Prost!

To what extent if any were pilots discouraged from boozing it up before going out on patrol? I suppose that the constant threat of violent death would drive many a man to drinking, but obviously a squadron of intoxicated pilots wouldnt be of much use. Does anyone know if any specific orders existed concerning drinking?

I believe that in Kilduff's Richthofen Combat Wing van der Osten noted that drinking was not tolerated by MvR yet there was many a "wet" night at Jasta 4 while commanded by Von Doering.

MvR did not like alcohol at all. On the other hand Bodenschatz notes in his book "Jagd in Flanders Himmel" - that Jasta members found the win collection of the Count in Markebeeke. The bottles were hidden in the earth - but were found. "So there was no need to buy wine the rest of the war" - comented Bodenschatz.

[Darryl]

Hi Mark,

Drinking was generally tolerated. It was not uncommon ( Cecil Lewis says straight out in his book that he did once at least) for a pilot to land somewhere, have a good dinner in the mess then, thouroughly blotto, get in the kite and fly home.

Add to this the standard "Rum ration" and the cure-all for Castor oil ---milk and brandy and a picture emerges. Certainly on the ground, there are numerous reports of units going into action with some men barely able to stand!!!

regards

Darryl

Here's a little story about drunken flying...things can go very very badly! hehe

got this from http://www.accessweb.com/users/mconstab/ba...r.htm

So it must be gospel!



On Christmas Day, 1917 Barker, Hudson and another pilot decided to send seasons greetings to the Austrians at nearby Motta Aerodrome. On a large piece of cardboard they wrote the message "To the Austrian Flying Corps from the English RFC, wishing you a Merry X-Mas". They then proceeded to fly across the field wing-tip to wing-tip firing their incendiary Buckingham bullets into the open doors of the hangers. Soon the planes and hangers were burning fiercely. They swooped around and shot up the air-raid trenches where the mechanics and some of the pilots were trying to hide. They killed 12 and wounded many others. The trio made it back to their base at Istrana and quietly convinced the mechanics to patch the bullet holes, as unauthorized flying had been banned by the British commander.

As the few days around Christmas were traditionally considered to be a truce, this action quite angered the Austrian commander. After a day of drinking and brooding the Austrians headed out on a reprisal attack on Boxing Day. Of course, the pilots were pretty much sodden with alcohol and should have been sleeping it off. Most were still drunk when at 8 AM they were roused to avenge the insult. The Austrians couldn't even maintain position in the air and became dispersed. The British AA gunners spotted them a long ways off and proceeded to fire on them. An eyewitness reported:

"I could hardly believe my eyes. About five miles away, flying at all heights between 500 and 3,000 feet was the most heterogenous collection of aircraft I have ever seen. Making no attempt to keep together, but on the contrary widely scattered, thirty or forty Austrian machines were slowly approaching us ... Every few hundred yards one would drop its bombs and make for home. Finally, about twenty reached the aerodrome and bombed it. After bombing the aerodrome they did not go straight back, but becoming more dispersed they wandered all over the country at about 1,000 feet."
Barker was awakened by the air-raid alarm and the whole squadron jumped to their Camels. A flight of 22 Austrians were mistakenly bombing a nearby airfield when 29 Sqdn and some Italian planes intercepted them. A large melee ensued with the resulting loss of 12 Austrian aircraft, one by Barker. Six enemy machines came down all around Istrana aerodrome. There was no report of any damage done to the aerodrome. As Barker's flight was returning to Istrana they spotted a large formation of aircraft heading their way from the Austrian lines. He climbed up to their altitude and discovered it was a flight of 10 German Gotha bombers. In formation they were very deadly as the Gotha was armed fore and aft with machine guns, with the rear gunner being able to fire from guns in the dorsal position and from a ventral position to protect the belly. The cross-fire from so many machine guns was nearly impenetrable. Barker circled in front of the Gothas and approached the middle of the formation from dead-on at long range. He proceeded to fire on the three leading aircraft from 300 yards, hoping to damage one of them. As they neared he had time for a short burst at close range and then dived under them. One machine was in trouble and swung out of formation with a lame engine. He quickly climbed above it and dove firing at the huge airplane, then flashing by only to pull up and fire into the belly around the pilot, in spite of a spirited defence from the two gunners. The Gotha went into a nose dive and burst into flames before crashing near the Piave River.

One Austrian plane landed on the British field. The RFC pilots expected to capture a wounded pilot but found him out cold from drink. Another captured Austrian was still wearing his formal mess atire under his leather flying garments. They finally got the storey from him about the Christmas Day raid on their airfield and the loss of many aircraft, sheds, mechanics and pilots. Shortly after, the British Commander was informed of the whole incident. Because of the great result of the illicit bombing operation Barker, Hudson and the other pilot were not disciplined for disobeying orders, but they were also not decorated for it, as they would have been had it been an authorized flight. The British ground crews grumbled that they spent a good part of Boxing Day picking up prisoners.

[rammjaeger]

Some pilots like MvR and Immelmann refused alcohol, others like Udet needed alcohol to overcome the horror of war. In general drinking was widespread among all German troops already in peace times and the Army doctors were fighting (and loosing the fight) against this behaviour. For example the later knight of the Plm von Althaus was described as being a hard drinker who was devasting his body and budget already in peace times.

The story about the defeat of the Austrians because of the misuse of alcohol sounds nice but causes also some doubts. At least the Italian author Giorgio Apostolo described the revenge attack of the 26.December 1917 in some points in another way (and is missing to mention alcohol too). Maybe somebody can shed some light on his points which were:

a) The Germans made the attack on 26th December. Apostolo did not mention Austrians. He said also the British Christmas attack by Barker & Co was directed against the German (Saxon) FA(A) 204.

B) Only one British Camel took part in the fighting and forced a DFW down. The Italians achieved 9 confirmed and 2 unconfirmed victories.

c) Istrana was hit by the Germans with the following results: One hangar shot in flames, 9 Hanriots destroyed or damaged, more than 20 men dead or wounded.

[Soderbaum]

Hi Hannes and others

I am back from a long urlaub now...

Regarding b/:

The official Italian Victory list published after the War gives a total of 7 e/a shot down and confirmed on 26 December 1917, and one of this was shot dowm by Flak.
This also corresponf better with known German losses this day.

VBR
Gunnar