Author Topic: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2  (Read 49271 times)

Offline Dutch522

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #255 on: November 05, 2023, 03:17:58 AM »
Just catching up, and was fascinated by the photo of Boelcke in the post from two days ago. I'm deep into the early German aces at the moment, reading Van Wyngarden's Osprey book and doing online research with an eye towards doing either the WnW E.I or E.II as my next project... looking closely at the line of pilots, it was easy to recognize the bespectacled Kurt Wintgens standing three places back:



The taller guy with the moustache standing in front of Boelcke might be pre-War aeroplane designer and test-pilot Walter Höhndorf, but it's hard to tell since there's a shadow that's keeping you from seeing whether he's wearing the Pour le Merit.

Great post, and as always thanks for putting the effort into this series!

Dutch

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #256 on: November 06, 2023, 10:51:26 AM »
Good catch!  Love to learn all this stuff.  Thanks for sharing.

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #257 on: November 06, 2023, 11:13:12 PM »
Italy's 'Guynemer'
Today's pictorial feature spotlights Lieutenant Flavio Torello Baracchini, one of Italy's leading air fighters.  At the time of this article the ace had already notched twelve victories with the newly formed 81a Squadriglia..
(from the Fargo Forum, 5 November 1917)



Baracchini last headlined here in a 1918 article published after he had enjoyed a sting of fifteen aerial victories within 6 weeks:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg256659#msg256659
« Last Edit: November 24, 2023, 02:05:21 PM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #258 on: November 06, 2023, 11:58:35 PM »
Herald of the Gods
Named after the Greek deity, HMS Hermes was launched as a cruiser in 1898, and initially commissioned for service on the North America and West Indies Station.  In 1913, "work began to modify her to accommodate three seaplanes... to evaluate the use of aircraft in support of the fleet. Her forward 6-inch gun was removed and a tracked launching platform was built over the forecastle. A canvas hangar was fitted at the aft end of the rails to shelter the aircraft from the weather and a derrick was rigged from the foremast to lift the seaplane from the water. The guns on the quarterdeck were removed to allow for a seaplane to be stowed there in another hangar. A third aircraft could also be carried amidships, exposed to the elements. Three storage lockers were fitted with a total capacity of 2,000 imperial gallons (9,100 L; 2,400 US gal) of petrol in tins." (via wikipedia)
(from the Abergavenny Chronicle, 6 November 1916):



(image: the Hermes in its original configuration; Library of Congress collection)

(image: Short Admiralty Type 81 'Folder' in the slinging process; via wikipedia)

On 30 October, "...she arrived at Dunkirk with one load of seaplanes. The next morning, Hermes set out on the return journey but was recalled because a German submarine was reported in the area. Despite zigzagging at a speed of 13 knots... she was torpedoed by U-27 at a range of 300 yards. Hermes sank off Ruylingen Bank in the Straits of Dover with the loss of 21 of her crew.  Her wreck lies upside down in approximately 30 metres of water. In January 2017, two English divers were charged with failing to declare items removed from the wreck of Hermes, in contravention of the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986." (via wikipedia). Read more here: https://www.coastalheritage.org.uk/Hermes.html


(image via coastalheritage.org).

Here's a model of the ship (scale and maker unkown) show the launch pad on the foredeck and the canvas hangar aft:


The fate of the HMS Hermes received brief mention here last January in post discussing the sinking of another seaplane tender, Ben-my-Chree: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg251469#msg251469.  Though this iteration of the HMS Hermes had a rather inauspicious career, its name and purpose was would soon be reincarnated as Britain's first purpose-built aircraft carrier (in the modern sense) in 1919:

(image via reddit)
« Last Edit: November 07, 2023, 12:07:55 AM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #259 on: November 08, 2023, 01:06:29 AM »
Sopwith Sinks
As covered here before the British Admiralty was hard at work throughout the Great War developing a seaplane that could effective carry and deliver a torpedo.  By early 1915 at least three competing firms produced long-span tractor airplanes, including Short Bros. (namely their Admiralty Type 184), White & Co (with their Wight Admiralty Type 810), and Sopwith Aviation with their Admiralty Type 860. All three employed some of the most powerful engines available in Britain at the time, primarily the 200hp Salmson 2m7, and the 225hp Sunbeam.  Sopwith employed both motors in the 22 machines they constructed for the Royal Naval Air Service.

The Short proved by far the most successful of the three and actually achieved the first successful sinking of an enemy ship in combat (reported here in August 2022: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg247358;topicseen#msg247358).  A Wight also scored a torpedo hit against an enemy vessel in combat (reported here last month: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg259726#msg259726).  Sopwith's creation was not as impactful, though it did remain in service into 1916, while the company moved on to other designs.  Their torpedo-carrying Cuckoo debuted during the conflict's final month, though it saw no combat service.

