Shared Experience: Wrecked ME 210

Art and War

Charles Comfort
Wrecked ME 210
watercolour on paper
35.5 x 51.7cm

Written on the back of the painting:

This enemy plane crashed at 0728 hrs today [15 April 1944]. This note is being made before an official sitrep is available. Equal claims are being made by 2 LAA, RCA, and an unknown South African Spitfire pilot. After inspecting the wreckage and hearing evidence, I must say, I credit the plane to the S.A. boy. The fumes from the fire smelled strongly of carbide and a whitish ash covered the wreckage. The fuselage rests, and points at an angle of 40°, down into the MORO valley. The most significant thing about this plane was that in the centre of the white cross, to the left of the letters RK there is written in pencil, smoked over, “Allons enfants de la patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé” (Arise children of the fatherland, the day of glory has arrived).

Some historians contend that this aircraft is actually a Messerschmitt 410 twin-engined fighter bomber.