AUTO CRAFT COLLISION REPAIR

The royal Chateau at Amboise is a chateau located in Amboise, in the Indre-et-Loire departement of the Loire Valley in France.

Built on a promontory overlooking the Loire River to control a strategic ford[1] that was replaced in the Middle Ages by a bridge, the chateau began its life in the eleventh century, when the notorious Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, rebuilt the stronghold in stone.

Expanded and improved over time, on 4 September 1434 it was seized by Charles VII of France, after its owner, Louis d'Amboise, was convicted of plotting against Louis XI and executed in 1431. Once in royal hands, the chateau became a favourite of French kings; Charles VIII decided to rebuild it extensively, beginning in 1492 at first in the French late Gothic Flamboyant style and then after 1495 employing two Italian mason-builders, Domenico da Cortona and Fra Giocondo, who provided at Amboise some of the first Renaissance decorative motifs seen in French architecture. The names of three French builders are preserved in the documents: Colin Biart, Guillaume Senault and Louis Armangeart.
The chateau rises above its surrounding town.

Amboise was the site where a garden laid out somewhat in the Italian manner was first seen in France: the site of the origin of the French formal garden. At the time of Charles VIII,[2] an Italian priest, Pasello da Mercogliano, is credited with laying it out. Charles widened the upper terrace, to hold a larger parterre, enclosed with latticework and pavilions; round it Louis XII built a gallery, which can be seen in the 1576 engraving by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, in Les plus excellens bastimens de France. The parterres have been recreated in the twentieth century as rectangles of lawns set in gravel and a formal bosquet of trees.

King Francis I was raised at Amboise, which belonged to his mother, Louise of Savoy, and during the first few years of his reign the chateau reached the pinnacle of its glory. As a guest of the King, Leonardo da Vinci came to Chateau Amboise in December 1515 and lived and worked in the nearby Clos Luce, connected to the chateau by an underground passage. Tourists are told that he is buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert, adjoining the Chateau, which had been built in 1491–96.[3]

Henry II and his wife, Catherine de' Medici, raised their children in Chateau Amboise along with Mary Stuart, the child Queen of Scotland who had been promised in marriage to the future French Francis II.

[edit] Amboise conspiracy
Main article: Amboise conspiracy

In 1560, during the French Wars of Religion, a conspiracy by members of the Huguenot House of Bourbon against the House of Guise that virtually ruled France in the name of the young Francis II was uncovered by the comte de Guise and stifled by a series of hangings, which took a month to carry out. By the time it was finished, 1200 Protestants were gibbetted, strung from the town walls, hung from the iron hooks that held pennants and tapestries on festive occasions and from the very balcony of the Logis du Roy. The Court soon had to leave the town because of the smell of corpses.

The abortive peace of Amboise was signed at Amboise on 12 March 1563, between Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, who had been implicated in the conspiracy to abduct the king, and Catherine de' Medici. The "edict of pacification", as it was termed, authorised Protestant services only in chapels of seigneurs and justices, with the stipulation that such services be held outside the walls of towns. Neither side was satisfied by this compromise, nor was it widely honored.
Detail of Late Gothic carving on the Chapel of Saint-Hubert

[edit] Decline

Amboise never returned to royal favour. At the beginning of the 17th century, the huge chateau was all but abandoned when the property passed into the hands of Gaston d'Orleans, the brother of the Bourbon King Louis XIII. After his death it returned to the Crown and was turned into a prison during the Fronde, and under Louis XIV of France it held disgraced minister Nicolas Fouquet and the duc de Lauzun. Louis XV made a gift of it to his minister the duc de Choiseul. During the French Revolution, the greater part of the chateau was demolished,[4]a great deal more destruction was done, and an engineering assessment commissioned by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century resulted in a great deal of the chateau having to be demolished.

King Louis-Philippe began restoring it during his reign but with his abdication in 1848, the chateau was confiscated by the government and became for a while the home in exile to Emir Abd Al-Qadir. In 1873, Louis-Philippe’s heirs were given control of the property and a major effort to repair it was made. However, during the German invasion in 1940 the chateau was damaged further.

