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

[PJ Fisher]

Pistol Fight
This dramatic impression of an early-war aerial combat depicts a T.B.8 taking on a Taube, with a monoplane closing in from above.  Another rare bird.  About fifty Bristol T.B.8's were produced for the RFC and RNAS.  Used mostly as trainers, a handful crossed the Channel after the outbreak of war.  The type remained in service at least into 1915.  Read more here: https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/bristol-tb8-and-gb75
(from The Sun, 4 October 1914):




Alas, no models of the T.B.8 exist, but here's a look a forum member xmald's masterful Jeannin Stahltaube by Wingnut Wings in 1/32: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=10907.msg200613#msg200613

[PJ Fisher]

Wild Boy
Sergent Paul Joannes Sauvage was credited with eight confirmed and six probable aerial victories.  He originally flew for Escadrille N 65, then became one of the first pilots to be issued a the SPAD VII.  He became the youngest French ace on October 2nd at age 19 years and 239 days.  Today's report notes this victory in the sky south of Le Transloy.  Another of France's teen aces, who inherited the 'youngest' title twelve days after Sauvage's death in 1917, headlined here last September: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg247695#msg247695
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 5 October 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

Alsace Attacked
...not the region in France but the French dirigible named after it.  I'm not too familiar this aircraft but have read that it was born from a larger airship named "Pilâtre de Rozier".  Evidently that ship's size was unmanageable so it was halved to make make two smaller airships (one keeping the original name): Both gasbags were shot down by the Germans.
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 6 October 1915)

[PJ Fisher]

Paired with our front-cover shootout scene from three days back, here's another cover illustration.  This one depicts a full-frontal Morane-Saulnier Type H with pistol-wielding pilot.  Unsure if this illustration depicts a specific aircraft.  Britain's Royal Flying Corps operated a handful of Morane monoplanes at the start of the war.  One Type H saw service in France with Nos. 4 and 12 Squadrons.  The serial number on the rudder of this plane appears to read '317', though apparently that number was assigned to a B.E.2 (of No. 4 Squadron).
(from the Illustrated War News, 7 October 1914):



I couldn't find any completed builds of the Type H here on the forum, but he's a groovy sterling-silver model of one by Mappin & Webb, which was auctioned by Bonhams at the RAF Museum, Hendon, in 2009.  More here: https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/17254/lot/223/a-fine-silver-model-of-a-morane-saulnier-type-h-monoplane-1915/.  Another early aircraft by this Sheffield-based silversmithy was shared here in May: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg254739#msg254739.  Mappin & Webb made a specialty of producing scale-model airplanes at least as early as 1912, as evidenced by this advertisement from The Aeroplane magazine:

[Dutch522]

Am I correct in remembering that it was a M.S. Type H that Fokker bought and disassembled, and used as inspiration for his design of the first Eindekker? Sure looks to be a family resemblance in thar somewheres...

Dutch

[uncletony]

Am I correct in remembering that it was a M.S. Type H that Fokker bought and disassembled, and used as inspiration for his design of the first Eindekker?

Yep. The M.5K (which the Eindecker evolved) from was was basically a copy of Type H, excepting the fuselage was welded steel vs. wood...

[PJ Fisher]

Am I correct in remembering that it was a M.S. Type H that Fokker bought and disassembled, and used as inspiration for his design of the first Eindekker?

Yep. The M.5K (which the Eindecker evolved) from was was basically a copy of Type H, excepting the fuselage was welded steel vs. wood...

That explains the similar look!

[PJ Fisher]

Bulgarian Bombs Serbians
Serbia's ancient city of Niš was struck by a lone aviator.  Based on the date of this report the plane was likely an Albatros C.I acquired from Germany, though they might have still had a Bleriot on strength still.  Would anyone here know for sure?
(from the Newark Evening Star, 8 October 1915):





Bulgaria operated about 100 aircraft during the Great War.  An inventory of these can be read here: https://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/bulgaria-airforce-order-of-battle.html.  Here's some general backstory via aeroflight.co.uk:"

"Bulgaria entered the First World War with only the most meagre of air arms: the Bulgarian Army Aviation Corps comprised one Aeroplane Squadron with 5 aircraft, one Balloon Squadron and an aircrew training school with only 2 aircraft. In addition, three German-crewed Fokker E.IIIs were available to defend Sofia from air attack. Both the Aeroplane and Balloon units deployed with the Bulgarian Army during October 1915 as it advanced into Serbia and Macedonia, providing useful reconnaissance information. By November 1915 worsening relations with Romania required to relocation of the Balloon Squadron to the north east border region alongside the Third Army, while the Aeroplane Squadron moved to the Salonica (Thessaloniki) front with the Second Army near the river Struma. By April 1916 deliveries of new aircraft allowed the formation of a second Aeroplane Squadron to support the First Army on the Salonica front close to the river Vardar."

