2 Kills

[cgarr]

Having been fascinated by Major James T.B. McCudden, R.A.F ever since I was a kid I build a replica of his Famous British SE5a and to this day chase various aircraft all over the skies in search of the ACE Status.

Taken from Major McCuddens' Log book 1915

The Fokker had by now turned and was coming towards our machine, nose-on, slightly above. Not having a gun mounting to fire in that direction, I stood up, with my Lewis gun to the shoulder, and fired as he passed over our right wing. He carried on flying in the opposite direction until he was lost to view.
We were by now over Douai Aerodrome, and, looking down, I could see several enemy machines leaving the ground. I watched them for a while, and then noticed the Fokker climbing up under our tail. I told my pilot to turn, and then fired half a drum of Lewis at the Fokker at 300 yards range. The Fokker seemed rather surprised that we had seen him, and immediately turned off to my left rear as I was facing the tail.
After this he climbed about 300 feet above us, and then put his nose down to fire. Having been waiting for him, I opened fire at once, and he promptly pulled out of his dive and retired to the distance of 500 yards, at which distance he remained for every time he came closer I fired a short burst, which had the desired effect of keeping him at a distance.

[Jim Richards]

Are the two kills 915 transmissions you dropped on unsuspecting motorists?

[pwd72s]

Gee, I wish he'd said: "I had that Fokker in my sights!"

[stuartj]

Not another Fokker thread. There's one crashed round here somewhere at present.

The WW1 aviators were all the more remarkable for even attempting to get those kites off the ground and land them again, let alone conducting an arial war. When you see them up close, the aeroplanes are literally baling wire and canvas.

I took the kids to an air museaum just recently, and to my surprise, in a cabinet were some pieces of the airframe and fittings of most famous Fokker of all, downed on the Somme in 1918 and souveniered by ground troops.

A fascinating time in aviation and in warfare- although climbing up into the freezing dawn air over France in 1916, I'm sure none of them thought so at the time.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Gee, I wish he'd said: "I had that Fokker in my sights!"

Have said that a couple of times in my career but unfortunately it was a F28, a modern Fokker.

Knew a gent who flew Sopwith Camels in the Great War, aka WW1. The stories he would tell were very interesting. It was nothing like depicted in movies like "Flyboys" and such. Nothing...

[berettafan]

Not quite as neat but i went to a RC warplane exhibition in Delaware last year and watching the WWI guys do their 'dogfights' was very cool. Beautiful planes.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by berettafan

Not quite as neat but i went to a RC warplane exhibition in Delaware last year and watching the WWI guys do their 'dogfights' was very cool. Beautiful planes.

The maneuvers they preform are many times much more rugged than what we can do in the airplanes.

First they have no human based "G" limit as there is not a human on board, and second the airplanes can pull higher "G's" because they are usually built of composite materials and not built to last 10-20 years of flying.

[cgarr]

Quite a Busy Day 1917

By now most of my patrol had dwindled away, and I only had Fielding-Johnson with me. We sighted two Albatros scouts attaching a Bristol fighter over Marcoing, so at once we went to the rescue. The Bristol seeing us coming, skilfully drew one of them after him. The remaining one, who was just about my level, saw me and fairly stood on his tail endeavouring to scrape up a foot more height than my machine.

By the time I got to him and zoomed, the S.E. Just went up a little higher. Then we both turned inwards and, the Hun losing height, I at once did a quicker turn and got behind him. After a short burst from my Vickers, the Hun's hat fell out of his machine. For apparently he was wearing an ordinary service cap; and after that the V-strutter went down and hit the ground in a vertical dive with the engine on, a fearful whack. I looked where the Hun had crashed and found it was near Rumilly.

Fielding-Johnson and I now returned to Bourlon Wood, where we saw a big formation of Albatroses near our lines, so we went down on them, and I attacked the rear machine but overshot him and missed him. That Hun must have been on his first solo, for he hadn't the foggiest notion what to do, and was looking around him in an apparent state of bewilderment, but, by the time I had turned behind him again he was in the middle of his formation and so I had to come back. By Jovel! That Hun was as dud as they made them.

By now there was some Albatroses above us, and amongst them I saw “green tail” taking a prominent part. We revved around for a while, and then I saw Mayberry tackling a big A.E.G. Bomber, which had apparently been pushed up by the Huns to distract some of our attention from their two-seater's, who were on the whole having a bad time. By now it was time to go home, and we arrived back at the squadron after a morning's fine fun
.
The Major had been out too, and having tackled a two-seater turned the wrong way at the critical moment, came under the fire of the two-seater's gunner at very close range, had been pipped through the petrol tank, and was nearly blinded by petrol. So he went right down to the ground before switching on his engine again, for fear of igniting the escaping petrol from the flames from his exhaust pipes. Which on the S.E. Are in close proximity to the petrol tank. He got safely down, and came back saying that to tackle a two-seater successfully was harder than it looked.
During the morning of the 23rd the whole squadron had been up, and Bowman and Harmon had each got a Hun also. The Albatros which I shot down near Rumilly was my 20th victim.