The Gotha GIV- the 'Englandflieger'
At the end of 1916 the germans build up a special unit which should attack England by air especially London, because the german high command thought this might demoralise the british people.
The Zeppelin attacks were stopped, due to too heavy losses. The british air defence managed it to stop this kind of raids.
The new unit was called Kampfgeschwader 3 (KG3) and was fitted with 30 of the new Gotha GIV long range bombers - too quick and able to fly too high for most of the english home defending fighters..
In 1917 several attacks were flown with these aircrafts.
My grandfather Adolf Genth took part in these actions, and some of his fotos survived the time. Because I know there are a lot of historic interessed people in the world, I decided to bring these fotos into the net.
The graphic above shows the Gotha GIV 406/16 with the registration ' RG' for the crew Radke/Genth, with this plane he flew several attacks at the british isle in 1917 (the picture was made and kindly provided by Yves Duwelz, a belgian gentleman).
The Gotha GIV
GIV
A Sanke postcard - showing a Gotha GIV, it is not absolutely clear if it shows the 406/16 (the plane of my grandfather) or the 408/16, a plane also directly built by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik. (postcard via M.Pleyer)
Manufactured by Gothaer Waggonfabrik Germany and - under license by LVG (Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft) and SSW (Siemens-Schuckert Werke). The serial - numbers 401 - 412/16, 600 - 624/16 , 649 - 663/16 were used by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik. A total of 232 GIV bombers were built.
Type Long range bomber Fuselage Plywood construction Wings Plywood , fabric covered Engines Two 260 PS Mercedes D.IVa - working as a pusher Crew three - 1 commander /navigator/bombardier/frontgunner 1 pilot
1 tail gunner (two guns)
Armament three Parabellum machine guns - one for the front gunner, two for the tail gunner, to protect the upper and lower aeras (look ' speciallities ') Several different kind of bombs - at day raids normally 50 - and 12.5 kg bombs. Maximum bomb load at day raids seven 50 kg bombs. Later during night raids, there were used bombs up to 300 kg weight each.
Different kind of bombs used by the Gothas, in the backround a Gotha GV (Photo via Fernando Lamas, USA)
For better aiming with the bombs, there was fittet a Goerz bomb sight, the first try to improve the quality in this subject and for that time a real high tech system .It was based on a Zeiss - development with a prisma and a system of lenses allowing the bombardier a much better aiming like with the old technology.
The cockpit was about 15 feet long and connectet through a walkway.
Span : 77 feet
Length : 41 feet
Speciallities : The ' sting in the tail ' an open tunnel arrangement in the rear fuselage allowing the rear gunner to fire at enemies under the tail of the aircraft.
Max speed with no headwind : 80 mph with a strong headwind only 50 mph
The Gotha bases in occupied Belgium were often visited by allied bombers which came from the not so far away french airfields. (Map from the book ' The Gotha Summer ' by C.M.White )
Oberleutnant v. Trotha
Gotha GIV registration 405/16 , aircraft of Oberleutnant von Trotha overhead Belgium 1917, the shadow under the rear gun is an opening which made it possible to fire through the fuselage at enemys from behind under.
Oberleutnant von Throtha died 19th of june 1917 when his Albatros two-seater plane crashed due to an engine failure.His passenger Hauptmann Brandenburg , the leader of KG3 who just received the Pour le Merite (Blue Max) from the Kaisers hands survived severely wounded, but the command of KG3 changed to Hauptmann Kleine.
Genth
Radke
Aircraft of my grandfather Gotha GIV 406 /16 a plane of the first delivery from the Gothaer Waggonfabrik , short before take off, left the two crew members, it looks like the third member Vizefeldwebel Gaede, is very rare to be seen at the pictures .
The 406/16 belongs to the first serial numbers, built directly by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik - the others were the numbers 403/16 - 412/16, the 401 - and 402/16 were sent to be tested by KG2 in November 1916. This aircraft should have reached KG3 in march 1917 (from ' Gotha ' v. Peter M.Grosz 1995).
At the time of this picture there was no 'RG' painted on the sides.
(Left) a demonstration of the aircraft in St. Denjis-Westrem (Belgium) with General Ludendorff
(Right) a Sanke-postcard showing a Gotha GV - the text means preparing for take-off of a big german plane - fitting the bombs.
Display of KG3 at St. Denijs - Westrem (Belgium) , short before take off for the first raid against England in may 25th 1917. Before the attack, they had due to endurance problems to land and refuel at Nieuwmunster at the belgian coast (right foto), because not all aircrafts were fittet with the new 70 gallons reserve tanks at this time.The added fuel allows some twenty more minutes overhead England.
The aircraft in the center of the right picture is again the 405/16 of Oblt. v. Trotha, in the backround visible a crashed Gotha. The aircrafts at the right edge looking to me identical with the ones from the canadian website two pics ahead.
Also the plane of my grandfather, the 'RG' tooks part at Nieuwmunster, she is just taxiing to the holding point (left).
(Right) a photo from a canadian website, the ' RG ' just in the middle. It belongs in my opinion to the shots taken at Nieuwmuenster after refueling at the 25th of may 1917.
