Table Of Content(GREG VANWYNGARDEN
has had @ lifelong intorost in
World War 1 aviation, and has
boon particularly active in
{deciphering the colours and
‘markings that decorated the
various German fightors flown
by the leading aces. This is his
Seventh book for Osprey, and
he is currently working on an
Aviation Elite Units volume
chronicling the exploits of
asta ‘Boelcke’.
HARRY DEMPSEY has been
passionate about World War 1
aviation for more than,
30 years, resulting in the
broduction of some of the
‘most technically accurate
artwork on the subject for
Ospreys Aircraft of the Aces
series. He has illustrated all
the World War 1 titles in
Osprey’s ever-growing range:
‘of best-solling aviation titles.
OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES® +77
Albatros Aces
of World War 1
Part 2
SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES
“OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES° + 77
Front Cover
(On the morning of 17 September
1917, Ltn dR Emst Udet of Jasta 37
was on the hunt for his tenth victory
‘over the Searpe Valley. Heving
‘taken off before breakfast, he
hheaded south along the front in his
Albatros D V 4876/17. As he turned
north again, German flak bursts
‘draw his attention to Bitch fightes
‘above him. Udet climbed to their
height, while carefully studying the
unfamiliar machines - DH Ss from
‘No 41 Sqn, His vietim that day was
Canadian 21+ Robert E Taylor.
Fourteen years later Udet was
‘contacted by Taylors family, and he
‘wrote to them via the Directorate
‘wore each fying a DH 5 one-seater
{then new to us) on patrol duty on
the morning of 17/9/17 at about
(0700 hrs. Iwas flying by myself at
‘the front in an Albatros one-seater,
tnd had been observing these three
‘enemy pilots for some time when
they apparently noticed me and
started fying towards me. 1 was
shot at, and turned eastwards
to ascend to greater height.
‘On reaching about 3000 metres,
‘attacked these aeroplanes, which
‘wore then fying at about 2700
metres. lattacked, contrary to the
‘sual practice, from the front, and
flow with groatest speed at the
nearest DH 5, which broke under my
fire and dropped 900 metres south
of ize, to the west ofthe road
leading to Vitry”
det then flew down and ‘circled
twice over the wreckage, but saw
‘ne movement. was then forced to
‘retire, a8 the other two aeroplanes
had manoeuveed ito position
above me and were about to attack”
{A group of Albatros from Jasta 30
dived on the other DH 5s and shot
‘down Lt GC Holman, who was
also kl,
“About 1¥/2 hours later | drove
personally ina car to el, wrote
User, ‘and walked from there to
‘the location, firstly to inspect the
new type of DH in detail, and
‘secondly to establish the name
of the occupant. The aeroplane
lay 50 metres west ofthe above:
‘mentioned road, completely
wrecked. Of the two Identity dises
carried by Lt Taylor, | took one away
{5 2 souvenir and left the other on
‘This book is humbly and respectfully dedicated to the late Peter M Grosz,
the world’s foremost authority on Central Powers aircraft of World War 1
and the author's mentor, inspiration and friend. He is already sorely missed.
Firs published in Great Britain in 2007 by Osprey Publishing
Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford, OX2 OPH.
443 Park Aveaue South, New York, NY, 10016, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
© 2007 Osprey Publishing Limiced
All rights reserved. Apart ftom any fair dealing fr the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under che Copyright, Design and
Patents Act 1988, no pare ofthis publication may be teproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or tansmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical,
chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording of otherwise without
prior writen permission. All enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
ISBN 978 1 84603 179 3
Edited by Tony Holmes
Page design by Tony Truscott
‘Typeset in Adobe Garamond and Univers
Cover Arowork by Mark Postlethwaite
Aircrae Profiles by Harry Dempsey
wing
Scale Drawings by Mark S
Index by Alan Thatcher
Originated by PDQ Digital Media Solurions
Printed and bound in China through Bookbuilders
07 08 09 1D 11 10987654321
For a catalogue ofall books published by Osprey please contac:
NORTH AMERICA
Osprey Direct, C/o Random House Distribution Center,
400 Hab Read, Westminster, MD 21157
E [email protected]
ALL OTHER REGIONS
Osprey Direet UK, P.O, Box 140 Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2FA, UK
E-mail: [email protected]
worw.ospreypublishing.com
the body, which | wrapped in the articles to his relatives, for whom the
tticolour (fabric of his aeroplane possession ofthese must be of far
wing. |furthor possess the map ‘greater value than to me.
