Istres

[AHC-ED]

Does anyone know if any British or their Dominion personnel ever trained at Istres (South of France and now Marseilles Airport)? Or was it only French airmen? I gather that they used Caudron G3s as their training machines.

[Froggy]

Bonjour
I never hear that British personal were trained at Istres,at least during Ww1
Look here
Ecole d'Istres
By the way ,Istres is Still à military aerodrome
The AirPort of Marseille is at Marigagne

Cordialement
Bruno

[AHC-ED]

Thnak you, Froggy, I was expectng you to have the answer.

The reason for the question is that I have obtained a silk postcard with reference to Istres. As I understand it, most cards were sold to allied servicemen since apparently they were too expensive for French personnel, so it seems unusual that the seller was located in the UK. Unfortunately there is no message on the back to help identify who might have bought it originally.

[nils d]

Originally Posted by AHC-ED

Thnak you, Froggy, I was expectng you to have the answer.

The reason for the question is that I have obtained a silk postcard with reference to Istres. As I understand it, most cards were sold to allied servicemen since apparently they were too expensive for French personnel, so it seems unusual that the seller was located in the UK. Unfortunately there is no message on the back to help identify who might have bought it originally.

Stating the bloomin' obvious ,have you tried turning the postcard over to read the address?

[AHC-ED]

Now what do you think, Nils D? It is, like so many of the backs of these cards, blank.

[nils d]

l wasnt being that serious Eric !
lve never heard before that Frenchmen couldnt afford these decorative cards.As these postcards are a French phenomena l cant believe they were priced out of the local mans pocket.lts not as if the British Tommy was well paid and he brought plenty of these sort of cards.
Even if these cards were a bit pricey,which seems possible, then youd have to bear in mind that servicemen in the aviation service were better paid than the average poliu. Theres no reason to disbelieve this card was an all-French transaction.

[AHC-ED]

I don't know about the French airmen but apparently the average poilu was very poorly paid in comparison to the British servicemen which is why so many of these cards are appearing on Ebay in Britain.

Obviously there was a market for this particular card else it would not have been produced. Just interesting that it should have been up for sale in the UK. I haven't seen any cards on the French Ebay.

The 'plus' is that it's added to my, admittedly limited, knowledge of French aviation of the time.

[LUF-STICK]

Bruno, thanks for your great response. As a side note about the air base at Istres, I recentley learned that all of my wife's great uncle's (Major Gervais Raoul Lufbery) medals from WW1 have been moved to and are on display at this base. These medals are the following:

French Military Medal
French Croix de Guerre with 10 palms
French Legion of Honnour
French Aero Club Gold Medal
British Military Medal
Montenegro Silver Medal for Bravery

Could someone verify where on the base these medals are on display and possibley the name of a contact there?

Thank You

Bob Stickle

LUF-STICK

[Froggy]

Bonjour

Bob your photo can be seen here with your wife
at the occasion of a conference (21 march 2012) about Raoul Lufbery
and escadrille Lafayette

CERCLE D'ETUDE ET D'AMITIE FRANCE-USA

I like that poster



May be you should contact the french side of the Lufbery's family for
his medals exposed at Istres ?

Cordialement
Bruno

(Triple A is a 'touchy' subject at the moment in France because of Standard & poor's )

[LUF-STICK]

Bruno, again as usual you do a great job in locating information about the Major. Thanks for sharing all the photos about the conference.

I will contact our family in France again to see if they can find out who to contact about the location of the medals, first go around they did not know.


Bob

LUF-STICK