On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2

[PJ Fisher]

Zeppelin Gap
Happy April Fools everyone!
(from The Onion, 1913):

 

[PJ Fisher]

Russians Over Galicia
Hey all, starting up again with some war news.  Here's a little peek of from the air from a Russian perspective.  Not sure how much weight this doctored image holds but it reminds us that the battle for the skies was fought not just over the Western Front.
(from the Evening Ledger, 2 April 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Propeller for a Headstone
And from the Balkan Penisula, here's a grave image showing the burial spot of a few German aviators shot down in action.
(from the Day Book, 3 April 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

'Aviation' Car Powers Observation Balloon
(from the Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, 4 April 1914):



Check out forum member MoFo's observation balloon renderings: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=9452.msg172139#msg172139

[PJ Fisher]

Freiherr von Richtofen's 75th
Today's news notes the Red Baron's April-2nd victory over a Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 (serial no. A3868), crewed by teenager 2nd Lt. Ernest David Jones and 2nd Lt. Robert Francis Newton of the two-day-old Royal Air Force.  Both aviators were were killed when shot down over Hill 104, north East of Moreuil, France.  The Kilduff translation of von Richtofen's combat report states:

"About 12:30pm I attacked a British R.E. [aircraft] at an altitude of 800 meters above the woods at Moreuil just below the clouds. As the adversary did not see me until very late, I managed to approach within 50 metres of him. I fired from ten metres' distance until it began to burn. When the flames shot out, I was only five metres away from him. I could see the pilot and observer twisting out of their aeroplane [seats] to escape the flames. The machine did not burn in the air, but gradually burn [on the way] down. It fell out of control to the ground, where it exploded and burned to ashes."

Evidently the wreckage this R.E.8 and its crew was captured on film while still smoldering (skip to the 9:30 mark):  https://www.filmportal.de/video/bilder-aus-der-grossen-schlacht-im-westen-5-teil

(from the New-York Tribune, 5 April 1918):



Check out forum member gedmunson's 1/32 Meng build of Fokker Triplane 127/17, which was flown by Richtofen in the spring of 1918: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13422.0

[PJ Fisher]

Yankee Flyer
American author James Norman Hall had several 'high adventures' fighting in France.  Though he never earned ace status, today's news relays a combat from 27 March where he, flying with 103rd Aero Squadron, downed two enemy aircraft in the span of seven minutes.  His backstory is equally impressive:

"Hall was on vacation in the United Kingdom in the summer of 1914, when World War I began. Posing as a Canadian, he enlisted in the British Army, serving in the Royal Fusiliers as a machine gunner during the Battle of Loos. He was discharged after his true nationality was discovered.... Hall returned to Europe in 1916 on assignment with Atlantic Monthly magazine. He was to have written a series of stories about the group of American volunteers serving in the Lafayette Escadrille, but after spending some time with the American fliers Hall himself became caught up in the adventure and enlisted in the French Air Service. By then the original Escadrille had been expanded to the Lafayette Flying Corps, which trained American volunteers to serve in regular French squadrons." (via wikipedia)

(from the Knoxville Independent, 6 April 1918):



Just one month later Hall would find himself on the receiving end of bad luck in the skies of France: 

"On 7 May 1918, during a dogfight over German lines, Captain James Norman Hall's Nieuport biplane fighter lost the fabric on part of its upper wing and almost simultaneously was hit by an antiaircraft shell, and crashed in enemy territory.... Hall spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner. By the time of his capture, Hall was one of the most experienced and highly decorated American pilots in the United States Aviation Service." (via masshist.org)

Hall ultimately garnered the Croix de Guerre with five palms, the Médaille Militaire, the Légion d'Honneur and the American Distinguished Service Cross. His bullet-torn-and-bloodied French uniform tunic (from a prior downing) is in the collection of the Iowa State Historical Museum.  After the war, Hall partnered fellow pilot Charles Nordhoff to pen several book, including a history of the Lafayette Escadrille and most famously, Mutiny on the Bounty.  We are lucky to have 'before and after' images of Hall's Nieuport 28 (No. 6153).

  
(images respectively via theaerodrome.com and wwiamerican.com)

Check out forum member IanB's 1/72-scale Revel build of a Nieuport 28 similarly in American service: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2115.msg34609#msg34609

[PJ Fisher]

Both Sides of a Bombardment
More news from the Dardanelles Campaign with a story on the Royal Navy's continued assault on Turkish fortifications; this time at Smyrna.  As reported here last month, the R.N.A.S. was flying Shorts, Sopwiths and Wights from the seaplane-tender H.M.S. Ark Royal for artillery spotting, observation, and light bombardment beginning in early 1915.  Though not referenced directly, we know from Ark Royal's logbook that the two planes involved in today's headline were Sopwith Admiralty Type 807 (serial #922) and [my favorite] the Wight A.1 Improved Navyplane (serial#172), which were respectively featured here on February 21 (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg252648#msg252648) and March 10 (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg253029#msg253029).
(from the Cambria Daily Leader 7 April 1915):