used by Lt Taylor on his lat flight, “Yours faithfully,
{and a small silver pocket miero. “Emst Udet™
{ shal bo glad to return these {Cover artwork by Mark Postlethwaite)
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 6
CHAPTER ONE
THE BIPLANE TAKES OVER 7
CHAPTER TWO
“BLOODY APRIL’ 24
CHAPTER THREE
MAXIMUM EFFORT 40
CHAPTER FOUR
KAISERSCHLACHT AND BEYOND 73
APPENDICES 88
COLOUR PLATES COMMENTARY 88
BIBLIOGRAPHY 91
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 92
INDEX 96
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
1» 2000 Osprey introduced the first World War I ticle in its acclaimed
[iets ih set canyon
historian Norman Franks encitled Airerafi ofthe Aces 32— Albatros Aces
of World War 1. That popular book, which has sold more than 10,000
copies to date, covered the subject with a great deal of depth and
authority. The prospective buyer of this second volume, cherefore, may
‘well be wondering why a follow-on volume has been published, and does
ic offer anything new? Hopefully the reader will agree that the answer is
in the affirmative!
From the time the D I was introduced at the very end of August 1916
tuntil nearly che end of the war, Albatros fighters formed the mainstay
and backbone of German fighter aviation, ‘These aircraft underwent
all
improvement, though not without disastrous setbacks and structural
4 continuous programme of development, modification and ove
problems. The Albatros D Va machines which were still n service in late
1918 were quite different from the Albatros D I introduced two years
before, yer they all shared certain qualities, and the unmistakable'look’ of
the Johannisthal stable,
Nearly every one of the Jagdiaffln (che specialised German fighter
units numbered 1 through 81) probably operated one or more types of
Albatros fighter at some poine in their existence. Ic is likely chat every
successful German fighter pilot who flew from the beginning of 1917
through to the end of the war logged at least some time in an Albatros
D ype. Even those who flew the Fokker D VII exclusively in the war's
final months probably lew the older Albatros machines as trainers,
Albatros scouts were produced in vast quantities, and rendered
distinctive service all along the Western Front, as well asin such distant
locales as the deserts of Palestine, che Russian Front and the northern
shores ofthe Baltic. Thus, the subject offers scope for a second volume,
Some readers will be disappointed that certain celebrated pilots receive
lite mention in these pages. A deliberate attempt was made to avoid
duplicating information on such famous pilots as Eduard Schleich, Orto
Kissenberth, Paul Baumer and so on. All ofthese have received excellent
coverage in Norman Franks’ first book on the topic, or in other Osprey
World War 1 titles in the Aireraft ofthe Acesor Aviation Elite Unitsseries
Certainly the highest scoring Albacros ace of them all, the legendary
Manfred von Richthofen (who achieved approximately 60 Albatros
victories), is given what many will consider scant attention forthe reasons
cited. In the present work an artempe has been made to shed some light
-ading'stars,and
to share with the reader as many of their own words as space will permit.
fon some of the leser known aces, as well asa few of the|
Greg VanWyngarden
ScCharles, lowa
February 2007
THE BIPLANE
TAKES OVER
y October 1916, 2Lt Edmund Llewelyn Lewis was a highly
Besser te lg Cans
No 32 Sqn. He had flown the nimble de Havilland DH 2 biplane
pusher scout atthe front-since July, and on 18 October he wrote his par-
cents remarkably perceptive ~ and candid — letter
‘It rather feeds you up 10 see all this newspaper talk about our
supremacy in the air. We certainly had it last June, July and August,
bur we haven't gor it now. The Huns still keep to their side of the
line while we venture over their lines, but if they wished they could sit
‘over our aerodrome (with their fast machines) and we could do nothing
against them.
“What | mean is that a DH is no longer attacking, but is Fighting for
its life againse hese fase Huns, and that at present we have only about
half-dozen machines to cope with them.
“Buc I suppose war in the air will always be like chat. First one side
thas the best machines and then the other, and the side which shows most
gutsall chrough will be the winners. During this war, first we had the lead
with the BEsand Vickers, chen the Germans got ie with the Fokkers. After
that we got it with the DHs, and now the Huns are a bie superior with
their fast scouts
The “fast scouts’ chat Lewis referred ro were no doubt the best of the
new generation of German biplane fighters, the Albatros D Tand D II. In
the back-and-forth arms race which had come to characterise che battle
for dominance of the air over the Western Front in World War 1, the
sleek Albatros fighters were indeed beginning to wrest back control of the
skies over che German lines from the British and French air services.
