Hi All,
While away I spent a fair bit of time raiding my father in laws library.
One book was by Johnnie Johnson it was a history of air combat,one aircraft peaked my interest.
Flown by JG2 a feminnine pink Albatros aka the pink lady.

Any info/pictures I know Jackflash will have something.

Happy New Year.

Chris

I am afraid Johnnie's ghost writer botched this.

In the book "Heroes and legends of WWI" by Arch Whitehouse his ghost writer also discussed the Legend of the pink lady.

One fellow wrote. In his book The Story of Air Fighting, Air Vice-Marshal J.E. 'Johnnie' Johnson refers to a story about a German Pilot from the First War known to the RFC as "The Pink Lady".

He claims that there was an Albatros that was painted feminine pink and the pilot who flew it supposedly had a round, girlish face. Soon the RFC pilots had dubbed it "The Pink Lady" and that it was somewhat legendary. The legend inside the RFC went that it was flown by a beautiful German girl determined to avenge her lover who had been killed in the air fighting. He claims this version of the story was quite untrue, because when the Pink Lady was eventually shot down her dead pilot proved to have a very distinguished record.

My questions are, who was the pink lady? Is this a true story, was there a feminine pink Albatros flown by an ace pilot of the German Air Service? I ask because I have never heard of this before and have never seen an Albatros profile in any book that had a pink colour scheme.

Dan San Abbott wrote
"In 1965,i interviewed Paul S. Winslow. He was one of the 212 Americans who received ground school at Oxford University. He saw service with No.56 Squadron S.E.5a, RAF. Paul related in the interview that he saw the "Pink Lady". It was an early evening patrol when he saw this pink German aircraft and drew the conclusion that it was the "Pink Lady". He said that this had been discussed in the Mess. I asked if the aircraft was a Pfalz D.IIIa, He could not tell what the make of the plane was. There were no German women flying aircraft on the front. I suspect what Paul saw, was a silver Pfalz reflectling a low sun cauing the aircraft to look like it was painted pink.
Blue skies,
Dan-San"

Arch Whitehouse made mention of this in his "Heroess and Legends of WWI" manuscript/ book (or at least his ghost writer did.) The pink lady was probably the evening shade - red used on Albatros (D.III) of MvR or his Jasta 11 members. That is to say at a distance the red could be interpreted as pink. (Due to atomospherric conditions.)

It was in "Von Richthofen and his Flying Circus" by Greg VanWyngarden that a visitor to Jasta 11 commented that he had seen MvR's evening machine. The red colour being associated with the old adage "...red sky at night..." The evening shade colour. Another interesting image is that one of MvR's flying helmet's (yellow or butter coloured leather) was on display in the modern Ricthofen Fighter Wing in Weisbaden back in the 1980's. Not saying this was it, but imagine a pilot flying along in one of these with the chin straps undone.

It could easily send any near sighted British pilot a longway from home and hearth into a fantasy tizzy... Though these facts are true I collect them for this thread with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Wink, wink, nod, nod.

One final note comes from writer Greg VanWyngarden
"Hi. . . In "Der Rote Kampfflieger" MvR wrote of an Englishman who was one of a group brought down sometime circa March/April (I haven't time to figure it out). Anyway Richthofen and his boys talked to the Englishman: "He, too inquired about the red machine (Richthofen's D.III). It was not unknown to the troops in the trenches, who called it "Le diable rouge". The rumor had spread in his squadron that a girl piloted the red machine, somewhat like Joan of Arc. He was very surprised when I assured him that the alleged 'girl' stood before him at the time. He was not trying to make a joke; rather, he was convinced that only a maiden could actually sit in the garish crate."

That's part of the legend. Karl- Emil Schaefer started out in Jasta 11 flying a D.III with a black tail and yellowish ply fuselage (just as Wolff had his plum purple D.III in March 1917). However, in mid-April most of the Jasta 11 pilots painted all of their D.III types largely red. Schaefer's was apparently red with some black trim on the tail, etc.

When Schaefer took over Jasta 28 he still flew a largely red Albatros D.III, and this became very well known on the 4. Armee front; Max Mueller wrote that Schaefer was "taken for Richthofen here". On 4 June 1917, Jasta 28 tangled with Nieuports from No. 1 Sqn and SE 5a's from No 56 Sqn. Schaefer was apparently on the tail of Capt. Philip Fullard's No 1 Sqn Nieuport when Arthur Rhys Davids chased him off, and was credited with shooting down the red Albatros; Schaefer was indeed killed the following day, and somehow Rhys-Davids thought he had been killed on 4 June. At any rate, Rhys Davids wrote in his combat report: "All five of the HA , especially the leader (red fuselage, red, gray and black wings, V-strut type stuts, pilot wearing a gray fur flying hat) manoeuvred very well." In a letter to his mother he was more expressive: "For about 3/4 hour I played 'tic' with five of them, led by an extremely good pilot in a red, pink and grey machine. I wanted to go up and watch his flying instead of scrapping. . .Also, he seems to have been a sort of notoriety known as the 'Pink Lady' owing to the colour of his machine and his (presumably) bong qualities as a scrapper.'

There is a good deal of confusion in the descriptions of this fight, and Rhys Davids did not even put in a claim, but he got a confirmed Albatros due to the reports of the pilots of No 1 Sqn. On the next day when news of Schaefer's death circulated among the RFC pilots, somehow Rhys Davids became credited with his demise, at least for awhile.

So, I think the "Pink Lady" was based largely on sightings of Richthofen's, then Schaefer's RED Albatros. As has been commented on here, various angles of sunlight can do strange things to perception. The pilot who Johnnie Johnson was referring to was no doubt Schaefer.

That's my opinion.

Greg"