The Aerodrome Forum - View Single Post - Question about Jasta 11 on April 13, 1917

Chock · 4 November 2009, 09:20 AM

There would be around about four big motor trucks available to move the heavy stuff, plus no doubt some cars and horse drawn transport. Pilots generally flew the aircraft from the old base to the new base of operations, when everything was in good shape at their new base.

So you'd almost certainly get some pioneering servicing personnel moving to the new location early, and everyone else following along to provide an overlap of servicing (albeit reduced) at both the old and new base of operations. Notwithstanding the distance of a move, this is most likely why it is often reported that a move for a Jasta from one field to another could take up to four days. Furthermore, Jastas were not always completely autonomously self contained, most of them relying on other nearby army units for some of the mundane ancillary services a military outfit needs (i.e admin, policing and things like that), so a few services did not actually have to be moved at all.

In addition to this, there was very often more than one flying unit operating from an airfield, quite often as many as four squadrons (perhaps one located on each corner or side of an airfield), which of course means that a newly arrived unit could borrow services and material, such as fuel, mess facilities or armorers, in an interim period when they were not yet fully set up themselves.

The only unit that would have a real problem when making a move, would be the first one to take up occupancy of a completely new airfield, and even then, it might be somewhere that has one or two buildings already available. For example, if personnel had made a very nice hut for themselves on a base, and they were moving on to somewhere else, they would sometimes sell their hut, or its contents to some new arrivals! There is an example of this kind of thing in

Bill Lambert's Combat Report, where he and a few other pilots actually dismantled and moved a hut they 'found', onto their new base to have for themselves. That hut probably belonged to some French guy, who would doubtless not have been able to do much about it, even if he was there and had not evacuated the area or been told to clear off the land.

Al

4 November 2009, 09:20 AM	#2 (permalink)
Chock Scout Pilot Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The grim north of England Posts: 405	There would be around about four big motor trucks available to move the heavy stuff, plus no doubt some cars and horse drawn transport. Pilots generally flew the aircraft from the old base to the new base of operations, when everything was in good shape at their new base. So you'd almost certainly get some pioneering servicing personnel moving to the new location early, and everyone else following along to provide an overlap of servicing (albeit reduced) at both the old and new base of operations. Notwithstanding the distance of a move, this is most likely why it is often reported that a move for a Jasta from one field to another could take up to four days. Furthermore, Jastas were not always completely autonomously self contained, most of them relying on other nearby army units for some of the mundane ancillary services a military outfit needs (i.e admin, policing and things like that), so a few services did not actually have to be moved at all. In addition to this, there was very often more than one flying unit operating from an airfield, quite often as many as four squadrons (perhaps one located on each corner or side of an airfield), which of course means that a newly arrived unit could borrow services and material, such as fuel, mess facilities or armorers, in an interim period when they were not yet fully set up themselves. The only unit that would have a real problem when making a move, would be the first one to take up occupancy of a completely new airfield, and even then, it might be somewhere that has one or two buildings already available. For example, if personnel had made a very nice hut for themselves on a base, and they were moving on to somewhere else, they would sometimes sell their hut, or its contents to some new arrivals! There is an example of this kind of thing in Bill Lambert's Combat Report, where he and a few other pilots actually dismantled and moved a hut they 'found', onto their new base to have for themselves. That hut probably belonged to some French guy, who would doubtless not have been able to do much about it, even if he was there and had not evacuated the area or been told to clear off the land. Al __________________ Wiseman: When you removed the book from the cradle, did you speak the words? Ash: Yeah, basically. Wiseman: Did you speak the exact words? Ash: Look, maybe I didn't say every single little tiny syllable, no. But basically I said them, yeah.