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

[PJ Fisher]

Unconventional War
Here's an evocative illustration of the early-war Zeppelin raid on Antwerp.
(from the the War Illustrated Album Deluxe, 24 August 1915)


The results of this raid also headlined hear last September: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg259074#msg259074

[PJ Fisher]

Great Escape
Turns out the old 'fake mustache' trick really can work!
(respectively from the Cambria Daily Leader and the Sydney Mail, 25 August 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Big French Raid
(from the Washington Times, 26 August 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Two Against Ten
(from the Cambria Daily News, 27 August 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Breguet et Bressonneau
Though the newsprint is poor, I love the composition and perspective of this scene from 1916.
(from the Queenslander, 28 August 1918):

[PJ Fisher]

Gotha Gander
Today we're treated to an interior cutaway of one of Imperial Germany's most dreaded aircraft. 
(from the Illustrated War news, 29 August 1917):



Here's a look back at forum member Jeroenveen1's 1/32-scale Gotha by Wingnut Wings: https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=1885.msg30806#msg30806

[PJ Fisher]

Great War Big Boy
Though not the biggest British aerial bomb developed during the WW1, the 1650lb SN was the heaviest to be used operationally.  As most of you know, the 'SN' was made specifically for raids on German industrial centers; particularly the destruction of the Essen Munitions Works.  Hence the code 'SN'!  The only machines capably of deploying this heavy ordnance were the Handley Page Types 'O' and 'V'.
(from the Barrier Miner, 30 August 1919):


Here's an updated version of a 3D rendering I created a little while back.

[PJ Fisher]

Strafing a Spotter
(from the Auckland Weekly News, 31 August 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

Tech Dissected
The flaming Gotha W.D.7 seaplane that headlined here on July 7 (https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=14363.msg267180#msg267180), reappears today in this engineering publication.  Obviously its torched remains were salvaged and inspected by the French then shared with the allies.
(from Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering, 1 September 1916)

[PJ Fisher]

Dying Observer Guides Blind Pilot
(from the Herald of Wales 2 September 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

Future US President Almost Killed in Air Raid
"During the winter of 1916 I received word that the King of the Belgians would like to see me the next time I came to France. One day I crossed to Boulogne, having arranged to motor up to the Belgian headquarters the next morning. About midnight the Germans decided to make an air attack on Boulogne Harbor. The one little hotel still open to civilians was inconveniently close to their objective. I got out of bed and from the window was watching the searchlight streamers, listening to the drone of planes and the occasional explosions, when suddenly the window was smashed in and I received my only wound of the war. It was only a cut on the arm from flying glass. I got no wound stripe.

Then a cockney English non-commissioned officer pounded on the doors yelling for everybody to "go to the bisement, go to the bisement." I wrapped a towel around my arm and groped my way in the dark down to the lobby. Under the light of a single candle our cockney was now on a chair yelling, "Into the bisement. Women and children foist. Women, children foist!" A crowd of terrorized women and children were jamming the head of a narrow staircase. The wavering light made an agonizing flash of an inferno such as only Durer could depict. As sound accompaniment to the nightmarish scene came another crash in the streets, a scream from some child, another yell from the cockney, "Women foist, women foist!" There wasn't a man within yards of the staircase. A Frenchman standing next to me said calmly, "Shall we go over and kick him to death?" I felt like that too but instead went back to bed." (The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, 1951)
(from the Topeka State Journal, 3 September 1918):



"Hoover led the American Relief Administration, which provided food to the starving millions in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Russia. Hoover's chief goal as food czar was to provide supplies to the Allied Powers, but he also sought to stabilize domestic prices and to prevent domestic shortages. Under the broad powers granted by the Food and Fuel Control Act, the Food Administration supervised food production throughout the United States, and the administration made use of its authority to buy, import, store, and sell food. Determined to avoid rationing, Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". These policies were dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists, in spite of Hoover's continual orders that publicity should not mention him by name. The Food Administration shipped 23 million metric tons of food to the Allied Powers, preventing their collapse and earning Hoover great acclaim".  He served one term as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933, being defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

[PJ Fisher]

Kleiner Vorrat
Can't quite tell from this grainy image exactly what type of bombs are piled up here but I'm guessing they're variants produced by Sprengstoff A.G. Carbonit, based in Hamburg.  Maybe 3.5kg?  Here's a recent 3D rendering I've made of a similar early-war 'fall projectile', sans fuse.
(from the Brisbane Telegraph, 5 September 1915):

[PJ Fisher]

First Flights
(from the Sydney Mail 7 September 1916):

[PJ Fisher]

The Cuffley 'Zeppelin'
The Luftschiffbau Schütte-Lanz SL 11 dirigible was the first German airship to be shot down while bombing England.  Based at Spich and commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm, it was famously intercepted by Lt. William Leefe Robinson, piloting a Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2C, on the evening of 2/3 September.  "I flew about 800 feet below it from bow to stem and distributed one drum among it (alternate New Brock and Pomeroy). It seemed to have no effect; I therefore moved to one side and gave them another drum along the side - also without effect. I then got behind it and by this time I was very close - 500 feet or less below, and concentrated one drum on one part (underneath rear). I was then at a height of 11,500 feet when attacking the Zeppelin. I had hardly finished the drum before I saw the part fired at, glow. In a few seconds the whole rear part was blazing. When the third drum was fired, there were no searchlights on the Zeppelin, and no anti-aircraft was firing."
(from the Illustrated War News, 7 September 1916):



Robinson's deed also headlined here back in September 2023

[PJ Fisher]

'Unbroken Glory'
Flight Lieutenant Charles Herbert Collet DSO earned his Aviator's Certificate (No. 666) in October 1913, and is credited with being the first naval officer to loop-the-loop.  Soon after war's outbreak, Collet, flying a Sopwith D.1 tractor armed with 20lb Hale Bombs, participated in Britain's first coordinated air raid - the 200-mile attack the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf and Cologne.  Early in 1915 he was transferred with Royal Naval Air Service to the Aegean theatre.

"The land planes of No.3 Squadron in which Collet served, were commanded by Wing Commander E.L. Gerrard, the first Flying Marine. From dawn to dusk they were continuously over the coast in the area of the Helles landings. Later the squadron moved to a small airfield on Imbros which ended on the edge of a cliff. On 19 August Collet was taking off when his engine failed. As he turned to regain the airfield he was caught in an up - draft, crashed and his machine caught fire. (via web.archive.org).

""There was always an undercurrent on the cliffs you had to watch. He hit this undercurrent and instead of going forward he turned and came back, lost flying speed and crashed. George saw it coming and he was in the seat under the engine. On these BE2c if they hit the ground the engine dropped on top of you. When he saw they were crashing he got half way out and it threw him, ooh 50 yards away - compound fractures of both legs but he got no burns. There was Collet trapped in this damned machine. In between where he came down and where we were there was a ravine about 70 feet deep. We had to go down it and up the side a difficult thing to do. When we got to the other side we saw it was on fire and there was Collet trapped in this damned machine. We tried to get him out but we couldn't; we got our hands and faces scarred. This chap Mick Keogh saw what had happened and he had picked up a big black tarpaulin and he wrapped that round himself and went in and pulled him out. He got the Albert Medal for that. But Collett was so badly burned when you'd catch hold of him, you got handfuls of flesh. He was still alive, he said to the doctor, "Put me out, put me out!" We buried him and put his propeller up on the hill there."" (via gallipoli-association.org)
(from the Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph, 8 September 1915):


(image: Collett seated at left, July 1915; from the Knatchbull M (Capt the Hon) Collection via garystockbridge617.getarchive.net)