On this Day (WWI aviation news), Vol. 3

[PJ Fisher]

Man and Machine
This full-page portrait depicts French flyer Georges Felix Madon and his airplane both decorated with medals.  The article notes Madon as the 'victor in 23 air fight', though he actually scored two more on March 9 while this issue of Illustrated War News was going to press.  "By war's end, he was credited with 41 confirmed victories and 64 probables. About the latter, he once nonchalantly remarked: "The Boche knows his losses." His score of 41 still ranked him fourth among all French pilots.". Madon's profile page on theaerodrome.com suggests he had 64 probable victories, for a 'theoretical total of 105'.  Madon last headlined here in June 2024: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14363.msg266664#msg266664
(from the Illustrated War News, 13 March 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Seaplanes vs. Seaboats
The Romanian port of Constanta on the Black Sea has been occupied by a mix Central Powers troops since the fall of 1916.  It's hub of trade for grain, petroleum makes it of strategic import.  Here's a report of German seaplanes of unknown type (possibly Friedrichshafens?) harrying Russian destroyers.
(from the Butte Daily Post, 14 March 1917):



P.S. For enquiring minds - if today's second story sounds familiar it's because it headlined here in another publication on this day last year: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg263689#msg263689

[PJ Fisher]

Albatros Trophy
Aucklanders today are introduced to this Albatros D.1, (serial D.I 391/16), which was flown by Ltn. Karl Heinrich Buttner, Jasta 2, 1916.  Buttner was downed on 16 November 1916 by Capt. George Alec Parker and 2nd Liet. Hamilton Elliott Hervey of No.8 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, who were flying an outdated B.E.2d.  Both Buttner and his machine landed intact.  The captured craft was thoroughly investigated and ultimately repainted with British markings.  This photo is so familiar today it's even the main photo for the D.1 on wikipedia.
(from the Auckland Weekly News, 15 March 1917):


(image via awm.gov.au)

[PJ Fisher]

Lifecycle of a Liberty Plane
This interesting pictorial page shows stages of use for an American-made D.H4 in France. 

"As there were no suitable aircraft domestically, a technical commission, known as the Bolling Commission, was dispatched to Europe to seek out the best available combat aircraft and to make arrangements to enable their production to be established in the United States.  ...the DH.4, along with the Bristol F.2 Fighter, the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5, and French SPAD S.XIII were selected. On 27 July 1917, a single DH.4 was sent to the United States as a pattern aircraft. It was not until 1918 that the first American-built DH.4s came off the production line. Several different manufacturers, including the Boeing Airplane Corporation, Dayton-Wright Company, the Fisher Body Corporation, and the Standard Aircraft Corporation produced this Americanized variant of the DH.4, featuring over 1,000 modifications from the original British design, to equip the American air services. A total of 9,500 DH.4s were ordered from American manufacturers, of which 1,885 actually reached France during the war. In American production, the new Liberty engine, which had proved suitable as a DH.4 power plant, was adopted. The Liberty was also eventually adopted by the British to power the DH.9A variant of the type." (via wikipedia)
(from Leslie's Photographic Review of the Great War, 1919):

[PJ Fisher]

Failed Missile
On 19 January 1915, the German Zeppelin airships L3 and L4 bombed the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in Norfolk.  It marked the first air raid on Britain and the first time a civilian population center was targeted in aerial warfare.  This particular piece of unexploded ordnance looks to be a 4.7-liter incendiary. variant.
(from the Auckland Weekly News, 18 March 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Fatal Fall
This New Zealand newsprint depicts a nose-down Bristol-Coanda monoplane.  This relative rarity was designed by Romanian inventor Henri Coanda, who then was technical manager of the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company. Thirty-seven examples of this machine were built, seeing service in Britain, Italy and Romania.  The Royal Flying Corps utilized them as trainers, as the Bristol which operated a flying school at Larkhill, where George Gripp's fatal accident occurred.  An earlier deathly crash of another Bistol-Coanda monoplane (serial #263) led in part to the RFC's monoplane ban of 1912.  In turn, Coanda developed a biplane variant of this machine, which became the Bristol T.B.8 bomber.  And handful of these flew operationally early in the Great War.
(from the Auckland Weekly News, 19 March 1914):



The coronor's inquest and a report by the Royal Aero Club can be read here: https://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/Items/Durrington/Durrington%20-%20Larkhill%20Coroners%20Inquest%20-%20G.%20L.%20Gipps%201914.pdf

[PJ Fisher]

Von Tutschek Dead
"Adolf Ritter von Tutschek is credited with twenty-seven confirmed aerial victories. After scoring his first three.. with Jagdstaffel 2 in early 1917, he transferred to command of another fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 12. Tutschek shot down another 20 enemy aircraft by 11 August 1917. After recovery from a severe wound, he was promoted to command a fighter wing, Jagdgeschwader II, on 1 February 1918. He scored four more victories there before being killed in action.  On 15 March 1918 South African future-10-victory ace Lieutenant Harold Redler of the Royal Flying Corps's No. 24 Squadron shot down von Tutschek.  The German spun down in his green triplane (SNo.404/17) out of control. One version of his death states when found he still had his wiping cloth tucked through his buttonhole and under his safety harness; as it was his habit to wipe his goggles clean going into battle, it was deduced he had been caught unaware." (via wikipedia)
(from the Morning Bulletin, 20 March 1918):


(image via geschichte-hautnah.de.  Loosely translated: "Oberlt. (Lieutenant Captain) Adolf Ritter von Tutschet, who won the Order of St. Joseph during the assault on the former Werf VII in Betrilo2 and died as Commander of the 2nd Fighter Squadron after the 27th German pilot was shot down at Brancourt (near Laon) on March 15, 1918."

