Divajeu air crash of 15 December 1939

On 15 December 1939, with the Second World War already under way, a Bloch MB 200 bomber of the Istres Flying School crashed at Divajeu during a transfer flight from Avord to Istres airfield, killing all three crew members.

The accident

At the end of August 1939, in view of the likely outbreak of war with Germany, the aircraft of the Istres Flying School were transferred to Chateauroux and then, after the start of the Second World War, to Avord, in the Cher. Towards the end of November their return to Istres was scheduled. The School's mobile equipment left Avord on 1 December, while the aircraft had to wait until the 15th of the month to take off, so thick was the fog hanging over central France.

The 71 aircraft equipping the Istres flying school (fighter, reconnaissance and bomber) were single-engine and twin-engine aircraft of all types, including the bombers

Bloch MB 200 and MB 210, Potez 63/11 reconnaissance aircraft and Caudron C.445 Goéland or Caudron Simoun liaison aircraft. The personnel of these schools included about 200 student pilots, under the command of General Delaittre. École 5 was equipped with Bloch MB 210s, Caudron C.445 Goélands and also a few old Lioré et Olivier LeO 20s, École 7 with Bloch MB 200s, Potez 63/11s and Caudron C.445 Goélands.

At around 12:00 on 15 December 1939 the aircraft took off from Avord in good weather conditions, but very soon encountered a mass of cloud coming from the south and thickening over the Rhône valley, where snowfall considerably reduced visibility. The National Meteorological Office station at Lyon-Bron noted that on that day snow had been falling uninterruptedly since 11:30, reducing horizontal visibility to 400 metres.

At Lyon-Bron airfield, Second Lieutenant Joseph Picot, a pilot of Groupe de Chasse 562, recalled that day as follows: "It was snowing and the aircraft of the Istres School landed disastrously in every corner of the field".

Faced with the worsening weather conditions, group flight by the aircraft of École 7 was no longer possible and the aircraft scattered. The Bloch MB 200 flown by Sergeant Meunier, with instructor Warrant Officer Leborder and mechanic Poulet on board, landed long at Saint-Etienne Bouthéon airfield, while another Bloch MB 200, flown by Chief Warrant Officer Mouret and with student Herma, of Czechoslovak origin, on board, landed at Puy de Dôme out of fuel.

A third Bloch MB 200 tried to return to Avord. This was aircraft no. 9 of the IV Escadrille of GB II/51. The bomber remained over the area for a long time, before crashing to the ground in the Greson wood at La Répara, in the commune of Divajeu (Drôme), near Crest.

From the wreckage of the aircraft, which had broken into two parts and caught fire (witnesses who immediately rushed to try to help saw a crew member waving an arm out of the destroyed cabin before being engulfed by the flames), three charred bodies were removed: Sergeants Marcel Descoudras, Armand Lautrette and Jean Saulnier. A chapel of rest was set up in Crest, where a large part of the population came to pay tribute to the unfortunate airmen. It is not known whether other crew members bailed out by parachute.