‘The Albatros Werke GmbH,
located at Johannisthal airfield
near Berlin, had commenced the
construction of aeroplanes in 1910.
Initially, the firm built French types
under licence, but in 1913 the
company introduced a superb ewo-
seaterbiplane known asthe Albatros
type DD —a machine which was the
ancestor of along line of handsome
aircraft. In fact, Albatros would be
Germany's largest supplier of army
aeroplanes in the Great War.
The DD was powered bya 100 hp
Mercedes D I inline engine, and
featured a smooth plywood-covered
Now types of fat scouts! were
being encountered by Aled pilots in
‘the autumn of 1916, and the most
effective ofthese were the Albatros
land D i fighters, The official
history of the RFC’s No 28 Sqn
“states that the new Albatros
fighter was ‘more than a match
{for the DH 2. In addition to being
‘considerably fester, ithed @
‘magnificent climb.’ This is an
LVG-buit Albatros OI of Jasta 16
(acura,
wano S3¥VL ANYIdIa BAL
CHAPTER ONE
fuselage — an innovative semi-monocoque structure (invented by
Ober-Ingenieur Hugo Grohmann) which rendered interior wire bracing
unnecessary. This light, yet tough, fusclage would remain a hallmark
of Albatros designs. In the DD, the experienced design team led by
Diplom-Ingenieur Robert Thelen and Hellmuth Hirth (both of them
competition pilots of great renown) had produced a robust winner
with stellar performance, The German Fliegreruppe placed sizeable
production orders for this excellent three-bay biplane, which saw service
in the early months of World War I under the military designation of
Albacros B I. A twin-bay version known as che B II became the standard
basic trainer for the German air service for the duration of the war.
In April 1915, the initial examples ofthe Albatros CI reached the front.
“This aireraft was the fire in a lengthy series of successful Albatros C types
(cvo-seaters armed with at least one machine gun, and powered by
100-150 hp engines) which rendered dutiful service as work horses of the
Flieger Abteilungen— German reconnaissance, photography and artillery-
spotting units. Albatros then produced its first single-seat fighter in the
form of the D 1 in response to the developing crisis atthe Front.
In late 1915 and early 1916, the Germans had achieved a measure of
aerial dominance with the revolutionary Fokker Eindecker (monoplane).
largely through the virtue ofits synchronised machine gun and the efforts
of skilful pilots like Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann (see Osprey
Aireraf of the Aces 73 ~ Early German Aces of World War 1 for detail)
However, by February 1916 the introduction of the nimble French
Nieuport 11 sesquiplanes and the British DH 2 pushers had begun to
way theadvantage back to the Allies. Even thearrival ofthe Fokker EV,
equipped with a 160 hp Oberursel U III rotary engine and win machine
guns, failed to achieve parity with Allied scouts.
On 24 March 1916, Oswald Boelcke reported on the deficiencies of
the Fokker E IV. “The climbing capacity falls off considerably at great
heights (over 3000 metres), This defect could be avoided by bringing out
a light biplane.’ This call for a light biplane fighter with a non-rotary
engine was echoed by fellow ace Rudolf Berthold, amongst others.
By the start of the massive British offensive on the Somme on 1 July
1916, the fortunes of the German fighter force were at low ebb,
“The first biplane fighters of che
‘The pugnacious Rudolf Berthold
urgently desired to take the new
Albatros into combat as soon as he
saw a DI prototype in May 1916.
However, he would have to wait for
several months before he could fly
the type atthe front. Here, Berthold,
‘8s commander of Jasta 14, prepares
‘off in Albatros D 1717/16
‘3 Bil airfield, near Saarburg.
‘This machine was fitted with
je windscreen
(wac/uTD)
new D category to see production
were the Halberstade D Il and D IL
machines and the Fokker D I and
D I, all of which were powered by
‘motors of 100-120 hp. These early
biplanes reached the front between
May and August 1916, and began
to remedy the situation somewhat,
though all were armed with only a
single machine gun,
Some German pilots quickly
recognised that_more powerful
biplanes equipped with the punch
of win machine guns were even
more desirable. On 20 May 1916,