Today's report notes the failure of one of Sopwith's rarities (serial #851) over the waters near Sopwith's sheds at Woolston.  The disaster claimed the life of Sopwith's design engineer and acting flight observer, Reginal Alston - the first death of a Sopwith employee.  Pilot, and Sopwith's chief mechanic, Victor Mahl (pictured here in the cockpit of #851 and beside it on the slipway) survived.  Mahl died five months following, evidently also while testing seaplanes, though not from a crash but rather... appendicitis.
(from the Glamorgan Gazette, 7 November 1914)






Brief mention of the Sopwith Admiralty Type 860 appeared in the same article on the Ben-my-Chree linked to yesterday: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg251469#msg251469
« Last Edit: November 08, 2023, 10:58:46 PM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #260 on: November 08, 2023, 11:18:06 PM »
Reclaimed 'Cripple'
This forlorn R.E.8 from the Royal Aircraft Factory looks to be on it way to be either restored or cannibalized for parts.  I see the censor has redacted the machine's serial number from its tail fin. 
(from the Illustrated War News, 1918):



Check out forum member IanB's rendition of Airfix's old-school R.E.8 in 1/72: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=7688.msg141326#msg141326

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #261 on: November 09, 2023, 11:56:38 PM »
Aerial Acquiescence?
I'm unsure of the make of this plane...  Lloyd C.II maybe?

Assuming this 'most remarkable' photo is real and not plain propaganda, it almost seems this aviator is waiving hello rather than surrendering.  Cases of mid-air capitulations were indeed documented during the Great War (including one rather rude incident that headlined here in July 2022: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg246344#msg246344).  While I'm somewhat doubtful of this doctored silhouette it does appear that the French captor truly existed.  Online info on Lieutenant Rémy Grassal, an aerial observer, is somewhat sparse.  Nothing else pertaining to this alleged submission is recorded - particularly not in Grassal's posthumous full-page biography published in La Guerre aérienne illustrée during the war(see below).
(from the Fulton County News, 8 November 1915):



(image via gallica.bnf.fr)


"I stare Death in the face every day." Grassal is said to have stated.  He wrote in one of his last letters, “Don’t forget that I am hand-holding a little the host of heaven".

Grassal's aforementioned bio notes that on his last day, 2 February 1916) he, "leaves on a two-seater piloted by Sergeant Grivotté to protect reconnaissance planes. At 3,000 meters above Péronne, he encountered a Fokker. Grassal immediately engages the combat. We hear the crackling of the two machine guns.  Suddenly those who, from below, follow the phases of the encounter, see the French two-seater suddenly dive as it leaves, deprived of direction, spinning, in a frightful fall... The disabled plane will crash into enemy lines. It was only two months later that we learned that Sergeant Grivotté had had a bullet pierce his head. His observer, Remy Grassal, doomed to certain death by the tragic end of his pilot, was himself hit by several bullets. He died the same day as a result of his injuries and his fall.".

There is no mention of the two-seater type Grassal fought their enemy 'Fokker' in.  The Aviation Safety Network website lists a single comparable crash for this same date - a Voisin two-seater downed by the German flyer Rudolf Berthold.  The Aerodrome page for Berthold notes that this was the future air ace's very first victory, which occurred over Chaulnes.  Péronne and Chaulnes are less than 16 kilometers apart; however is is recorded in 'Above the Lines' that Berthold's victims this day were Corporal Arthur Jacquin and Sous lieutenant Pierre Segaud.  So Grassaal's vanquisher remains a mystery.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2023, 04:32:26 AM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #262 on: November 10, 2023, 11:41:52 PM »
Drachen Hunter
French aviator Marcel Léopold Bloch earns ace status in today's news for downing his fifth German kite balloon while avoiding 'sham sausages' east of Bapaume.  Everything I've read about balloon busting suggests it was a dangerous business.  The multiple bullet wounds Bloch repeatedly sustained underscores this.  The citation with Bloch's Médaille Militaire, awarded three months earlier, reads: 

"Remarkable pilot having a high point of perception and duty. His bravery proven to all, he has distinguished himself during the course of combats, by attacks on balloons on 26 and 29 June, 1 and 3 July 1916, returning each time with his plane riddled by bullets. On 3 July 1916, charged with destruction of a balloon, he accomplished his mission after having received two severe wounds."

I'm not sure if he was flying his Escadrille N.62 Nieuport armed with Le Prieur rockets, or his new SPAD VII on this day.  Bloch also earned the Légion d'honneur, the Croix de Guerre (worn in portrait below), the Russian Order of Saint George, and the Order of Saint Anne.
(from the South Bend News Times, 10 November 1916):




(Profile via http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/escadrille062.htm)


