Caudron Goeland at Tregantle, Cornwall – February 1941

In related news, during the Summers of ’75 & ’76 I spent quite a bit of time on the beach below the fort when I should have been in school….

Here’s the photo from FLIGHT (20 February 1941). Did anyone ever find out what happened to it latterly?

Peter Moss’ ‘Impressments Log’ is unusually unhelpful in this case. Under the heading ‘French Aircraft at Odiham 6.8.40 to 31.5.41’, the following information is given:

‘No. P-1914 was flown from Heston to St Athan on 30.7.40 and arrived at Odiham on August 9th. Although it was allotted the RAF serial AX775 in August, it was not taken up. Received at Sealand on 20.9.41 and was packed during the week ending 27.12.41. Subsequent history untraced.’

‘No. P-3419 was flown from Heston to St Athan on 30.7.40 and arrived at Odiham on 9th August. Although allotted the RAF serial AX776 in August, it had not been taken up at the time it belly landed at Sealand on 15.8.40, when the undercarriage failed to lock down after a ferry flight from Odiham for packing. SOC on 10.9.40 as Cat. E.’

and then under the heading ‘Other French aircraft known to be in the U.K.’, the following information is given:

‘Goeland F-BAAX was at Herts and Essex Aviation Ltd. for overhaul from 10.4.41, but went to Van Oppen Ltd. from 20.5.41. No further details traced.’

But from the foregoing one can deduce that the Goelands that became AX775 and AX776 were not the aeroplane that arrived in Cornwall in February 1941 as, it seems, they are recorded as being in the UK six months earlier. Thus it seems that it was a different Goeland, perhaps that which was F-BAAX (Nº série 8729-174), that arrived there then. However there were two other Goelands recorded as being at Odiham in the period mentioned above. These were:

‘No. G-151 was flown from Odiham to Sealand on 15.8.40 for packing and was delivered to Birkenhead for shipment to the F.F.A.F. on 23.8.40.’

‘Serial given as C-445. From Odiham to Gatwick on 8.1.42 for overhaul by Southern Aircraft and was received by Sealand on 3.5.42 for packing. Shipped to the docks on 8.7.42 and set sail on board S.S. Therland Castle on the 21st, arriving in the M.E. on 4.9.42. Subsequent history untraced.’

Datewise, the first Goeland mentioned seems to be an improbability. However the second would appear to be a chronological possibility.

The DGAC website records this Caudron C.445 as belonging to the French State and being based at Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne. It was registered on 2 December 1940. The registration was deleted on 22 December 1942 as scrapped. However I presume that to have been at the instigation of the Vichy Government. Therefore I leave you to draw your own conclusions! I suspect that more about this aeroplane can be found if I tap into some of the French fora that I visit.

Interesting – I’ve been curious about that one for a while – it was given with an RAF serial , but that appears not to have been carried (Either AX775 or AX776) and apparently repaired at Broxbourne – from what I can gather it was shipped off to Free French Forces in North Africa.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/75922-caudron-goeland/?p=1955279

Also:

Caudron Goeland F-BAAX landed near a Searchlight Post close to Tregantle Farm. The occupant was Andre’ Edmond Bruist Colin aged 25, he stated that he was a native of Belfort, France. He has been a Sgt Pilot in the French Air Force from 26th August 1939 until 25 August 1940. He left Vichy at 12:30 hours on the 1st February 1941 and landed in Brittany, he took off again for England. Monsieur Colin is being detained at Liskeard Police Station, his aeroplane is being guarded by men of the 11th Battalion Devonshire Regiment.