Since 1840, the Chateau d'Amboise has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. Today, the present comte de Paris, descendant of Louis-Philippe, repairs

See my Aviation Art Album for my paintings of the aircraft concerned.
Why when the UK and most of Europe was "socked in" did this flight take place?

The Noorduyn Norseman 44-70285

The line between the grey and olive drab was always a wavy line, at least
that was how it left the plant. However it is not believed that the Glenn
Miller Norseman had the O.D. (olive drab) camouflage colour scheme.

The Glenn Miller Norseman, specifically number 44-70285, according to
records, was accepted by USAAF at the Noorduyn plant on June 28, 1944. It
was delivered to New York on July 5th departing the U.S.A. on July 17th and
would not have arrived in England until after the invasion of Europe (June
6th) and therefore would not likely have had any "Invasion Stripes" put on
it. Also, the olive drab or camouflage colour scheme was replaced in
production earlier in March 1944 with overall aluminum.

There is no photo of the Glenn Miller Norseman, but pictures of others of
the same period, would confirm that it probably was just overall aluminum
with blue and white USAAF markings, black tail numbers, and black anti-glare
paint over the nose.

Without an actual photo of the specific aircraft, or any other information,
it is not known if the Glenn Miller Norseman might have been painted again
in the field, which is highly unlikely, or had any other markings.

In conclusion I might add that subsequently in going through files on the
Glenn Miller story I found that others had mentioned that this particular
Norseman was probably all "silver" like some others of the same vintage with
just the basic USAAF markings. They also mentioned the "dropping" by USAAF
of the camouflage colour scheme.

Also, the Norseman was assigned to U.S. Air Station 547 which was a base for
the 35th Depot Repair Squadron and would not have been going into war zones
and needed any invasion stripes anyway.

Credit for above information: Mr. Roy Dishlevoy

The pilot:-Flying Officer John R. S. Morgan who is recorded as being with
the 35th DRS (Depot Repair Squadron), 35th ADG (Air Depot Group). Station
547 (Abbotts Ripton) and Station 102 (Alconbury) were one and the same.

The two names were so that there was no confusion between Combat Groups and
Support Groups Bases.

The reason and recorded course:- The 35th ADG , "Squadron: Repair"
;"Detachment: 2nd Strategic Air Depot"; "Place of Departure: Abbotts
Ripton"; "Course: Bordeaux Via A-42" . (not Villacoublay, I wonder if this
was down to poor visibility?)

While it seems most aircraft in the UK and Europe were fog bound, perhaps it
was youthfulness and inexperience, or the chance to show superiors that he
was an "okay" pilot, or the chance to fly Glenn Miller, or just plain orders
to fly that day.

The weather for the route looks to be gradually worse from Twinwood to
Paris. The Norseman would have been almost heading into wind for the whole
route, while visibility may have improved slightly, over the Channel it
would have remained at 500yds - 2,000yds worsening considerably nearer
Paris. Cloud was thickening and getting lower towards the Channel while
France had a cloud base of 800ft and poor ground visibility of around 500yds
- 1,000yds .

Weather information: H.M. Meteorological Office, Ref: AF/ML074/69/Met 0 7a

Pilot Flying Officer John R.S. Morgan flew into Twinwood, Bedfordshire, UK
to collect Lt. Col. Norman F. Baessell and by invitation Maj. Alton Glenn
Miller who both boarded the aircraft at the end of the runway after being
driven from the officer's mess in a Humber Snipe along with Miller's manager
Don Haynes. The weather was foggy (visibility 500yds - 2,000yds) and a
temperature of 24F or -4C, cloud base was at 2,000ft. Wind was 180 degrees
at 12 knots. The plane was recorded as "wheels left ground" at 1:55pm (12:55
GMT - the USAAF used local time and this was still British Summer Time) and
headed to Villacoublay (near Paris). The route most likely to have been
taken (SHAEF Route) would have been to the west of London then out over
Beachy Head. The pilot who gained his wings around 16 weeks before, carrying
aboard "The" Glenn Miller and a Lt. Col. (I feel) would not have dared
deviate from the SHAEF Route. Personally I would have thought that he would
not have had the confidence to fly off route............ but would he have
had the experience to stay on route?

We will never know what happened

thames-barge-art.co.uk

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