Date:	Sunday 7 April 1940
Time:	15:15
Type:	Morane-Saulnier MS 406
Owner/operator:	GC I/2 Armée de l'Air
Registration:	379
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	2 km NE of Marmoutier, Bas-Rhin -   France
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
In the afternoon of 7 April 1940 a dozen Ms 406 of GC I/2 escorted a Potez 63.11 of GR I/36 during a reconnaissance mission on Wissembourg. On the way back, they met around 1510-1520 hrs six Bf 109Es of I./JG 54 and each side lost a fighter in the following battle.

Capitaine Maurice Marie Stéphane Vidal was attacked by a German fighter flown by Oblt. Reinhard Seiler, the Staffelkapitän of 1./JG 54, and wounded. He tried to bale out but his parachute get caught to his aircraft, the Morane 406 n°379. The pilot and the fighter crashed together 2 km northeast of Marmoutier, south-south-east of Saverne. The French pilot was buried three days later at Saverne. It was the second victory during WWII of Seiler, who had claimed before 9 victories in Spain.

Capitaine Pierre Hyvernaud evened the score when he hit the Bf 109 E flown by Lt Paul Stolte of Stab I./JG 54. Stolte, the Gruppe Adjudant of I./JG 54, bailed out and was captured by French infantrymen just after his landing. His fighter crashed at Ernolsheim-Bruche, 15 km west of Strasbourg. It was the first victory of Cne Hyvernaud, was had claimed a shared probable five days before.

Stolte was liberated when France was invaded in 1940 and became an ace, scoring 43 victories before being killed on 18 October 1943.

"Ils étaient là. L’Armée de l’Air septembre 1939 - juin 1940", by Jacqueline and Paul Martin, ISBN 2-9514567-2-7
"Batailles Aériennes n° 3: les combats aériens de la drole de guerre", French magazine, 1997-1998
http://forum.aviation-ancienne.fr/t640p165-jours-apres-jours-la-drole-de-guerre
"Les pertes de la chasse de jour allemande en France 1939-1945. Vol 1: September 1939 - December 1940", by Pierre Watteeuw (Hors Série Avions n° 10). ISBN 2-914017-14-6
http://www.francegenweb.org/blog/index.php?post/2015/06/14/Mais-ou-est-donc-pass%C3%A9-M%C3%A9morial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Seiler
http://www.cieldegloire.fr/gc_1_02.php
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmoutier_(Bas-Rhin)
http://www.maplandia.com/france/alsace/bas-rhin/saverne/marmoutier/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
14-Jan-2018 20:00	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
24-Dec-2019 16:48	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]