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At first, the observer flight - training in Darmstadt (Hessen, Germany) at the Fea 9 (Flieger - Ersatz - Abteilung), his first experiences with aviation (before he had been Leutnant in the 4 th Magdeburger Inf.Regt.Nr.67). It looks like he had asked for this service in the Fliegertruppe,the normal procedure starts at the Fea's, where the basics of navigation, photography and self defense in the air was given to the unexpierenced soldiers (- from aviators view unexpierenced, his war experiences of course started earlier - 18th August 1914, he was three times severly wounded) .
From 19th July 1916 - 2nd September 1916 he stayed with this Fea.
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My grandfather the third from the left ('ego' is the old latin word for 'me') |
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The castle of Karlsruhe
in 1916. The marking 'G1' seems to say, that this was his first observer photo. |
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The airfield of Mannheim 1916, in the upper right corner there are two aircrafts parking. |
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85 years later i was flying at the same location (Karlsruhe - castle) and took this foto, it is a pity that it was not exactly the same angle .... (February 2001) |
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Albatros in flight,looks like an Abatros BII or an early C I (C - aircraft
were twin seated with a double wing,which were normally used for armed
observation.I this case, the observers place seems to be in the front, a
not very useful position for taking pictures or firing the machine gun.
That is why the position of the observer changed to the back later. Grossenhain, 1916. |
The classification of german aircraft in ww1 knew several different types. The pictures shown here are mostly B and C - types. The following D - airplanes were single seated fighters, like f.e. the Albatros D or the Fokker D series.
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Another C - aircraft (C 1980/1?), i believe an early one, because the observer is still standing in front of the pilot and it looks like he is just taking a picture. The dark line is because of the broken glass of the negative, |
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The arrow points to my grandfather, who is standing during this dogfight
training.In this case not completely clear if in the back or front.
The dark box between the struts left is a barograph which collected datas of the reached altitude. A little bit like a black box in airplanes today.... Grossenhain - dogfight training 1916 |
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Again Grossenhain, Fea 6 -a more romantic picture..... |
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Again the C1980 /1? |
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Adolf Genth at the front seat - possibly in Grossenhain |
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Another german aviator flying at a lower level. | 
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An adorer of my grandpa's sister - Erich Priese, he wrote on the back of this foto if he is allowed to see Mrs. Genth again.... |
At the front
The following pictures shows his first time as an aviator at the front lines, he joined the Halbgeschwader 1 at the 10th of October 1916. The Halbgeschwader I (more correctly the Staffel 1 of it) became later the Kampfstaffel 13 of the famous ' Englandgeschwader ' Kagohl III.(Kampfgeschwader der obersten Heerersleitung) - this was his unit during the England raids..
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Crash Leutnant Winsloe
Rumpler C I 2 November 1916 |
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Fokker of Leutnant von Keudell (15 victories) - should be a Fokker D - IV ,this type had no ailerons but used a wing twist.It was a not very successful design and was - after a short time - sent to the eastern front.
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These three pictures are showing the airfield of Villers-Outreaux (France)a few miles south of Cambrai, in 1916 these aerodrome was the base of Halbgeschwader I. The crashed Albatros (C2213/16) is probably a C-VII .
My grandfather wrote : crash of a 260 hp Albatros.
If you look at the aerial view, the aircraft should have been crashed in the vicinity of the landing cross (the tents are clearly visible).
Saving of an Albatros , that i believe also to be a C-VII (C2202/16) in France (C.Kirsch).
Captured BE12 - fighter Captured english flight officers POW 's
This british Handley Page 0_100 was tested bythe germans. Lille after a british bomb attack
A Sanke postcard
The follwing pictures show a captured HP 0/100 serial no. 1463. The plane made a forced landing at Laon (France) at the1st of January 1917 (pictures kindly provided by C.Kirsch / Berlin).
The crew lost orientation due to fog and landed safely on the airfield of the Flieger-Abteilung 208.
Before two attempts to fly the HP from England to France failed due to engine problems. For the germans a real gift, they received a fresh from the manufacturer coming aircraft with all documentation and all five crew - here the names of the unlucky men : FLt H.C. Vereker, Lt S.R. Hibbard, AM D. Kennedy, AM Wright und AM Higby.
The plane was of the Squadron Manston, which was also called 'Amazone' (maybe that is the reason for the ancient greek figure painted at the front side).
The plane was tested by the germans in Berlin - Johanisthal until one day during maintenance the aileron cables were accidently crossed and the aircraft crashed and had to be written off on 22nd August 1917.
This Rumpler C-I of Oberleutnant v. Koenigsmarck landed savely behind the german lines after a direct hit by Flak.
During his time at the front, my grandfather met several times well known soldiers, the album shows some pictures of it.As an example, here two pictures of Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke, the first foto is via M.Pleyer.
Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke in his famous Fokker (Foto via M.Pleyer)
| Hauptmann Oswald Boelke | His coffin in Cambrai (France), short before he was brought back to Germany (Dessau). |
Boelcke died because od a collission with the plane of his friend Erwin Boehme ,while they were chasing english fighters. Boehme made it home,and also for Boelke it looked good at first, but than he came int turbulences and his plane crashed.
Another picture which remebers me to the stories i have read about Boelke, a Fokker E.III had forced an FE2b down to land on german held territory. This time it was Vizefeldwebel Waess (Feld Flieger Abteilung 3) who claimed this victory at the 22nd February 1916 (foto via C.Kirsch).
The following fotos shows the salvage of my grandfather's plane after an emergency landing at night in the vicinity of Gistel (Belgium).
New documents we found about his military carreer made it possible, that these landing happened during a night mission. He and his pilot Radke tried between June and August 1918 several times to intercept british bombers coming in at night.
They used a C-type aircraft for this, i think an interesting subjekt between the gotha raids. According to his documents, they were successful at the 25th July 1918 and shot down a Handley Page 0/100 (this is also documentated in the book : Londonfluege 1917 , written by a comrad W.Aschoff - pg.129, A. said they even shot down two HP's, but the papers i own say it was only one, maybe the second was not confirmend).
A look at the happy faces of the soldiers pulling out the plane says more words ever can tell ................
According to the new found papers, i am pretty sure, that the following fotos were taken at the Seeflugstation Borkum,where he was sent to receive a training for long flights over the sea (December 1916 - January 1917).
In the book 'Londonfluege' Aschoff made a similiar training as a preparation for the attacks against London.
Friedrichshafen FF33 Engine run up(Hansa Brandenburg ??)
Some more fotos of the C.Kirsch collection .......
Friederichshafen GIII - bomber Crashed Friederichshafen GIII 293/17 A Schuette-Lanz DIII fighter
Looks like it was
not always like hell at those days........
Last not least, have a look at two fotos sent to me by M.Pleyer. These pictures shows the development that the young aviation had gone through in only a few years.Of course, the war made it much more quick, but also the general aviation tooks part.Think of the first aircrafts of the year 1914 and compare it with these ' Jumbo ' of 1917.
It is a DFW (Deutsche Flugzeug Werke ) R II, a try to improve the flight charakteristics by bringing the four engines into the fuselage and connect them with two pusher and two standard propellers. The advantage, a better cg (center of gravity), and the engines could be looked after during flight.
Instead of the flight characteristics were good, only a few were built.