For a close up of von Tutscheck's striated Fokker Triplane, here's a link to forum member crouthaj's  build of the 1/32 Meng kit:  https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=11932.msg222151#msg222151

[PJ Fisher]

It's the end winter of 1915-1916, and the planes of the Royal Aircraft Factory are struggling under direct attack on two fronts.  First is the Western Front, where the scourge of the new Fokker monoplanes is in full effect.  Second is the home front, where a single man in a single monoplane is waging full-on war against them across the nation in the press and in politics.  Noel Pemberton Billing led a "press campaign against the standardisation of Royal Aircraft Factory types in the Royal Flying Corps, allegedly in favour of superior designs available from the design departments of private British firms. This slowly gained currency, especially because of the undeniable fact that the B.E.2c and B.E.2e were kept in production and in service long after they were obsolete and that the B.E.12 and B.E.12a were indisputable failures.  Some aviation historians continue to perpetuate the resulting belittling of the important experimental work of the Factory during this period, and the exaggeration of the failings of Factory production types, several of which were described in sensationally derogatory terms". (via wikipedia)

This controversy culminated in a formal enquiry into the operations of the Royal Aircraft Factory (a copy of the report from my personal collection is shown below), and lead to the replacement of Mervyn O'Gorman as its Superintendent.  It also helped propel Pemberton Billing, who was no stranger to controversy himself, on to victory in the 1916 Hertford by-election of Parliament.  Today's news shows him politicking on the campaign trail from the cockpit of his monoplane.

Fun Fact:  "In 1913, he bet Frederick Handley Page that he could earn his pilot's licence within 24 hours of first sitting in an aircraft. He won his bet, gaining licence number 683 and ?500, equivalent to more than ?28,000 in 2010, which he used to found an aircraft business, Pemberton-Billing Ltd... Billing registered the telegraphic address 'Supermarine, Southampton' for the company, which soon acquired premises at Oakbank Wharf in Woolston, Southampton, and started construction of his flying boat designs." (via wikipedia)

(from The Land, 21 March 1916):
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[PJ Fisher]

"Chocks Away"!
Today's news shows what looks to be a French-made (or possibly Beardmore-built?) Nieuport 12 with the Royal Naval Air Service blowing some smoke before takeoff.  Interesting application of the rudder roundel.
(from the Australian Mail, 22 March 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

'Much-Used Types'
I suspect the illustrator of this full-page picture had a fun day at the office painting this gaggle of late-war German aircraft.. Which one is your favorite?
(from The Sphere, 23 March 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Guns Roar!
On the ground and in the air.  News from Paris today includes a report on how violent the Western Front has been for the past week at the start of the German Spring Offensive.  By the end of the Kaiserschlacht, the twenty-six fliers mentioned in this headline will be just a minute fraction of the 688,341 casualties on the German side.  The allies would suffer 863,374 casualties.
(from the Evening Star, 24 March 1918):




Here's a link to a diorama of Jagdgeschwader I airfield in March 1918 by forum member malaula (thought the image links didn't work for me): https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=4856.msg86572#msg86572

[PJ Fisher]

Glory to Our Aviators
Gander at this gallery of less-remembered French airmen from the war's early months.  One portrait that catches my eye that of the Indochinese Capitane Do-Huu Vi.  He is recognized today as Vietnam's first pilot.

"...inspired by the achievements of Louis Bl?riot, he learned to fly, entering the military pilot's school in December 1910 and obtaining pilot's license no. 649 issued by the A?ro-Club de France in 1911.... At the beginning of 1914, he returned to Indochina to test Lambert seaplanes on the Mekong River and to establish airbases in the colony. On October 3, 1914, Đỗ Hữu Vị asked to be transferred back to France to take part in the First World War. He then took part in numerous reconnaissance flights. In April 1915, he was caught in a storm and crashed.  He spent nine days in a coma in Val-de-Gr?ce, with a broken left arm, jaw and skull fractured. No longer able to pilot, he briefly becomes an observer on bombing raids before requesting reassignment to the infantry. He was given command of the 7th Company in the Foreign Legion with the rank of Captain. During the Battle of the Somme, he led his men to attack Boyau de Chancelier, between Belloy-en-Santerre and Estr?e on and was killed around 4 p.m. July 9, 1916. He was first buried near Dompierre with this epitaph: "Captain-aviator Do Huu, Died on the field of honor, For his country of Annam, For his homeland, France." In 1921, his brother, Colonel Đỗ Hữu Chấn, brought back his remains to rest in the ancestral plot near Cholon.

