• Victory 3

Victoire 03

Event ID: 131

Catégories :

Combat aérien
Anglais
Under the guns of the Red Baron

30 septembre 1916

50.10435494558121, 2.913033188950037
Near Frémicourt
Lagnicourt

Source ID: 13

Under the guns of the Red Baron, Norman Franks, Hal Giblin and Nigel McCrery

ISBN: 9781898697275

L’adversaire était Ernest Landsdale

volant le F.E.2b 6973

VS

MvR pilotait le Albatros D.I 391/16

« Rapport de combat : 1150 hrs, près de Lagnicourt Vers 1150 j’ai attaqué, accompagné de quatre avions de notre Staffel au-dessus de notre aérodrome de Lagnicourt et à 3.000 mètres d’altitude, une escadrille de Vickers. J’ai désigné une machine et après environ 200 tirs, l’avion ennemi a commencé à descendre en planant vers Cambrai. Enfin, il a commencé à faire des cercles. Les tirs avaient cessé et j’ai vu que l’appareil volait de façon incontrôlée. Comme nous étions déjà assez loin de nos lignes de front, j’ai laissé l’avion désemparé et j’ai choisi un nouvel adversaire. Plus tard, j’ai pu observer l’appareil susmentionné, poursuivi par un Albatros allemand, s’écraser au sol près de Fremicourt. L’appareil a été réduit en cendres. Temps : clair et beau toute la journée, avec quelques nuages dans l’après-midi.

Comments (1)

  1. Source: Inside the victories of Manfred von richthofen – Volume 1, James F. Miller, Aeronaut Books, 2016

    The colors and markings description of Richthofen’s Albatros D.I is the result of « reverse engineering » several photographs of Richthofen standing near an overpainted Albatros D.II with a white stripe around its engine cowl. Reasonable circumstantial photographic provenance suggests (but does not prove) this D.II was his personal machine, regardless of its serial number (which cannot be seen). Researcher Lance Bronnenkant generously provided new photographs first published in his Blue Max Airmen Series Vol. 5 that shows a Jasta 2 Albatros D.I overpainted in the same manner, also with a white stripe around its engine cowl. The logical speculative conclusion based on the similar markings is this D.I likely was also Richthofen’s.

    In photographs of this machine, the « 3 » and the « 1 » in the serial number can be determined but the middle digit cannot, aside from its round shape suggesting 0,3,6,8 or 9. That the serial number begins with a 3 identifies the machine as from the 12 Albatros D-type pre-production machines, numbered 380/16 to 391/16; which eliminates 0,3, and 6 as the middle digit and limits the remaining choices to either 381/16 or 391/16. Careful scrutiny via Photoshop reveals the right side of the middle digit is a continuous arc, more closely resembling a 9 than an 8, which would have a midpoint indentation. The digit thickness is consistent with a 9 as well, whereas an 8 would be very thin on its upper right side, and that is not present in the photograph. 391/16 is a well-known machine that was studied and photographed extensively after it was brought down by a bullet to the radiator and subsequently captured intact (16 November 1916, pilot Ltn. Karl Büttner, PoW). It was repaired and test-flown by the British until it crashed via unknown circumstances and presumably destroyed. If 391/16 were formerly Richthofen’s there is no trace of any overpainted white nose stripe in any post-capture photograph, although ostensibly Büttner would have removed Richthofen’s personal white stripe when adding his own markings, a large « Bü » on both sides of the fuselage adjacent the cockpit. Additionally, at some point a thin white outline had been added to at least the port fuselage cross.

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