The history of the Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel Nr. 11 has been recounted in several places in the past. Mostly in the old Cross & Cockade USA and to some degree in Cross & Cockade Intl. & Over the Front Journals. It has also been included in the pages of Albatros Pub. Ltd monographs and in particular the "Von Richthofen's Flying Circus" by Greg Vanwyngarden. That was an over all view of JG.1 and its entire compliment. Of which Jasta 11 was a part.
Yet this is one of the few monographs to contain information on the single unit itself. It contains seventy three pages of text, images and colour profiles of aircraft assigned to the unit. The front cover has a"unique" colour rendering of Oblt. Lothar von Richthofen's Yellow and red late production Schwerin built Fokker D.VII. The rear cover has plan views of this machine as well. The date is quoted as being August 1st 1918.
The book also contains a modest but nice set of decals by Techmod. ( This includes mostly serial numbers.)
Even though this book was first published in 2005 it suffers from inaccuracies that were clearded up years prior to this publishing date. For instance there is a profile of MvR's machine that he was wounded in on July 6, 1917. It wrongly quotes this machine as having the serial D.4693/17. The machine in question was an early Alb. D.V from the first production batch 11xx/17 series.
D. 4693/17 did not arrive at the front until about mid October 1917. It was infact flown by mvR during Nov.1917. The wings were 5 colour lozenge and the red on the nose extended further back to a point just ahead of the cockpit.
Other problems are prevalent in the photo captions. One image of MvR in the cockpit of an Albatros D.V is labeled as being taken in the sprig of 1917. The truth is it was taken in Nov. 1917.
SUMMARY
Highs: It is an all in one collection of text and images concerning Jasta 11. Something that has yet to be done by anyone else. Lows: Historical inaccuracies and 4th & 5th generation photo reproductions from 1917 & 1918 hurt the over-all presentation.Verdict: Clearly aimed at the modeler it will be a satisfying read. But "Caveat Emptor" it is not the last word on the covered subjects.
About Stephen T. Lawson (JackFlash) FROM: COLORADO, UNITED STATES
I was building Off topic jet age kits at the age of 7. I remember building my first WWI kit way back in 1964-5 at the age of 8-9. Hundreds of 1/72 scale Revell and Airfix kits later my eyes started to change and I wanted to do more detail. With the advent of DML / Dragon and Eduard I sold off my ...
Hello Stephen
I have this booklet too and I wanted to use the decals for Schaefers D.II. I have read elsewhere that it is wrongly described from Jasta 11 but it is really from Kasta 11 ... well, that won't matter to me, but is this an aircraft, that was flown by Emil Schaefer?
thanks in advance
all the best
Steffen
I bought this book as well. Being a total novice on WWI it was very informative for me. I have a Fokker DVII in my stash and I am definitely making young Lothar Richthofens machine.
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