Cheers Stephen.....I'll keep on looking.

I have taken a few minutes to assemble a reference guide on aircraft used at this time. There were others but this is just to get you started.

ALBATROS D.III
Albatros Aces of World War I by n. Franks, Ospry Pub. 2000.
Albatros D.III Feasting on a Do - Do by S.T. Lawson, 2001 Model Aircraft Monthly Vol 1 #1.
Albatros D.III by P. Gray, 1966 Profile Pub Profile # 127
Albatros D.III (OEF) by Peter Grosz, Windsock Datafile #19.
Albatros Scouts Described, by Chas Schaedel, 1971 Kookaburra Tech. Pub.
Albatros Fighters Datafile Special by Ray Rimell, 1991 Albatros Pub. Ltd.
German Fighter Units 1914 - May 1917 by Alex Imrie. Osprey Air war 13, 1978 & 1993.
Spandau Machine Gun by David Watts,1998 WWI Aero.
The Last Albatros by Colin Owers 1988 Aviation News Pp.216-221.
Werner Voss- The last Hussar by Dennis Hylands, Albatros Publications, 1991.

DH 2
Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol. 20 #1 1989 Part 1.
Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol. 20 #3 1989 Part 2.
Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol. 21 #3 1990 Part 3.
Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol. 22 #1 1991 Part 4.
Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol. 22 #4 1991 Part 5.
“The de Havilland D.H.2" by J. M. Bruce, Profile Publications , 1966.
“The Royal Flying Corps in WWI” by R. Rimell, Vintage Warbirds #1, Osprey Pub. 1985

NIEUPORT 17 - 24
French aircraft of the first World War by Davilla & Soltan, Flying Machines Press, 1997.
Nieuport 17 by C.F. Andrews, Profile #49, Profile Pub. 1965.
Nieuport 17 by B. Gebhard, Finescale Modeler, Workbench Review. 1998.
Nieuport Aces By N. Franks, Osprey, Aircraft of the Aces #33, 2000.
Nieuport Fighters of WWI by J.M.Bruce, Osprey, Vintage Warbirds #10, 1993.
Nieuport Fighters Vol 1 by J.M. Bruce, Windsock Datafile Special, Albatros Pub. 1993.
Nieuport Fighters Vol 2 by R. Rimell, Windsock Datafile Special, Albatros Pub. 1994.
Nieuport Vee Strutters by S. Nelsen, Cross & Cockade USA, Vol.7, #3,Pp.237-253. 1966.
Nieuport Vee Str. Errata & Addenda, Cross & Cockade USA Vol.12,#2, Pp.189-190. 1971.

Sopwith Pup
Air Enthusiast #4 Pp.187-207.
Cross & Cockade Int. Vol. 19, #1, Pp. 1-25 Esp. Pp. 4 ,14, 16 &19. 1987
Cross & Cockade Int. Vol. 23, #1, Pp. 34-41. 1991
Cross & Cockade USA Vol. 23, #3, Pp.193-214. 1984.
Profile #13, The Sopwith Pup by J.M.Bruce. 1965
Quarterly Review Pp. 4-12 “Sopwith Pup...First Carrier Fighter.” by R. Hucker, date unknown.
Royal Flying Corp in WWI by R. Rimell, Osprey Vintage Warbirds series #1, 1985..
Sopwith Fighters in WWI by J.M.Bruce, Osprey Vintage Warbirds series. #3, 1986.
Sopwith Pup by JM Bruce, Windsock Datafile #2 , Albatros Pub.Ltd.

Sopwith Triplane
And Now the Onions by G. Mottram, Cross & Cockade Int. Vol.12, #3, Hangar Notes. 1981.
British Fighter Units 1917-18 by A. Revell, Osprey Pub. Ltd. 1978.
Royal Navy Aircraft Serials 1911-1919 by R. Sturtivant & G. Page , Air Britain, 1992.
Sopwith Triplane, WWI Aero #91.
The Fighting Triplanes by E. Hadingham, Macmillian Co. 1968.
‘The Only British Triplane...’ by E. Sheldon, Aviation History, March 1995.
The Sopwith Fighters by J.M. Bruce, Vintage Warbirds #3, Arms & Armour Press, 1986.
The Sopwith Triplanes by J.M.Bruce, Profile Pub. #73, 1966.
The Sopwith Triplane by R. Rimell, Datafile #22, Albatros Pub.
The Sopwith Triplane Eduard issues- 'Stairway to Combat', Model Aircraft Monthly, June 2002.
Triplane Losses by R. Collishaw, Cross & Cockade USA Vol 8, #2, Summer 1967.
Triplane Losses by F. Bailey & S. Taylor, Over the Front V.10, #4, Pp. 312-334, Winter, 1995.
Triplane Losses Addenda Over the Front Vol 11, #2, P.186.Summer, 1996.
Triplane Photos- Cross & Cockade Int. Vol 5, #1, P.40, Spring 1974.