He was awarded the Morocco Commemorative Medal, the Colonial Medal, and was posthumously made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for being a "courageous and spirited officer" who "gloriously fell while leading his company to assault the German trenches." Streets in Casablanca, Laffaux, and in L?i Thi?u ward, Thuận An, in B?nh Dương Province, Vietnam, have been named after him. A stamp featuring Đỗ Hữu Vị was issued by the French Indochinese postal service in 1930." (via wikipedia)
(from 'J'ai vu', 25 March 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Mars in Motion

Not sure why this particular plane was still a newsworthy subject in 1915 but it's great to encounter a period press photo of this rarity.  The Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke Mars was a pre-war German military aircraft that first flew in 1913.  The sole example acquired by Britain's Royal Naval Air Service was assigned serial #154 and was stationed at RNAS Eastchurch.  It likely was already out of action by the time of this publication.
(from the Auckland Weekly News, 26 March 1915):


(image via flyingmachines.ru)

You can read more and see more thanks to forum member lone modeller's scratch-built 1/72 DFW Mars Military Biplane recently posted in tribute to Dave Wilson: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14601.msg269972#msg269972

[PJ Fisher]

Floatplane Flotilla Flops
Is that Sopwith wearing an Iron Cross? An official bulletin from Berlin, shared in an Alaskan newspaper, alerts us of a botched British raid along Germany's coast.  Here's a well-written recap of what sounds to be the same raid.  Thrilling stuff:

"25 March 1916 The seaplane carrier HMS Vindex sailed, with Cdre Tyrwhitt?s Harwich Force, to attack Zeppelin sheds at Schleswig Holstein. At 0430 the following morning, five Short 184 seaplanes were launched in squalls of snow and sleet. Two returned a couple of hours later, the first pilot reported he had not found the sheds so had bombed and set light to a factory; the second had flown further inland and found the sheds at Hoyer, but his bomb rack were frozen and was unable to drop anything. Three of the seaplanes failed to return and the crews posted as missing.

Whilst they were returning to Vindex, Flt.Sub Lt George Reid and CPO Mechanic 3rd Class Richard Mullins spotted Sopwith Baby seaplane No.8153, flown by Flt Sub Lt John Hay, stranded a short distance from the coast and they landed alongside, where Mullins tried to help Hay get its engine started. When German troops arrived on the shoreline, Reid suggested they ought to depart. So, with Hay strapped to a strut between the wings of the Short 184, he took off and they headed back towards Vindex.

Flying into another snowstorm they landed and continued taxiing on the water. They were spotted by two German seaplanes and shortly afterwards a motor boat arrived and the three British airmen were taken prisoner and spent the rest of the war in PoW camps.

Reid was amongst the first recipients of the new Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for ?great courage, ability and resource under the most trying circumstances, which included prolonged flying in a snowstorm and immersion for over three hours in the sea.? Richard Mullins received a Distinguished Flying Medal for ?displaying marked courage, initiative and resource in this hazardous undertaking? (Citation listed in London Gazette 7 Feb 1919)

Flt Sub Lt Cyril Knight and Mid Stanley Hoblyn RNR, who were flying in another aircraft were not heard of again." (via facebook.com/FAAHistory)

If you're curious as to the fate of Lt. May's beached Sopwity Baby, the Germans paraded it as a war trophy and put it into service against the British (image below).
(from the Cordova Daily Times, 27 March 1916):



(image via facebook.com/FAAHistory)

Here's a fabulous micro (1/250th scale!) paper model of this captured Sopwith in German livery by Michael Kaintoch(more images here: http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/aircraft/baby-250-mk/mk-index.html)


(image via modelshipgallery.com)

[PJ Fisher]

FBA at CAM
This looks to be a dockhand's view of le Centre d'Aviation Maritime de Dunkerque. "(CAM) of Dunkirk dates back to December 1914 and became effective in February 1915, after a brief stay in Boulogne. The center is composed of the following squadrons: Patrol seaplane squadron, Seaplane fighter squadron, Land-based bomber squadron.

These squadrons were equipped with seaplanes stationed in the port, at the place called 'Chantiers de France', and land-based aircraft based at the St-Pol-sur-Mer airfield. The unit would become the most important maritime aviation center of the First World War, whose aviators, based near the front line, would constantly have to deal with enemy aircraft and encounter numerous German submarines whose home port of Zeebrugge was nearby. It is the seaplanes of the CAM Dunkerque that have the honour of being the first Allied troops to liberate the port of Zeebrugge, evacuated by the Germans who had blocked it with mines." (via memorial-national-des-marins.fr)

I'm guessing that's an FBA (Type B?) hydroplane on the gridiron.
(from the Australian Town and Country Journal, 28 March 1917):