 

Our March 10 post offered the airman's angle, including a diary entry and a personal poem about aerial bombing from the Wight Navyplane's pilot, Flight Commander Geoffrey Rhodes Bromet, whose machine had been hit twenty-eight times by enemy fire.  Today we get glimpses of these airplanes from eyewitnesses at sea and on land.  First, excerpts from Ark Royal's log provide insight on the support crew's efforts and the man-hours involved to get these two planes into action.  And after all that work, the Sopwith failed to reach its objectives due to engine trouble... twice in one day!  The images show #922 on deck, Wight #172 folded in the slinging process, and a sister Navyplane (#176 I believe) with its great wingspan fully unfurled on the sea surface.

4 April 1915, Gulf of Smyrna, Lat 38.5, Long 26.8
     2:05am: Shaped course S 27 E –68 revolutions – Patamos Lights N 27 W
     3:05am: reduced to 60 revolutions
     3:30am: Course and speed as requisite for Seaplanes and obtaining a bearing
     3:45am: Air Service Ratings employed hoisting out Seaplanes
     6:00am: Hands employed cleaning ship and assisting with Seaplanes
     6:12am: Lieutenant Douglas left in 922 for bomb dropping flight over Smyrna Harbour
     6:57am: Lieutenant Bronst (sic; et al.) left in 172 for bomb dropping flight, over Smyrna Harbour
     8:20am: Lieutenant Bronst returned and reported that bombs had been dropped at 3 Torpedo Boats but had missed
     8:55am: Lieutenant Douglas returned in tow of HMS USK, his engine having failed before reaching Smyrna
     9:00am: Cleaned guns
     9:20am: Pipe down – hands and Air Service Ratings employed when necessary for Seaplanes
     12:30pm: Lieutenants Bronst and Douglas left in 172 and 922 for bomb dropping flights over Smyrna Harbour
     12:40pm: Lieutenant Douglas returned, engine having failed
     2:00pm: Air Service Ratings employed when necessary for hoisting machines
     3:40pm: Shaped course N 5 W – 11 knots for Mityleni
(via naval-history.net; original document here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/oldweather/ADM53-34098/0068_0.jpg)

   

Secondly, we have an enlightening diary entry; not from a man of war but from a female nurse who witnessed the bombardment from her home.  Grace Williamson (1865-1945) was the daughter of an expatriot English merchant, and ran a maternity hospital (now home to the Levantine Heritage Foundation) in Smyrna at the time of the Great War.  Williamson's description of the 'huge Aeroplane' (the Wight was about the biggest plane in British service and the world's largest seaplane when introduced) and the timing of her entry suggest that it was Bromet she saw in the sky above her that day:

"April 1915:  At a quarter past one this afternoon the aeroplane came round again and the valiant Turks fired at it and quickly drove it away in a few minutes. The shots certainly very nearly reached it this time. I can see so well from my window.... What excitement we have. It appears the Aeroplane threw one bomb on a small gun boat. Ruth saw it from Guiffrey’s balcony. It did not hit the boat. It is a lovely sight to see the huge Aeroplane flying round and round and being shot at. The shells burst in the sky when they don’t hit, and look like little white doves or puffs of clouds against the blue. I am so glad to have seen this sight. As soon as we hear the whirl of the plane we all rush to the roof, and you should see what a sight it looks from my window. Every roof crowded."
(via noisybrain.com; further entries here: https://noisybrain.blog/2017/06/03/smyrna-at-war-1914-1918)

And here's a vintage postcard depicting Smyrna's harbor and rooftops leading up to the old fortifications (via neareastmuseum.com):

[PJ Fisher]

Unbuckled Boxkite
Here's a grave reminder from the past to wear your seatbelt!  Amazingly there was no safety-harness requirement (and actual resistance to wearing them!) when learning to fly in those early years.  Had this cocksure showboat not thrown himself out of his plane he likely would have earned Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate #762 on this day in 1914.
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 8 April 1914):



"It was a pathetic piece of over-confidence. He had already done his two sets of five figures of eight, descending safely after each set, and had then only to complete a volplane, i.e. glide, from 400 feet. Noticing that the wind was strengthening, I had told him not to go higher than 400 feet, and I was therefore astonished and not a little alarmed to see him continue to climb until he was over 1,000 feet. "He's going to try a spiral", I called out apprehensively to the official observer ... I was right. He began to spiral down to earth, but the nose of his machine dipped steeply and Deane fell out of the plane from over 400 feet to the ground. He was determined to finish his test with special brilliancy and had made his spiral too steep. He must have been thrown forward against the control column and then been catapulted out. " (F. Warren Merriam, 'First Through the Clouds', B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1954, pg. 81)

Following this mishap the Royal Aero Club strongly recommended the fitting of quick-release safety-belts:

