Date:	Sunday 24 March 1940
Time:
Type:	Potez 637
Owner/operator:	GR I/52 Armée de l'Air
Registration:	n° 36
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	south of Rohrbach-les-Bitche, Moselle -   France
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Auzainvilliers airfield
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 24 March 1940 the Potez 637 n° 36 of GR I/52 took off at 15:00 hrs from Auzainvilliers for a reconnaissance flight in Kaiserslautern area. The pilot had orders to use cloud cover to hide from the German fighters while crossing the frontline. But there was no cloud and the Potez was intercepted by a Schwarm of four Bf 109s of II./JG 52 flying a border patrol in Zweibrücken area. A German pilot got very close to the French aircraft before opening fire, spraying it with bullets. Apparently the French crew did not notice him and there was no return fire. Aboard the Potez, sous-lieutenant Elie Brugerolles (observer) was killed and sergent Serge Dumas (air gunner) fatally wounded. The pilot, adjudant Leo Barbier, was slightly wounded but managed to bring back his damaged Potez over the frontline before crashing in the no man’s land south of Rohrbach-les-Bitche (Moselle), around 40 km south of Zweibrücken. A French patrol went to the crashsite under fire of German artillery and brought back the heavily wounded gunner, who died some hours later. A second patrol then brought back the wounded pilot and the body of the observer.

Two German pilots may have scored this victory: in official claim list, Uffz. Leo Zaunbrecher of 5./JG 52 claimed a Potez 63 south of Zweibrücken at 1545 hrs as his first victory but other sources say the victor was Fw Alfred Griener of 6./JG 52.

“Auzainvilliers 39/40”, article in Aéro-Jounral n°7, French magazine, June-July 1999
“Batailles Aériennes n° 3: les combats aériens de la drole de guerre”, French magazine, 1997-1998
"Ils étaient là. L’Armée de l’Air septembre 1939 - juin 1940", by Jacqueline and Paul Martin, ISBN 2-9514567-2-7
http://www.jg52.net/kriegstagebuch/1940/2/
"Die Jagdfliegerverbände der deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 bis 1945, Teil 2: Der "Sitzkrieg", 1.9.1939 bis 9.5.1940", by Jochen Prien & al, ISBN 3-923457-59-6
http://www.flugzeugabstuerze-saarland.de/Brenschelbach_Potez_637.pdf
http://www.cieldegloire.com/004_barbier.php
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohrbach-l%C3%A8s-Bitche
http://www.maplandia.com/france/lorraine/moselle/sarreguemines/rohrbach-les-bitche/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-Jul-2017 10:55	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
24-Dec-2019 16:45	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Narrative, Operator]