/1223892709/1224053587/Is+the+Lockheed+60+a+Lockheed+Hudson-+Because…….