Spad VII
‘A Man for Sonderfilme, Rudolf Windisch’ by H Täger, Over the Front 17 #3, Pp.196-232.
‘French Aircraft of the First World War’ by J. Davila & A.M. Soltan, Flying Machines Press, 1997.
‘Hispano-Suiza (Birkigt Patents), Cross & Cockade USA Vol. 10 #3, 1969.
‘Mann Edgerton Spad 7.C1 B9916' by H.G. Fisher, Over the Front Vol. 8 #2 Pp.100-113.
‘Markings of the Lafayette Escadrille’ by B. Alexander, W. Michigan IPMS News 1976.
‘Project Butterfly’ by Hardesty, Hastings, and Toelle, Cross & Cockade USA Vol. 9, 1968 and 13, 1972.- (Most excellent articles on the French 5 colour camouflage patterns.)
‘Spad Scouts S.VII - XIII’ by J.M. Bruce, 1969. Reprint Osprey pub. for Glencoe Models, 1993.
‘Spad VII Aces’ by J.Guttman, Osprey Pub.#32. 2001.
‘Spad VII - Original Bleriot Aeronautique general arrangement drawings’ Cross & Cockade USA Vol.15 #4, 1974.
‘Spad 7: 3 View Drawings’, Cross & Cockade USA Vol.2 #1 , 1961.
‘The Real Spad’ by B.S. Kelsey, Over the Front Vol. 8 #2, Pp.114 -122.

*speechless*............
"A few minutes"? That would have taken me days to sniff that stuff out...! Awesome :-)
Anyhoo..... here's my victim anyway, Kurt Wolff's 15th victory which is a Spad VII serial A6746. He shot this one down April 14th at 18:29. Still to find out where and who.....

ALL HAIL KING STEPHEN!!

I can whistle a heck of a tune as well...

Like this one? *whistles When Johnny comes marching back home*

The ladies do seem to like it.

I know.....it's funny isn't it? *whistles Dixieland*

Here is a bit of fun for you...Who coined the phrase "Bloody April" for the period in 1917? It was used before and after for other events but who first applied it to April 1917?

Hi Stephen,
Wasn't it the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), as they got there butts severely kicked.
Andy

I agree with Andy, RFC. I don't know who exactly coined the phrase. Wasn't it used as well by the Americans when they had their rough house with the Mexicans 1846-48?

"The height of the Jastas’ power came during April 1917 at the Battle of Arras, better known as "Bloody April." The French air squadrons had withdrawn to recover from the previous months of battle, but England had decided to fight on despite delays in delivery of the next generation of fighters to the Front. The English believed that their sheer numerical superiority--385 fighters over the 114 German fighters--was enough to ensure victory. During that month, England lost a third of its fighter force, and the flying life expectancy of an English pilot was 17½ hours.

"Bloody April" forced the British to revise its approach to aerial combat, as the Germans had done the year before. It had now been proven that well-trained pilots flying the best planes were more important than numerical superiority. Britain rushed to organize pilot training schools with experienced veterans as instructors. The students were taught using James McCudden’s Notes on Aeroplane Fighting in Single-Seated Scouts and Fighting in the Air. The Sopwith Camel had arrived earlier that year, but it was difficult to fly and there had been a high number of fatal accidents. The new training schools allowed enough training time for pilots to become familiar with the planes before being thrust into the chaos of combat."

I know that I've heard somewhere else but where...... :-)

Just a wee quick question about the Albatros D. III. I just noticed that cooler is placed differently on the two upper wings on the Albatros. Why is that? Does it have anything to do if their were built at different factories?
Which one would be the correct one for Wolff?

Ok Jan, you are asking about the radiator on the top wing of the Albatros D.III. Early versions were centrally located (dead in the middle.) In October 1916, the Albatros Werke received an order for 400 Albatros D.III machines, serial numbers, D.1910/16 - 2309/16. In the beginning the radiator was located in the center of the upper wing.