More on Bloch's bio here: https://www.as14-18.net/Bloch
Check out this tiny Nieuport also from N62 by forum member 1/144_Nut: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=10118.msg183532#msg183532
« Last Edit: November 11, 2023, 12:14:39 AM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #263 on: November 12, 2023, 11:34:09 AM »
Cheating Death
For a third consecutive day the spotlight remains focused on French aviators.  Today's subject is the pioneer pilot known for looping-the-loop in his Bleriot who would become a wartime ace.  Maxime Lenoir, who flew with Escadrille N23 and was noted for his bravery, has been reported missing.  Lenoir was among the first pilots to be issued the new SPAD VII (as was Marcel Bloch, who headlined yesterday).  Lenoir emblazoned his particular mount with the motto Trompe le Mort.  Alas, no one can deceive death indefinitely.  Though unknown at the press time, Lenoir had already been killed in action on October 25.  The Germans erected a simple wooden cross near the spot where the wreckage of his SPAD crashed into the earth. 
(from the South Wales Weekly Post, 11 November 1918):

[img]https://i.imgur.com/qAdg4xI.jpg[/img

Here's a 1/48 scale build of one of Lenoir's earlier airplanes with N23, by forum member Borsos: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=6913.msg127013#msg127013

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #264 on: November 14, 2023, 06:12:52 AM »
Ten Minutes to Destiny
Published one day after the Armistice, here's an amazing tale of luck and pluck.   On the run from Fère-en-Tardenois with no fuel, an over-boiling engine and a jammed machine gun, Lieutenant Donald Hudson became an ace status by defeating three German planes in exactly ten minutes in his new SPAD XIII.  Hudson was recognized with two previous and one subsequent victory to this August incident.  Included among his six kills are four Fokker D.VII's Who knows where the skies would have taken him had the war lasted longer?
(from the Washington Times, 12 November 1918):



After the war Hudson took himself to the skies over South America where he, "began a series of record-setting flights; for instance, his use of the Wasp made him the only triplane pilot in South American history. On 17 April 1920, he took off from El Alto near La Paz and flew across the Andes for the mountain chain's first aerial crossing. Another flight took him to Lake Titicaca and set a South American altitude record of 8,294 meters (27, 211 feet) above sea level. Another high level flight like that, on 19 May, resulted in Hudson landing the Wasp with a mechanic passenger rendered unconscious by cold and the altitude.  On a flight between Oruro and La Paz, Hudson crashed the Wasp near Sica Sica. The destruction of the plane seems to have ended his influence, as he was then investigated by Bolivian authorities. (via wikipedia)

Check out forum member epeeman's build of the 1/28th scale Revell kit of a SPAD XIII in American markings:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=3756.msg63773#msg63773
« Last Edit: November 14, 2023, 07:31:23 AM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #265 on: November 14, 2023, 06:29:57 AM »
Loop Crazy
Meanwhile back in the States...

I wish I could find an action shot of this Ivy-Leaguer who served overseas with the U.S. Army Air Service.  Despite his dizzying feat Lieutenant George Torrence Overholt doesn't seem to have made it into the history books quite yet.  Interestingly his daughter-in-law just died only six months ago.
(from the Martinsburg Evening Journal, 13 November 1918):



(second text: 'Yale in the World War', volume 2,  page 395
« Last Edit: November 16, 2023, 07:16:29 AM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #266 on: November 14, 2023, 11:35:51 PM »
Aboard an Airship
What a thrill that must have been to experience.
(from the Illustrated War News, 14 November 1917):


Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #267 on: November 16, 2023, 07:16:07 AM »
Colonial Contributions
Early during the Great War, British citizens developed a fundraising scheme where each dominion and territory was called upon to donate in support of increasing the Royal Flying Corps' aircraft supply.  "Each section of the Empire was asked by the Over-Seas Club to present an airplane to the Royal Flying Corps, to be named after the district which contributed the money towards its purchase.  At the same time an appeal was made by the Patriotic League of Britons Over-Seas, of which H.M. The King is also Patron, to British subjects resident outside the Empire to make a joint gift to the Royal Navy." (via airminded.org).  This flock of disparate donations would eventually become known as The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla.  Has anyone here built a model related to this war effort?
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 15 November 1915):





Do any of you have the corresponding decal sets by Blue Rider or Avalon?  Check out forum member Jamo's review of the Avalon printing here: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=9684.0.  Here's how the Blue Rider set looks:


Here's an interesting three-part series on this subject from 2014 via airminded.org: https://airminded.org/2014/06/21/the-imperial-aircraft-flotilla-iii/

Check out forum member dirks' build of a similar presentation F.E.2b: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=962.0
« Last Edit: November 16, 2023, 01:21:10 PM by PJ Fisher »

Offline PJ Fisher

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #268 on: November 18, 2023, 12:03:21 AM »
Missing Sopwith
Be on the lookout!
(from the Barre Daily Times, 17 November 1914):



P.S. In case you feel the reward is a bit cheap... $10 equates to a little over $300 today.

Here's a priceless Sopwith built by forum member rhallinger from back in 2012: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1242.0
« Last Edit: November 18, 2023, 12:11:23 AM by PJ Fisher »

Offline KiwiZac

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Re: On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 2
« Reply #269 on: November 23, 2023, 04:06:55 AM »
Is everything okay PJ? It feels strange not to have seen an update from you for so long!
Zac in NZ