Hello,
I finally finished that one. It actually got on my nerves and I almost ruined it when I finished it, as some of you saw on the "in progress" section on this forum. Thanks again for all your encouraging words!
One of my modelling topoi are airplanes that fought during the battle of Verdun from February to December 1916. One of the units at the Verdun front was FA(A) 211, an artillery spotting unit that flew over Verdun until September 1916 with Albatros C. III twoseaters. There's an interesting book edited by Norbert Welkoborsky, "Die Flieger-Abteilung (A) 211 im Weltkriege. Kriegsaufzeichnungen." (1938) that contains official records of that unit. Books of that kind are especially interesting because as everybody knows the archive of the imperial German army was burned to the ground in WW2, so original documents are rare. There are no pictures in this book, but it contains a short history of the unit from 1915 to 1918.
On pp. 27-28 there's a passage that touched me and reminded me again about the horrors those people on an over the ground had to face 100 years ago:
"Leider trifft die Abteilung ein schwerer Verlust. Mit Flugzeug C. 1110 fliegen am 3. April Vfw. Becker/ Lt. d. Res. Kuthe zur Front, um eine schwere Feldhaubitze gegen eine fdl. Batterie einzuschießen und eine Lichtbilderkundung durchzuführen (...). Nach Beendigung der gestellten Aufgaben wird die Besatzung auf dem Rückweg von Nieuport-Jagdeinsitzern angegriffen, wobei Lt. Kuthe durch einen Hals- und einen Kopfschuss tödlich verwundet wird. Obwohl nur 1 Monat bei der Abteilung, so verloren wir einen befähigten Beobachter und einen sympathischen Kameraden."I try to give a translation:
"
Sadly the unit has to face a heavy loss. Vizefeldwebel Becker and Leutnant der Reserve Kuthe flew with airplane C 1110 on april 3rd over the front to direct the fire of a heavy field howitzer battery and to take some pictures. (...) Having fulfilled their tasks both are attacked by a Nieuport scout while flying home. Lt. Kuthe was deadly hit in the neck and the head. Although only one month with the unit, we lost a competent observer and an appealing comrade."
I tried to portray this special machine C. 1110. As far as I know no pictures exist of this airplane so I built it as a generic Albatros C. III without any personal or unit markings which were generally rare in early 1916. I added a pilot figure, Vizefeldwebel Becker, sculpted by Steview Warrilow. I always liked the melancholic appearance of that figure, now I found a place for him.
What comfortable times are we living in not to loose friends, fathers, brothers, sons in wars every day (although it still happens every day in many places of this world).
Best wishes
Borsos
