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

[PJ Fisher]

Daytime Drama
This two-page pictorial featuring Airco D.H.4's is a fun read.
(from the Illustrated War News, 13 March 1918):



Here's a 3D rendering I've made of a 230lb High-Explosive Royal Laboratory Bomb, as being admired by this aircrew.


And here's a link to forum member Brad Cancian's 1/72 Airfix DH.4 from No. 110 Squadron: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12604.0

[PJ Fisher]

Make a Run for the Border
(from the Grand Forks Herald, 14 March, 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Pesce Volante
Today's spotlight is on Italian aerial activity along the Adriatic.
(from the New Britain Herald, 15 March 1918):



This Macchi 'flying fish' appears to be an L.2/M.3 type.  I couldn't find any builds for this on the forum, but here's an amazing 1/144th-scale M.5 recently shared by William Adair:

https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14056.msg259031#msg259031

[PJ Fisher]

Grenfell Fells Four
Piloting his new Morane N Bullet (serial #5068) British airman, Eustace Osborne Grenfell MC DFC AFC, earned ace status in a quadruple victory.  His victims included three Fokkers and an Albatros.  In a likely attempt to assuage linger fears of the Fokker Scourge, today's article report of his actions from 17 January "...in a forty-minute dogfight over the Houthoulst Forest, he drove down a Fokker Eindekker, forced another to land, put another one out of control, and drove down an Albatros two-seater." (via wikipedia)
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 16 March 1916):



(image: appears to be Grenfell aside what appears to be an Avro 500, via london-medals.co.uk)

Read more on Grenfell's contributions to the British military through two world wars over at the London Medal Company, where some of his personal effects are presently for sale: https://london-medals.co.uk/the-unique-and-exceptional-great-war-western-front-fighter-ace-17th-january-1916-multiple-victory-military-cross-india-north-west-frontier-waziristan-1924-distinguished-flying-cross-and-biggin-hill-commanding-officer-s-home-service-november-1918-air-for

[PJ Fisher]

Nose-Down Nieuport?
This grainy photo appears to contradict its caption that French ace Georges Charles Marie François Flachaire downed a German aircraft into a barbed-wire morass.  Unless this sesquiplane is a Fokker M10 or some other obscure German type, this looks like a Nieuport 10/17 to me.  Flachaire's combat victory closet to this report's publication date occurred four months earlier in November 1916 over Manancourt.  Has anyone seen this image before?
(from the Queenslander, 17 March 1917):

[PJ Fisher]

Count Down
"It's really not a pretty sight: seeing such a giant bird rushing into the depths, hopeless and mortally wounded."  Fokker pilot and future German ace Hartmuth Baldamus wrote bittersweetly about his first aerial victory. "The only consolation is the probability that the crew was already killed in flight, because I had fired... at point blank range with two machine guns..."  The losers in this brief battle was French nobleman Jacques Decazes de Glucksbierg and aviator François Lefebvre, whose Caudron was sent flaming into the ground near Nauroy.  "We ourselves perhaps do not have an idea of ​​the brevity of the time such an incident lasts. The chase lasted only 60 - 75 seconds. Shots: 3 seconds only! The fall of the plane, some 45 seconds".  (quotations: Hottenroth, JE (ed.), Sachsen in großer Zeit , Volume I, 1920, ed.; via http://www.lesamisdenauroy.fr/Nauroy-43-Combat-aerien.html)
(from the Topeka State Journal, 18 March 1916):



"...several residents of Beine in Marne witnessed the aerial combat which took place in the direction of Nauroy. A French plane was forcing a German plane to land and return to its lines, when a small enemy Fokker which was flying over the French plane attacked it unexpectedly. Two minutes later, the latter was in flames and fell to the ground. The next day, another tricolor airplane rushed to the scene of the battle and dropped two wreaths to pay homage to the unfortunate heroes.". The event was immortalized in a stained-glass trytich within the walls of a local church.

"One hundred years later, on the morning of March 15, 2016, Escradrille SAL 28 from Saint-Dizier air base 113, to which the two unfortunate pilots, Count Jacques Decazes and François Lefebvre, belonged, came to remember in Beine- Nauroy of this heroic act... On this occasion, two {Dassault} Rafales flew over the village, before separating" (quotations via http://frontdechampagne.over-blog.com/)

Click the above links for more images and backstory!

[PJ Fisher]

Wonder Weapon
(from The War Illustrated, 1915):



Fun facts: "The French 75 mm field gun is widely regarded as the first modern artillery piece.  It was designed as an anti-personnel weapon system for delivering large volumes of time-fused shrapnel shells on enemy troops advancing in the open. After 1915 and the onset of trench warfare, impact-detonated high-explosive shells prevailed. By 1918 the 75s became the main agents of delivery for toxic gas shells. The 75s also became widely used as truck mounted anti-aircraft artillery. They were the main armament of the Saint-Chamond tank in 1918.

