Exact location of the "Lafayette Escadrille Memorial" needed

Volker_Nemsch · 1 May 2007, 06:43 AM

Hello!

Can someone provide me with the exact location of the "Lafayette Escadrille Memorial"? I only know that this memorial is somewhere in or near Versailles in France. An address or the geographical position (Google Earth) will be helpful.

Are there recommendable websites concerning this memorial or has a Forumite some information to share?

Any hints are welcome!

.

TomVrille · 1 May 2007, 07:03 AM

As noted in Dennis Gordon's book The Lafayette Flying Corps, the memorial is located in the park of Villeneuve L'Etang, 8 miles outside of Paris and halfway to Versailles.

Hope this helps.

edmondthieffry · 1 May 2007, 08:20 AM

Hello Volker,

Try this link : http://perso.orange.fr/rdisa/html/index.html This site is in French and English

I think you should find full information here. The memorial is effectively in park of Villeneuve l'Etang just south of Garches at Marne-La-Coquette. Just south of this town, you'll find another great sites of the French Aviation ; Issy-les Moulineaux and Boulogne-Billancourt.

Regards

Edmond

GrandSon · 1 May 2007, 10:42 PM

you can see it in hi-res aerial photo on www.geoportail.fr, select France then Marnes la Coquette. The memorial can be seen just opposite the "autoroute de normandie" you can zoom in or out and switch between photo or map.

2 other sources unfortunately not available right now are the musée de l'air at le Bourget who has an original sioux head (not currently in display) and the Musée de la Coopération Franco-Américaine:
http://www.museefrancoamericain.fr/
currently under renovation, due for reopening (later than thought) in 2008.

GrandSon.

gilles · 2 May 2007, 01:01 AM

Hello !

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandSon

you can see it in hi-res aerial photo on www.geoportail.fr

Geoportail even give the exact position :
2°10'18''east / 48°50'11''north

Giles

Volker_Nemsch · 5 May 2007, 09:50 AM

Hello!

Thank you all for your help. Especially the position "gilles" provided was the ideal tool to find the place with Google Earth.

Would it make sense to make a list with these geographical positions concerning WW1 locations? In the case of discussions it would be easy to find exact locations of the frontline, crash sites, and other places and it would be a good thing to measure distances.

Any comments?

.

Graeme · 6 May 2007, 02:04 AM

Volker

It's something I'm working on. Unfortunately, in terms of British claims on the Western Front over 1,800 locations are mentioned. A number of these are mis-spelled, so it is a bit time-consuming working out which spelling is correct (allowing for national and regional variations) and then pinpointing the map reference.

Watch this space.

Graeme

Graeme · 7 May 2007, 04:41 AM

I've done a bit of work on the location element of my claims database and narrowed the options to about 1,350 discrete Western Front place names. For the location database, the format I intend using is Location; Region/Province; Country; Latitude; Longitude. For example:

Abancourt; Nord-Pas-de-Calais; France; 50:14:07 N; 3:12:43 E
Abeele; West-Vlaanderen; Belgium; 50:48:55 N; 2:39:25 E

When complete, the database could be sorted by latitude, longitude, location. It should then be a matter of selecting a specific location then identifying other towns in the general vicinity. Not as convenient as looking at a map, but a start.

If the general consensus is that would be a useful tool, I'll put something together then see if Scotty would be good enough to put it up on the 'drome website.

Graeme