(Left) the Gotha of my grandfather at july 7th 1917 short before reaching London. The ' RG' means the crew : Radke/Genth. If you look closer, you can see him in the front gunners position.Also the bombs under the plane and the ' sting in the tail ' is visible.
(Right) a shot from the front gunners position showing Lt. Radke and Fzfw. Gaede (the rear gunner) doing their job during the flight.
From the 24 Gothas which took off earlier from their belgian bases, two were forced due to engine problems (the engines worked very unsave at those times ) to go back, so 22 aircraft flew over the english coastline heading for London.
The troubleasking engines were , together with the change in the cg (center of gravity) after the bombs were gone , the main reasons for the losses, the anti aircraft guns and the fighters never caused so much difficulties for the german aviators in their Gotha GIV's - which does not mean they were useless , but they needed some time to get more effectivity .
(Left) crashed Gotha, piloted by Paul Witte,the commanders name was Noack. It happened near Gontrode in the vicinity of Ghent (Belgium) at june 20th 1917.
Witte flew later for the german Lufthansa and served in WWII as a pilot of transport aircrafts. He survived also the second world war and died in 1963. (Cross + Cockade Journal (USA) Vol 20, No.2 Sommer 1979)
(Right) that was the more often practiced emergency landing - with the result, that all three crew members were killed (this time Vizefeldwebel Brandt)
Gotha's in front of the big ex Zeppelin hangars in Gontrode (Melle - Belgium), right the visit of Exellenz v. Hoeppner.
Gotha GIV pushed into the hangar by ground personal and right in the big hangar in Gontrode. In front of the engine(right picture) you can see a mechanic (looks more like a ghost, due to the long exposure time) working at the 412/16.
Left the crew of a Gotha, because of the low temperatures at high altitudes (up to 16.000ft) it was necessary to protect themselves against the cold. The guns were fittet with an electrical dynamo driven heating, to make it possible to work in this temperatures. The Goerz bomb sight is clearly visible at the bottom of the front fuselage.
Right the Staffel 13 of Bogohl 3 (Bombengeschwader der obersten Heeresleitung). My grandfather is the first from the right - sitting.
Another problem was that in high altitudes there is a need of extra oxygen, for this , the crew had a primitive oxygen equipment, they carried liquid oxygen in a portable tank for each crew member, there are rumors, that the aviators preferred nips of Cognac (also liquid) if necessary ...
But also more conservative actions had to be taken, instead of a radio - pigeons were used for communications.
These two pictures (via Y.Duwelz) showing the use of liquid oxygen for breathing. Left soldiers filling the tanks, and right a front gunner in a Gotha GV with his oxygen pipe in the mouth.
St.Denijs - Westrem 17 Gothas are visible on the ground |
A Gotha in the evening skies........ |
Radke with dog in front of a Gotha GIV (Belgium 1917) |
My grandfather left, Radke with a dog ...... |
Cockpit of a Gotha GIV, look at the prussian eagle behind the steer,also interesting the cut out of the top cover to give some light to the instruments, there was no elektric lighting at those days - but it should have been still very difficult during night flights to read the instrumentation correctly ...... (Luftwaffenmuseum) |
Compared to the GIV, the cockpit of a Gotha GV, to the right the walkway for the frontgunner (IWM) |
Hauptmann Brandenburg surrounded by his men, in the backround a stripped Handley Page Bomber, it was an aircraft of this type my grandfather shot down during a night flight. |
From left to right, Genth,Radke,Brandenburg,Stöhr,unknown ...... |
Original drawing from the ' Kriegserinnerungen Adolf Genth 1917' |
Gotha GIV 408/16 (Luftwaffenmuseum ) |
Some new fotos reached me kindly provided by Mr.Philippe Ballarini (France) (Source: Imperial War Museum):
Gotha GIV 607/16, a picture taken by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik (IWM)
This Mercedes D.IVa - engine of a shot down Gotha bomber was presented to the public after the night raid of December 6th.1917 at Trafalgar Square - London.(IWM)
There is as far as i know no surviving Gotha GIV or GV in the world - even if this plane was used also in Poland,the Netherlands and Belgium, only in the aviation museum in Brussels there is a Mercedes D.IVa engine of a Gotha GV to be seen.
Gotha GIV Replica under construction
In America there will be build a flyable replica , the project manager contacts me from time to time - i will give informations about that when available.
Today, May 12th 2002, i received an email with some pictures of the new construction, the man behind that plan - Ron Bloomquist told me, that he will try to finish the plane until September 2003 - my best wishes to that ! It would be great to see a Gotha flying again after 86 years ......
|
There is of course a need for a bigger room to realize that kind of projects, you can see the fuselage construction, which is - different to the original - a steel construction. This means a more solid plane, but also the weight should be greater. |
I am very interested to see the progress of this phantastic project...... |
|
In the musee de l'air in Paris (France) there is (or was it is several years ago) a very nice handmade model of a GIV. When i was there for a visit in 1992 i took these two fotos.
Another very nice - scratch build - Gotha was made by Robert Karr (USA). Fotos of it can be seen at his page (look at the URL in my guestbook).
Thomas Genth
tgenth@aol.com
Last updated : 10.08.2000
