The photo from Godfrey Ball via Dave Birch, shows Heinkel He 111 D-ACLQ and Savoia Marchetti SM.79 I-DOUL at Maison Blanche, Algeria in November 1942. During Operation Torch the Hurricanes of 43 Squadron flew in and took the airfield without opposition, finding these two aircraft which apparently belonged to the German Armistice Commission. Dave thinks that they might have been used for liaison with Vichy France but would like to know what happened to them after they fell into Allied hands. Were they captured, destroyed, or considered neutral and allowed to fly away? Can anybody help please?
The He 111 D-ACLQ and SM.73 I-DOUL raised a number of points and eyebrows! Maison Blanche airfield was taken on 8.11.42, though the date the aircraft were captured is given as the 9th in a report by the Technical Intelligence Section attached to Eastern Air Command (Algeria). This report gives D-ACLQ as a Jumo-powered He 111 H-3 of the German Armistice Commission (Wastiker), armed with four machine guns and carrying ammunition. It was not fully civilianised as the bomb arming and release mechanisms were also retained, though the interior contained nothing more dangerous than two tables and four chairs. I-DOUL was a SM.73 (not SM.79) in standard 18-passenger and mail configuration but it also carried the military serial MM60348. It is possible that it could even be one of the ex-Sabena aircraft OO-AGL/O which were interned in Algeria and handed over to the Italians in 1940. It was being used by the Delegazione Aeronautica per l'Algeria, the members of which, including two generals, were captured. The fates of the aircraft are still unknown.

Самолёты на фотографии: Aircrafts on the photo: Heinkel He-111P/H - ГерманияGermany - 1938Savoia-Marchetti / SIAI S.73 - ИталияItaly - 1934

Oxford V4+DT masquerading as a Luftwaffe machine. We have no other details except that it was photographed by T.Martin, possibly during the fifties and is from Peter Keating's collection. We know that G-AOUT was used for filming in 1956 and G-AIOS later in 1961, while another candidate might be G-AJNE which was owned for a time in 1956 by Capt John Crewdson of Film Aviation Services fame. We would like to know the identity, date and location to add to our Oxford/Consul story, but no marks awarded for spotting that it was winter!
V4+DT "Luftwaffe". Photo was taken at Panshangar on 4.1.59 by Terry Martin and is actually of Film Aviation Services G-AHGU c/n 3277. It was seen at a few other locations about this time and an almost identical view appeared in BCAN of 28.3.59. The commentary there refers to a film called "Girls in Arms" which must have been retitled, one of our correspondents suggests "Operation Bullshine" but the BCAN reference to Brigitte Bardot favours "Babette goes to war" which commenced in 1.59. Several other sources refer to its use in the "Inn of the Sixth Happiness" in 1958. Doesn't anybody take their log-books to the cinema?

Самолёты на фотографии: Aircrafts on the photo: Airspeed Oxford / AS.10 - ВеликобританияUnited Kingdom - 1937