Can anyone translate French?

[brickhistory]

Can anyone read/translate French? If so, I'd be grateful for a transcript of the linked story:

French news story re WWII fighter

I helped a French maritime archeologist [sic] ID the wreck of a US fighter, actually a borrowed British plane called the Beaufighter.

This particular squadron, the 417th NFS ( much later commanded by Chuck Yeager and eventually becoming one of the F-117 squadrons) had a bad string of crashes while based near Marseille, France.*

In the general area where this wreck was found, there were two possible suspects. One where the crew ditched and got out, one where the crew didn't. I helped (think checking records, not diving on the site) match the site to the plane where the crew made it. Along the way, there was an interlude with the Joint Personnel Recovery folks who also helped. That would be an interesting, rewarding gig to help find/ID American KIAs so they could finally come home.

Anyway, I'd like to read the story. Can't speak a lick of French (not that great with English). Anybody able/willing to help?

* Turns out the squadron's gas was pumped from tankers to 55 gallon drums on the docks of Marseille. The dockworkers often times didn't bother to put the lids on the barrels until the delivery truck actually showed up. Water contamination down nearly a dozen airplanes from the squadron with several dead aircrew as a result.

[Breckey]

Google is your friend

For the most part

[brickhistory]

That helps (doh! on me), but I'm still looking for a full up translation if possible.

[Timbonez]

Oh well. The wife knows some French and I was having her translate. Basically they got water in the engines and the radar operator bailed out near a monastery/church or whatever where the nuns mistook him to be a German. They beat the crap out of him and then the mother superior called the squadron to pick him up. That wasn't the first time the pilot and RO had problems with their airplane. Previously they had bailed out of an airplane and wandered in the mountains for a few days.

[brickhistory]

Oh, ok. Many thanks. I had that part in my book. I was hoping the article had more about the diving, etc.

Again, thank you.

[Guest fin]

Nothing much on the dive, although one photo caption notes that they plan to recover the engine plates.

FWIW, both articles in full in case you still need them :

'44 years ago a US Army Beaufighter was lost off Fos.

'It was the fish that pointed it out.

' "When the shoals keep gathering in the same place it means there's something on the sea bed," explains Gerald Savon, owner of the trawler Port-de-Bouc and like

many trawlermen sometime discoverer of undersea wrecks. That day, in the tanker channel, the return on his depth sounder was enough to convince Gerald to get

his dive gear on.

'30 meters down, covered in sand, he uncovered the 'thing' : a great mass of metal colonised by conger eels. It was obvious that it was an aircraft, but what type ?

And how did it find its way to the bottom of the Gulf of Fos ? And what became of the crew ? It's this whole story of men and machine that Gerald Savon and his

colleague Pierre Giustiniani, a diver and aviation expert from Marseille, have managed to reconstruct. "A real police inquiry that took six years of work."

'Purely by chance the machine hadn't been touched by looters. Airscrews, instruments, engines : everything was there. Dive after dive, Pierre - made mission director

by DRASM, the Department of Underwater Archaeology - patiently reassembled the clues. "It was the landing gear and the four big cannon in the nose that allowed

us to identify it : a Bristol Beaufighter."

'During WW2 this powerfully-armed British fighter bomber won its reputation in many theaters of operations. "The Japanese nicknamed it 'Whispering Death' because

of its firepower and the quietness of its engines. But this machine, which was very resistant to damage and to forced landings, was loved by its pilots," Pierre

emphasised. But what happened to leave this Beaufighter in the depths of the Gulf of Fos ? In order to find out Pierre delved into military archives.

' "2 losses of this type were recorded in this sector. The one which corresponded to our wreck took place on September 25th 1944. The aircraft was with the 417th

NFS of the USAAF. It was flown by Lt J W Woody Grange and his radar operator Lt Rodgers. Starboard engine failure forced them to ditch, but luckily the crew was

rescued." The inquiries should have stopped there, except that our fishermen were now hooked and wanted to know more. Who was this pilot and what missions

did his unit carry out ? They made contact with the British Royal Air Force and the American Army. Lt Col Braxton Eisel, official historian of the USAF, came to their

aid. Together they reassembled the history of the 417th. "After North Africa and Corsica this night fighter squadron was based at Le Vallon near Istres. One of its

most famous missions was the attack on the German Condor aircraft which the Nazis used to transport stolen gold and treasure to Spain."

As for Lt Woody Grange, of whom Pierre found a photo, he was barely 20 years old when he left his farm in a small town in America. This young pilot was incredibly

lucky to survive 4 engine failures. Have Gerald and Pierre now reached the end of their inquiries ? Not quite : they're still trying to find Woody or his family.'

'J W Woody Grange, a lucky pilot.

' "Safe and well after his ditching in the Gulf of Fos, Lt Grange hadn't had the last of his mishaps," explains Pierre Giustiniani. Some days later, after a double engine

failure, Grange and his RO Lt Sunyar, bailed out over the mountains and spent several days in the wilderness before they managed to return to their squadron.

'Then, on another flight, the 2 crewmen again lost both engines and had to ditch again. But it was the final accident noted in the US archives which ended up breaking

Lt Sunyar's nerve. When the fuel warning light came on in flight the pilot told him over the intercom 'We're going in', meaning, 'We're returning to base', but the RO

understood 'We're going to crash !' Back at base, Sunyar was found to have parachuted from the aircraft. Some hours later the squadron took a call from the Mother

Superior of a convent in Istres, who asked them to retrieve the unfortunate officer : he'd been taken for a German and attacked by the sisters."

'This series of crashes, which affected several of the squadron's aircraft, caused several fatalities. The cause was later uncovered : "These accidents were tied to the

fuel used for these aircraft," Pierre explains. It was stored at Marseille docks in large reservoirs, then transferred into drums that hadn't been sealed, which allowed

rainwater to gather inside. The dockers didn't empty the drums before filling them with fuel and the Beaufighter then used fuel mixed with water, with tragic

consequences."

Edited January 10, 2011 by fin

[brickhistory]

Much obliged!