In 1915 Britain acquired a number of "autocanon de 75 mm mle 1913" anti-aircraft guns, as a stopgap measure while it developed its own anti-aircraft alternatives. They were used in the defence of Britain, usually mounted on de Dion motor lorries using the French mounting which the British referred to as the "Breech Trunnion". Britain also purchased a number of the standard 75 mm guns and adapted them for AA use using a Coventry Ordnance Works mounting, the "Centre Trunnion".[21] At the Armistice there were 29 guns in service in Britain." (via wikipedia)

[PJ Fisher]

Wolf Cub
The exploits of the Imperial Germany Navy's SMS Wolf (IV) are fairly renowned. Today's cover pictorial marks the return of the armed merchant raider's 451-day voyage - the longest of any warship during the Great War.  "On 30 November 1916 the Wolf left her home port of Kiel with a crew of 348 men. Escorted by the SM U-66 from Skagerrak to the North Atlantic, she passed north of Scotland and turned south going around the Cape of Good Hope, where she laid some of her mines, into the Indian Ocean. She dropped mines at the harbors of Colombo and Bombay, then entered the waters of South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

With the help of the "Wölfchen" (Wolf Cub), a Friedrichshafen FF.33e two-seater seaplane, she located and seized enemy vessels and cargo ships. After transferring their crews and any valuable supplies (notably coal, but also essential metals of which the German war effort had much need) to the Wolf, she then sank the vessels. The Wolf destroyed 35 trading vessels and two war ships, altogether approximately 110,000 tons." (via wikipedia)

"Fregattenkapitän Karl August Nerger also relied on a Friedrichshafen FF.33E floatplane dubbed Wölfchen (Wolf Cub), which provided invaluable over-the-horizon scouting and participated in five captures. On June 16, 1917, the biplane stopped the 567-ton, four-masted schooner Winslow by dropping a bomb in front of the U.S. ship. The pilot then landed Wölfchen alongside Winslow and—pistol in hand—ordered its captain to steam toward Wolf." (via historynet.com)
(from the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, 20 March 1918):



(image via squadronshop.wordpress.com)

(image via wikipedia)

Just weeks before today's story was published, a motion picture was filmed of the Wölf's return to Kiel Harbor.  Luckily this footage survives; the Wölfchen can be spotted at the 9:18 mark:  https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/S.M.%20Hilfskreuzer%20Wolf/barch::bd08cecbe7b53236f26fddcb84312674

Here's a look back at forum member Alexis' build of the this wasserflugzeug: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12174.msg227127#msg227127

[PJ Fisher]

Bavarian Big Bird?
A vague post-war report from a German-language newspaper in Wisconsin, USA, suggests that Rumpler-Luftfahrzeugbau GmbH, is building a flying machine capable of transatlantic flight.  Loosely translated: "Berlin.  The Rumpler aircraft factory in Bavaria, which also supplies the famous Tauben, has a huge aircraft under construction that will be used to fly across the ocean."

Not sure what the source of this story was but the pending Treaty of Versailles would restrict Germany from manufacturing aircraft.  After a failed attempt a automobile manufacturing Rumpler would fall into receivership by 1923... though not before producing their intriguing Tropfenwagen.  If you've ever seen Fritz Lang's classic movie 'Metropolis', you might recognize it! Considered by some sources to be the world's first streamlined production car it clearly was inspired by flight aerodynamics.  Rumpler ultimately was acquired by Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, which would evolve into BMW.  The first German airplane to cross the Atlantic (east to west) would be the Junkers W 33 Bremen, nearly a decade later in 1928.
(from Nord Stern, 21 March 1919):



(image via vorkriegs-klassiker-rundschau.blog)

(image via zwischengas.com)

See the Tropfenwagen in action in this period Pathe newsreel: https://youtu.be/FoCMB0Ugwls?si=ci81Da_x0cjgv8yL

[PJ Fisher]

Big Breguet
I'd love to do a build of this rarity, which looks to be a Bre.5 or similar derivative.  Has anyone here done one?
(from the Western Mail, 22 March 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

More on Macchi
Following our March 16 headline on the Macchi flying boat here's another boasting the merits of the flying boat's advanced speed.
(from the Alaska Daily Empire, 23 March 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Pistol Packin' Pusher
The Short Brothers S.81 Gun-Carrying Pusher Biplane Seaplane was erected at Royal Naval Air Station Eastchurch in May 1914.  Assigned serial number 126, it joined 'E' Flight in the flypast at the Spithead Royal Review later that summer (which headlined here back in August 2022: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg246655#msg246655).  Throughout the first year of the Great War it was used as a platform for numerous gun tests.  The Vickers 1-1/2-pdr quick-firing gun, Lewis gun, 6-pdr Davis recoilless gun were all fired in flight by #126, which was powered by a twin-row 160-hp Gnome rotary.  The Graphic of Australia must have been looking for page fillers on this day in 1916, because this pre-war, one-off, 'Modern Hydroplane' had already been deleted five months prior!
(from the Graphic of Australia, 24 March 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

Teal vs. Taube
For forty-five fraught minutes the British merchant steamship Teal zigged and zagged through the currents off Noordhinder Bank while a German warplane buzzed overhead.  The two-man 'Taube' (as the press tended to identify every German plane in the Great War's early days) made multiple attempts to sink the coaster vessel.  Luckily, the attackers' salvos of 'bombs, bullets, and darts' all missed their mark and the ship and its cargo of baking ingredients reached London safely.  However, the German's ultimately nabbed the Teal thirteen months later when it was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea by the submarine UB-27.
(from the Cambria Daily Leader, 25 March 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Stand to Your Glasses
No old news today.  Instead, a tribute to the fallen:

We loop in purple twilight
We spin in silvery dawn
With a trail of smoke behind us
To show where our camrades have gone

In flaming Spad and Camel
With wings of wood and steel
For mortal stakes we gamble
With cards that are stacked for the deal

We stand 'neath resounding rafters
The walls around us are bare
They echo the fields laughter
It seems that the dead are all there

So stand to your glasses steady!
This world is a world full of lies
Here's a toast to the dead already
Hurrah for the next man to die


Here's how it was sung:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2p_MkmKqP8

[PJ Fisher]

Crumpled Rumpler?
(from the Sydney Mail, 27 March 1918):


(image via blogs.deakin.edu.au)

I don't have any specifics on this skeletonized bird, though it looks to align with an image shared in this blogpost on aerial surveillance: https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/dialogic/2022/09/