French article October 4, 2005 translated to English

Newspaper Account Oct. 4/05

The Normandy Association of Airplane Souvenirs 1939-45 Orne-Maine unearthed a new airplane at Martigny sur l’Ante last Sunday. For this occasion, a canadian pilot and his family had come from the province of Saskatchewan.

The association has once more brought to the surface a souvenir of the Second World War. At the start, everyone thought they were finding a piece of a Spitfire, but in the end, it proved to be, in fact, a Mustang.

For this occasion, a Canadian pilot, native of Saskatchewan (western Canada) was on the site with his family. Barry Needham is now 85 years old. The 7^th of July, 1944, he shot at a German truck but he didn’t see the DCA. He was falling and his airplane caught fire. He parachuted but was seriously burned. He was taken prisoner and sent to Rennes where he stayed until the liberation of the town by Patton. He then returned to Canada where he remained in the army while waiting to find out if he was to rejoin his squadron in Germany.

Mr. Needham was very emotional to find himself on this site. Indeed, it is in this region that his airplane had been shot down in 1944. He had been a member of Squadron 412 of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

A Mustang motor…

The association had dug up a motor on this day. Indeed, the owners of the land were also there and had explained to us that in 1944, the airplane had crashed and that they had buried the motor so as not to have problems with the occupation forces. So, the motor had been found again as well as the propellers and some shells, in very good shape. Everyone was waiting to find a Spitfire motor; however, it proved to be that of a Mustang. Therefore, there remains more research to be done in order to find Barry Needham’s airplane, which should not be too far from there.

The Association must still do different research but it also has a task regarding different airplanes. It would dig up in a short time a German airplane at Mesnil-Villement in the presence of German representatives. The pilot would be still inside.