Recent developments
Whilst researching these events, I purchased copies of 'Valée de la Cisse' from Alain Gauthier, a resident of Chambon sur Cisse, the next village to Molineuf. Writing in 2023, he's the secretary of 'Vallée de la Cisse', an organisation that supports the cultural history of the Cisse valley. Alain spent his career analysing maps, boundries and geography. His assistance was to be invaluable. We'll start with LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and his interpretation of it. The image on the left is the LiDAR from the 2015 study, on the right is a Google maps capture of the same area. We'd expected to see a depression where the aircraft crashed but finding the bomb craters adds another dimension as the 63rd Squadron mission report and Becker's statement say that Robert Jenkins P47 had dropped its bombs at Le Breuil airfield.
Doctor Jean Mornet
Jean Mornet was the village doctor from 1958 to 1998 and the mayor from 1959 to 1977. He wrote a book 'Histoire d'un village - Molineuf' which was published in 1968. The text, copied from the book describes a Canadian pilot shot down in the community by the German anti-aircraft defences. He lists the names of the dead on the war memorial including the Canadian pilot, Jenkins.
Marc Doucet in the 13th edition of the 'Cisse Valley bulletin' describes a witness, DoctorJacques (Jean, I presume) Mornet who saw the aircraft flying over pine trees at 'La Pie' and crashing flat into the trees, its engine still turning. 'La Pie' (The magpie in English), isn't on any map, its a local name and describes the area south-east of the crash site. La Pie is on the flight path from south-east where the 12 small bomb craters are situated in the valley at Molineuf to north-west where the 115kg (250lb) bombs craters are.
The Cluster bombs
Alain and I initially believed that the cluster bombs came from Robert Jenkins P47 for several reasons:
We'd been told they came from his aircraft.
We didn't believe Molineuf had been bombed during the war.
The craters are on the flight path the P47 took and are only 600m from the two 115kg bombs.
The text in French here again comes from Dr Mornet's book. The highlighted text says 'A few bombs did fall on our community without causing much damage' so Molineuf was in fact lightly bombed.
The photo shows an underwing pod on a P47 that carries 20 cluster bombs, these were brought into service in July 1944 but according to the 63rd Squadron mission report each plane only carried two 115kg (250lb) bombs. It seems then that the bombs didn't come from Robert Jenkins aircraft although I still have a slight doubt.
Site Investigation
The photo taken on the 24th september 2023 is of the author standing in the crater left by the starboard 115kg (250lb) bomb (look closely you'll see a head and hands). The crater is about 1.7m (5 feet 6") deep despite having 79 years of leaves falling in it.
The aircraft itself left two depressions that aren't very deep, certainly not what would be expected by an aircraft hitting the ground at a steep angle. The aircraft had enough fuel for another 2 hours flying so around 150 US gallons (570 litres) . This amount of fuel burning off would have burnt the accumulated leaf litter underneath the impact site and added to the depth of the depression.
I also visited the site of the cluster bombs, they're smaller, about chest height with a smaller radius, but have the same conical shape.
The two 115kg (250lb) bomb holes are about 42 metres (138 feet) apart, much further than the wingspan of a Thunderbolt. There are two possibilities:
Robert released the bombs just before the crash.
The wings were torn off the aircraft so the bombs landed further away.
Comparing the American and German versions
Marvin Becker, in his statement says the problem with Robert's plane started before he dive-bombed Breuil airfield and got worse once he came out of the dive. The direction of travel would have been Le Breuil to Molineuf ie north to south.
The map gives an approximation of the route taken according to the two versions, Becker going south from the airfield at Le Breuil, Heaton and the Germans have him going west.
The witness statement by Dr Mornet confirms that the route was from the south-east which effectively eliminates Becker's version.
Alain, born just two years after Robert died, with his local knowledge, assures me that the feeling amongst the older people in the village is that Robert turned to the north-west at the very last moment to avoid crashing into the village of Molineuf. I've indicated a dotted line showing an approximation of Robert's flightpath.
I've tried in this photo to give an idea of the view from Robert's cockpit. Straight in front is the village of Molineuf and the end of the forest. He didn't want to crash in the village so he banked to the right, jettisoning the cluster bombs in the valley to avoid them falling on the village. If he'd continued straight on, he might just have made it and landed in the vinyards or he might have crashed into Molineuf. I believe, that with remarkable courage, he chose to avoid the village.
Explaining the inconsistencies
The German version of events was forgotten after they left Blois a month after Robert was shot down and was only made public by Marc Doucet and David McLaren in 1997. The LiDAR report was done in 2015. Alain Gauthier, aware of both and having done the site visits had made the connections but its only in 2023, on the eve of the 80th anniversary that they are being documented.
With these recent developments, the American version has to be questioned. Becker's report simply cannot be right as the bombs were not dropped on Le Breuil airfield, thats not to say his whole report is false though. The MACR says aircraft is lost due to: (not known) believed to be engine failure, but the Germans are convinced they shot him down. So what really happened ?