"Report.—
The Committee sat on Tuesday, April 28th, 1914, and received the report of the Club's representative who witnessed the accident. Eye-witnesses of the accident also attended before the. Committee and gave evidence. From the consideration of the evidence, the Committee regards the following facts as clearly established:—

1. The aircraft was built by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co., Ltd., in November, 1913, and was of a type in which the pilot sits on the front edge of the lower plane with the engine and propeller behind, and is quite unenclosed.
2. The wind at the time of the accident was about 5 miles per hour.
3. The control wires were found to be intact after the accident.
4. Sergt. Deane had been a pupil at the Bristol School for about six weeks, and during the latter part of the time had made many good flights.
5. The School instructor has stated that in his opinion Sergt. Deane was fully competent to pass the tests for his Aviator's Certificate.6. The pilot was not strapped into his seat, nor was the aircraft fitted with a safety belt.
7. A spiral descent is not laid down as part of the tests for Aviators' Certificates.

Opinion.—
The Committee is of opinion that the accident was due primarily to the pilot forcing the aircraft down at too steep an angle, resulting in his falling forward on his control and accentuating the steepness of the descent.

Recommendation.—
In view of the numerous instances which have come before the Committee in which the use of a safety belt might conceivably have either prevented the accident or mitigated the results, the Committee strongly recommends that all aircraft be fitted for and with some form of quick-release safety belt in order that the pilot may avail himself of this safeguard should he wish to do so. In making this recommendation the Committee is fully alive to the objections that have been raised to the use of the safety belt."

Check out forum member NP's 1/48-scale Inpact build of a similar Bristol Boxkite: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1855.msg30186#msg30186

[PJ Fisher]

Fröhliche Ostern!

[PJ Fisher]

Under the Gun of Garros
Two articles today cover a milestone moment in military aviation... the day Roland Garros felled another airplane by firing a gun mounted within arc of his propeller. His victory was widely reported in the press.  Though the articles note how Garros 'shot forward with great bounds' using a 'quick-firer', his innovation was not fully appreciated publicly until later.  The Germans military most definitely gained an appreciation it only seventeen days later when Garros was shot down over their lines and his novelty contraption revealed. The rest of the story is well known to most readers.

(respectively from the New Britain Herald and the Evening World, 10 April 1915):

 

Check out forum member Zabu's 1/72-scale AZ Model build of Garros' Morane Type L Parasol from this encounter: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=2028.msg32992#msg32992

[PJ Fisher]

The First U.S. 'Air Force' Mission
This not-so-successful but historical event was hinted at here last April in a headline titled 'Six U.S.A. Aircraft Already Become Junk' (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg242863#msg242863).  Details from Smithsonian Magazine:

"On March 19, 1916, eight Curtiss biplanes from the U.S. Army’s 1st Aero Squadron—the country’s entire air force—flew into Mexico for their first military action. The target was Pancho Villa, the guerilla leader who had provoked U.S. ire ten days earlier by crossing the border to attack the small town of Columbus, New Mexico. Let's just say that things didn't go very well. By the end of April, every one of the airplanes was destroyed. And it wasn't as if the squadron's commander, Capt. Benjamin Foulois, hadn't seen disaster coming. Back at the unit's home base in San Antonio, he had struggled with incessant equipment problems, locked in a battle with the Curtiss company over shoddy workmanship and parts that constantly needed replacing." (full article here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-first-air-force-mission-55247737/

(from the Watertown Weekly Leader, 11 April 1916):



Though I believe the planes involved were technically Curtiss JN-3's, check out forum member macsporran's 1/48th-scale Lindberg build of the similar JN-4: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11404.msg212038#msg212038

[PJ Fisher]

Seaplanes vs. U-Boats
Pivoting from yesterday's struggles searching for bandits below the Mexican border, today we're over the North Atlantic hunting for unterseeboots beneath the waves.
(from the Abergavenny Chronicle, 12 April 1918):

 

No specific aircraft are identified in this report, but since 'large seaplanes' were referenced, have a look at forum member mgunn's 1/32nd scale build of the Wingnut Wings Felixstowe F.2a: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12223.0

[PJ Fisher]

Strike on the Royal Aircraft Factory
...by lighting!
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 13 April 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Chases Thirty Miles.  Shoots at Fifteen Feet.
(from the Abergavenny Chronicle, 14 April 1916):



Based on this post, Special Hobby offers a 1/48-scale Nieuport 10 with Bone's markings: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11942.msg222384#msg222384

[PJ Fisher]

Jean Navarre Earns Special Ace Status By Downing Five... French Policemen!
The pioneer ace fought hard and partied hard only to die accidently just months after the armistice while training to fly through the Arc de Triomphe for a victory parade.  Here's a great website recounting Navarre's highs and lows, including a mention of today's news:  https://donhollway.com/jeannavarre/
(from The Sun, 15 April 1917):