[PJ Fisher]

Swiss Balloonist Shot
Paired with yesterday's obscure aerial altercation, today's news notes the death of the Swiss aviator, Walter Flury, who was attacked by German airmen just weeks before the end of the Great War.
(from the Cordova Daily Times, 9 October 1918):



(image via tokensofcompanionship.blog)

"When he was called up for the recruit school towards the end of the First World War, Flury decided to train with the balloon troops and quickly rose to the rank of lieutenant. On September 30, 1918 Balloon Pioneer Company 2, to which Flury also belonged, was ordered to the Swiss border for its first mission. She was stationed near Pruntrut in the Ajoie. On October 7, Flury was sent to his observation post in a tethered balloon near the village of Miécourt, where he rose to an altitude of over 1,000 meters. After a few minutes, two German fighter planes approached, which Flury announced with horn blasts and ordered the captive balloon to be pulled in. When Flury was still 600 meters above the ground, the fighter pilots began to circle the balloon and shoot at it. Flury died instantly; he was found with the binoculars still in his hands. Since Flury was shot down on Swiss soil, the incident triggered a diplomatic incident between Switzerland and the German Empire. In 1919, the family of the dead man reached an agreement with the German Reich to pay compensation of 80,000 CHF. The German shooter was given a three-month suspended prison sentence." (via wiki.stadtgeschichte-grenchen.ch)



Though Switzerland was famously neutral during both world wars, around 3,000 Swiss soldiers died during active service between 1914-1918... mostly due to illness or accident and more than half by the 1918 influenza epidemic.  After the Armisitice a cenotaph commemorating Flury's death was erected at the crash site, which over time returned to woodland.  It is now a geocaching destination on a hiking trail.  A memorial ceremony was held there on the 100th anniversary: https://www.canalalpha.ch/play/le-journal/topic/13699/le-lieutenant-flury-est-mort-a-miecourt-il-y-a-100-ans



Side bar: You may also notice the neighboring headline noting Alexandra Feodorovna has been killed.  "Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine at birth, was the last Empress of Russia as the consort of Emperor Nicholas II from 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917.  A favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she was, like her grandmother, one of the most famous royal carriers of haemophilia and bore a haemophiliac heir, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia. Her reputation for encouraging her husband's resistance to the surrender of autocratic authority and her known faith in the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin severely damaged her popularity and that of the Romanov monarchy in its final years." (via wikipedia)

[Dutch522]

Where do you find this wonderful stuff, PJ...? I'm loving it, in any event.

RE: the last post but one, the Cross & Cockade journal for Winter 2022 had a really good article on Bulgarian Nieuports---captured, remarked with vaguely German-style crosses, and sent back into action---and their pilots, an aspect of the Great War I was completely unfamiliar with.

Dutch

[PJ Fisher]

Where do you find this wonderful stuff, PJ...? I'm loving it, in any event.

RE: the last post but one, the Cross & Cockade journal for Winter 2022 had a really good article on Bulgarian Nieuports---captured, remarked with vaguely German-style crosses, and sent back into action---and their pilots, an aspect of the Great War I was completely unfamiliar with.

Dutch

Hey, this would make for a cool build theme - captured planes with foreign markings.

[KiwiZac]

Hey, this would make for a cool build theme - captured planes with foreign markings.

I love this idea. A mate recently won an award for an RFC-marked Albatros which I found quite attractive!

[PJ Fisher]

Boelcke to Balkans
Germany's pioneering flying ace continues his tour of Eastern Front operations.
(from the Queensland Times, 10 October 1916):

(image: from left- Oberleutnant Hans Joachim Buddecke, General Otto Liman von Sanders, Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke in Turkey)

Details on this excursion: 
"On 10 July 1916, Boelcke left on a tour of the Balkans. He travelled through Austria-Hungary to visit the Ottoman Empire. From his diary notes, the journey seemed a combination of military facility inspections, a celebrity tour, and a holiday. He kept attendance at formal social obligations to a minimum, but had to oblige such important hosts as Enver Pasha and Otto Liman von Sanders. Making his rounds of the Turkish flying units supported by the German Military Mission, Boelcke again met his friend Hans Joachim Buddecke. After a three-day beach vacation at Smyrna, Boelcke reached the quiescent Gallipoli battlefield on 30 July. When he returned to Constantinople, he learned that in his absence, the French and British airmen had taken air superiority from the Germans on the Western Front.[75]

On his hastened return trip, Boelcke visited Bulgaria and the Russian Front. He was visiting his brother Wilhelm at his unit in Kovel, when a telegram arrived from Lieth-Thomsen:[76] "Return to west front as quickly as possible to organize and lead Jagdstaffel 2 (Fighter Squadron 2) on the Somme front."

The Smyrna waterfront made headlines here last April: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg253828#msg253828

Here's a cool 1/33rd-scale model of one of Boelcke's mounts by forum member ninetythirdliberator: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13574.msg251296#msg251296topic=13574.msg251296#msg251296

[PJ Fisher]

I love this idea. A mate recently won an award for an RFC-marked Albatros which I found quite attractive!

can you share a pic?  that would be neat to see!

[PJ Fisher]

Super Terra-Aerial Dreadnaught
Because... why not?
(from The Aeroplane, 11 October 1916):



Fun Fact: The word 'tank' (shown in quotes above) was newly coined when this advertisement went to press.  "The name 'tank' came from British attempts to ensure the secrecy of the new weapons under the guise of water tanks. During the First World War, Britain began the serious development of the tank. Ironically, the Royal Navy led the way with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, establishing the Landships Committee in early 1915.  The military combined with engineers and industrialists and by early 1916 a prototype was adopted as the design of future tanks. Britain used tanks in combat for the first time in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916." (via iwm.org.uk)