At serial number D.2200/16 and from then on, the radiator was reposition to the right. The purpose of the repositioning of the radiator, was to protect the pilot from being scalded in the event the radiator was ruptured in flight or during combat. And it improved the forward view of the pilot.

The Albatros Werke was given two more orders of 50 each in early 1917, which had offset radiators, s/n D.600-649/17 and D.750 -799/17.

The Tropical Alb. D.III (OAW) had two radiators in the top wing but these were only operational in Palestine and Turkey. Hope this helps.

Sure did O' Enlighted One. Thank you frightfully.....

Am considering buying an Albatros DIII, so what looked Manfred's DIII like during April? As shown on Eduard's Ealry DIII 1/48 scale (which is unavailable now).

greetings, Nico

Hello Nico! MvR did fly at least two Albatros D.III both with centralized radiators I think. One had a red fuselage. One had a clear varnished fuselage with a wide red band around the fuielage between the cross and cockpit. (This was later given to Lothar.)

See; "Richthofen by the late A E (ED) Ferko." This is a superb record of Germany’s leading fighter pilot, which also includes detailed appendices and notes. There are 203 photos (many hitherto unpublished) that trace the Baron’s WWI career. 84 pages offer a unique, fresh insight into Germany’s Ace of Aces; also included are 4 colour pages with 15 colour profiles of the Baron’s aeroplanes. £21.00

Click here to go to Windsock Datafiles

Even though I did not plan to buy any new kits for this "Air Campaign", silly me cause in the end I did. Bought both of them on Ebay, so if the "Deutsche Bundespost" and the "Royal Mail" do their work allright I will enter with:

Albatros DIII (early version) 1/48 scale EDUARD Manfred von Richthhofen

FE2b 1/48 scale by Aeroclub

I believe Von Richthofen shot 3 Fee's down in April 1917, so I have to figure out which version I am going to make. The Albatros will not be a difficult kit, but the FE2b is going to be a real challenge for me!

My references:

Bloody April Slaughter in the skies of Arras, By Peter Hart (just finished reading it)
Manfred von Richthofen The man and the aircraft he flew, by David barker
Albatros Fighters Windsock Datafile Special
RAF FE2b Windsock Datafile 18



greetings, Nico Teunissen

(p.s. funny isn't it I got the Albatros from Germany and the FE2b from the UK, a good omen I guess )

Nico,

Good & I wish you luck on the FE2b.

I was looking at doing an Alb - FE2 pairing, but wanted a Brit ace -- only one I could find flew an FE2d & in the end I really don't have time to mess with a FE & a conversion ...

John

Hi Nico!

I wish you good luck too! I have this kit in my stash and will follow your build with great interest!

Jean-Luc

Here it is folks. Cock your machine guns, top off the tanks, kick the tires and light the landing fires... Time to sign up. The first patrol is on line.

Sign up here.

OK, I'm signed up !!!

Still do not have my "combat" figured out yet - was working on it, then other things came up.

I think I'm going to end up with a D.III vs a Strutter. I've dropped the BE.2 and RE.8 from the candidate list, and am shying away from the FE.2. A Pup or Tripe are options, in vacuform. I have an Eduard Tripe, but started it with the 2-gun option.

John

OK, guys, fall in on the Campaign "tab" and sign up !!!

We had around 20 votes for this campaign, so we ought to have more than 3 of us signed up !!!!

John

What can I see: I agree!

And I did not take part on these votes.

Nico

Stephen,

Well, I'm about researched out and I'm going back to my original idea which is Festner going down in a fight with Strutters of 43 Sqn.

Sources don't agree on how he died, so I'll take the one I want

Now, I did come across the Kagero "Richthofen's Eleven" book with purports to have a color profile of Festner's aircraft D2251/16 -- it is natural to the back of the cockpit, then all red with a broad green stripe around the fuselage. Wonder where they got that info ?? Any comments ??

Anyway, doing the Strutter will give me a chance to try the clear plastic see-thru-fabric concept of the Roden kit ... I have no photo of the actual machine, but do know the serial number so all I need to do is keep looking for some idea of squadron conventions for other markings & fake it. The good thing about the Kagero Festner a/c is there are no fancy objects or letters on it, just colors.

Oh, yes, we are now up to four signed up !!!

John

JRatz, I'll see what I can dig up on Festner. I have yet to get the Kagero book but was just looking at my Squadron monthly supplement and ear marked it yesterday.