Sopwith Camel B5193 ?

[Immo_Frese]

Hi,

a member of another forum asked for help regarding Sopwith Camel B 5193...

Sopwith Camel thread

Immo

[TomVrille]

With reference to The Camel File by Sturtivant & Page, the information given for B5193 is the same as on the linked thread, except that the pilot (Lt. D.C Wright) is listed as killed. There is no indication of his being made POW, or dying of wounds.

[Immo_Frese]

Originally Posted by TomVrille

With reference to The Camel File by Sturtivant & Page, the information given for B5193 is the same as on the linked thread, except that the pilot (Lt. D.C Wright) is listed as killed. There is no indication of his being made POW, or dying of wounds.

Hi TomVrille,

yes, I know that, but Henshaw, The Sky Their Battlefield, says, that Wright was made a POW and later DOW in a hospital in Vienna.

Who is right?

Immo

[PeterL]

Originally Posted by Immo_Frese

Hi TomVrille,

yes, I know that, but Henshaw, The Sky Their Battlefield, says, that Wright was made a POW and later DOW in a hospital in Vienna.

Who is right?

Immo

Well, if it's any indication, the pilot in the picture you link is most definitely dead.

[TomVrille]

I note that Henshaw gives 22 Feb as the date of death for the unfortunate Lt. Wright. If he survived the crash (unlikely based on the photograph), he would probably have received immediate medical care at the nearest field hospital. By the time a decision to send him to Vienna was made, it would have been the afternoon of 20 Feb at the earliest. It appears that the straight line distance from Conegliano to Vienna is approximately 250 miles. The surface distance in 1918 was probably in excess of 300 miles over mountainous terrain. Unless the German/Austrian forces took the extraordinary step of air evacuation of a wounded enemy Lieutenant, the time line doesn't seem plausible.

[Immo_Frese]

Peter, I agree with you that the guy in front of the crashed Camel looks dead

... but that was not my point. Obviously there must have been some reports, which stated that the pilot survived. Most probably we must see this case in conjunction with the claim made by Lt.Wittenhagen from Jasta 31.

In OTF Vol.1/4 James L.Kerr III. stated in the third part of his article "Caporetto:The Aftermath" that the victim of Lt.Wittenhagen on 20 Feb 1918 near Conegliano was a Camel and that the pilot survived. As reference he gives the book by Peter Schiemer "Die Albatros (Oeffag) Jagdflugzeuge der k.u.k Luftfahrttruppen, p.214. There you can read that Wittenhagen shot down a Camel B5193 from 45.Sqdn.RFC (sic.) and that the pilot Lt.Wright was made POW. But no further word there, that this pilot DOW some days later. Obviously Schiemer mixed something up here, as we know that Wright belonged to 28.Sqdn.RFC...

Did Henshaw and others trusted Schiemers informations and took it over to their own work?

Does anybody have access to the weekly Kofl 14 reports? Perhaps Wittenhagen shot down an italian pilot?

And from where did Schiemer get his information?

Immo

[Soderbaum]

Hi

a little side-note: Wittenhagen is "also" interesting, as he had a long service within the German Marine Air Force before returning to the Army Air Force.
And before his Marine service he had been educated as pilot at FEA 6, so he perhaps was of Saxon origin..?
I have his first name as Gustav....

Another note is that the monthly list of A-H aerial victories for Feb 1918, does not mentioned any victories on 20 Feb 18...


Gunnar

[Immo_Frese]

Thanks for the first name, Gunnar

Immo

[Rick]

Gunnar, ditto! R.

[PeterL]

Originally Posted by Immo

Did Henshaw and others trusted Schiemers informations and took it over to their own work?

That would seem very likely in view of the photograph. I don't do very much original research and when I do it is always model related. But it is invariably prompted by the need to resolve just such a contradiction as this. In the end it most often comes down to misplaced trust in source material.