Rigby Curtiss Hawk 75A

[ashevilleangler]

Thanks guys! I guess I just needed to look a little harder.

Curt

[Don Boose]

My earlier post describing the Iain Wyllie painting that depicts George Lemare engaging an RAF Coastal Command Short Sunderland contained some historical errors concerning the date of the engagement and the fate of the Sunderland. Here is a corrected post:

George Lemare engaging a Short Sunderland off Dakar, 29 September 1941

This painting by Iain Wyllie [Image 1] depicts French ace, then-Sergeant Chef George Lemare engaging an RAF Coastal Command Short Sunderland on 29 September 1941 near Dakar off Senegal. In the course of his attack, Lemare damaged the Sunderland.

At the time, Lemare was flying Curtiss H75-A2 Serial 295, Aircraft Number 9, and was assigned to Groupe de Chasse 1/4 based at Dakar.

Lemare was previously credited with four aerial victories: a German Dornier Do 17S-0 (shared victory), a Junkers Ju-88, and a Messerschmitt 109E during the Battle of France; and one British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish off Dakar on 24 September 1940 during Operation MENACE, the unsuccessful attempt by British and Free French forces to capture Dakar. Lemare went on to fly Yak-9s with Groupe de Chasse III Normandie-Niémen on the Eastern Front. He shot down nine more German aircraft during that time.

Lemare ended the war as a sous-lieutenant credited with 13 aerial victories and one aircraft (the Sunderland) endommagé (damaged) . He died in an aviation accident in 1948.

Sources:

Paul Camelio and Christopher Shores, Armee de L’Air: A Pictorial History of the French Air Force 1937-1945, Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1976.

Diane Canwell and Jon Sutherland, Vichy Air Force at War: The French Air Force That Fought The Allies in World War II (Barnesley, UK: Pen and Sword Aviation, 2011).

Barry Ketley, French Aces of World War 2, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 1999. The Wyllie painting is used as the cover art for this book - Image 2.

Lemare, Georges, in Ciel de Gloire, available at LEMARE Georges - Normandie Niemen (Source of the Image 4, a photograph of Lemare as a pilot in GC Normandie-Niémen.)

Lionel Persyn, Kari Stenman, and Andrew Thomas, P-36 Hawk Aces of World War 2, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2009.

Christopher Shores, et el, A History of the Mediterranean Air War: 1940-1945, Volume 3, Tunisia and the End in Africa, November 1942 - May 1943, London: Grub Street, 1999, page 15 (source of Image 3).

Don