The French II/33 "Savoie" tactical reconnaissance group was officially recreated on January 1, 1945. Previously, it participated, under the name of 4th "Mouette" squadron (after their insignia) of the 2/33, in operations in North Africa and then in the Battle of Italy from May 3 to July 20, 1944. It returned to France on that date, to Corsica and then to the Longvic air base on September 22, 1944. This reconnaissance group was the only one to use Supermarine Spitfires, planes generally used as fighters, which it nevertheless abandoned at the end of February 1945 for P-51 Mustangs.
Immediately after the Allied landing in Algeria and Morocco, in November 1942, the French reconnaissance group II/33 "Savoie" took part in the Tunisia campaign with its obsolete Bloch 174 aircraft. Rumor had it that the group was to receive American F-5 Lightnings and F-6 Mustangs. The F-5s arrived starting March 1943 and were used by the first squadron. In September 1943, the Bloch aircraft of the group were withdrawn, leaving the second squadron with no mounts for three months.
At first, the second squadron was supposed to be re-equipped with B-26 Marauders, and crews were sent to train on the type. Then the squadron was told it would operate B-25 Mitchells. Finally it was agreed that the squadron should become a tactical reconnaissance unit and was sent to St Donat on December 31, 1943 to take delivery of Hurricane IICs for training. Intensive conversion flights started with an average of 45 flight hours per day. Then, 9 Spitfire Mk Vs were delivered between March 15, 1944 and April 1, 1944. The unit was then based in Italy, providing support for the advance of the US 5th army towards Rome.
The unit operated successively from Pomigliano d'Arco, Santa Maria di Capua, Anzio Nettuno, Ponte Gallera, Tarquinia Voltone and finally Follonica in Corsica during the months of May and June of 1944. From there it participated in the invasion of southern France. On August 22, 1944 the Spitfires Mk IX landed at Ramatuelle in France, marking the long-awaited return to the native soil of the aircrews. The unit later moved to Saint Laurent-de-Mure, Dijon-Longvic and Luxuil-les-Bains, doing an important job of reconnaissance for the Allied armies advancing northward.
On November 14, 1944, Cdr. Marcel Martre took command of Groupe de Reconnaissance II/33, at a time when the squadron was flying numerous operations in difficult weather conditions. In two weeks, seven Spitfires were lost to accidents. Nevertheless, opportunities sometimes appeared, and the squadron managed to complete successful visual reconnaissance missions in cooperation with fighter-bombers.
On January 1, 1945, the two squadrons were reorganized by decision of the Armée de l'Air command. The first squadron, formerly the SAL.33 became the GR I/33 Belfort autonomous strategic reconnaissance group and kept its F-5 Lightnings. The second, GR II/33 Savoie, was to become a tactical photographic and visual reconnaissance unit and keep its Spitfires Mk V and IX. However, the Spitfires oprated by GR II/33 were considered inadapted to the missions the unit was expected to fly, and the Americans accepted to supply them with twenty P-51s. On January 10, 1945, nine pilots were assigned the task of ferrying the aircraft from Great-Britain and left on the 14 with two mechanics, Adj. Copitet and M/Sgt. Pruvost and Capt. Jenny Clark. These pilots were Capts. Laborderie, Guibaud, Latapy and Lts. Labadie, Rey, Chautemps, Callac, Lengellé and Villetorte.
The first aircraft (s/n #43-7045) was delivered to the II/33 on January 16, 1945 (some sources say January 10), delivered to Luxeuil-les-Bains by an American pilot. It was not by far a new aircraft, with 228 hours of flight time. It was joined by two other ones in the two following days, flown in by Lts. Joseph Clark and Joseph Chesney of the 111TRS (some sources specify Chesney was not a pilot but a Packard technician). On January 19, seven of the nine pilots sent to England took off with their F-6s from Stansted, Essex, but had to turn back due to heavy fog. Lt. Labadie landed at Northolt but Lt. Roger Callac was reported missing on P-51C-10NT 44-10884. They finally took off the next day and reached France, though some aircraft had to land at Paris-Orly airport instead of Luxeuil-les-Bains.
By January 20, GR II/33 had 24 pilots, five Spitfire IXs, four F-6Cs and four F-6Ds, and a single Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquet. All of the Mustangs were conversions from P-51Cs or P-51Ds to F-6Cs or F-6Ds. None of them had IFF equipment and quartz for the SCR-522 VHF radio sets (a radio set evolved from the British TR1143 with a range of approx. 150 miles for an aircraft flying at 20,000 ft). In addition, two aircraft had no radio sets and no photographic equipment. The cameras were K-17, K-22 and K-24 models mounted in different ways depending on the Mustang type.
Some XIIth Tactical Air Command crews provided initial ground instruction, and pilots started their 10 to 15 hours training program on January 22, flying whenever weather conditions allowed it. Within a few days, ten pilots were certified on the Mustang. During this conversion period, missions were still being flown with the Spitfires.
The incomplete equipment of the aircraft was to be the source of conflicts between the French and th Americans. It has to be understood that the French Free military were in a particular position at the time. They were the "secondary" warriors of the time, with small numbers and totally dependant as far as material was concerned. They were quite sensitive about being involved in the fighting in France. Since the continental field repair depots were already overloaded, installation of the IFF and other missing equipment could only be done in Great-Britain. Therefore, their return to operational status was delayed, to the French pilots' dismay. In addition, bad weather was delaying their flight training (the runway at Luxuil-les-Bains was closed for a week after heavy snow falls on January 25), which included different phases representing about 15 hours of training per pilot: first handling, patrol training, shooting, vertical and oblique camera shooting.
By the end of January, the members of the Savoie group had yet not progressed in their conversion to the Mustang. In addition to the runway being covered with snow and the low overcast, Cdr. Martre, was not succeeding in obtaining photographic film for the K-22 cameras and the cristals needed to get the SCR-522 radio sets working. Happily, between the 4th and 11th of February, three other Mustangs (F-6C #42-103449 and #43-25169, F-6D #44-14494) were delivered. In addition, the quartz needed for the radio sets finally arrived at the same time. By mid-February, 18 reconnaissance Mustangs and their crews were ready to enter operational service, the Spitfires disappearing by March.
Source Information:
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