1 April 1915

rammjaeger · 14 September 2006, 08:20 AM

IMHO the attached photograph displays the same airplane and aviator like the photgraphy in the above mentioned "La Guerre Aérienne" but seen from another position and without guard. There is also a third picture like this but with the guard.
I am searching since many years for the name of the German aviator, asked C. Cony and others but without success. Who is this unknown aviator?

rammjaeger · 14 September 2006, 08:25 AM

Sadly, the low-res 40% compressed jpg-quality here can not cope with a 600 dpi tif-scan but I think you can see enough.

gilles · 14 September 2006, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gilles

I the crews captured by MS12 on april 1st (Spacholz+Grosskopf)

Sorry for the confusion!

Of course I meant Engelhorn and Wittenberg.

Rammjaeger,
If the L'illustration picture was published in spring 1915, it was not a victim of Navarre or any other french aviator. They were not a lot of german plane shot down by another plane inside french lines : Frantz downed an Aviatik, Gilbert a Rumpler? (intact, see rear cover of CGAS) and the 3rd was Navarre's on april 1st 1915.
L'illustration picture is cleaner than the Guerre aérienne one. From the trees there is no doubt that it was in winter. Are they any caption or clues in the magazine?

Gilles

rammjaeger · 15 September 2006, 05:21 AM

Sorry, my memory did cheat me. It was - according to Siegert - published in September 1915 and not spring 1915.
I possess II/1915 of "L´Illustration" but the pages 317-324 in September are missing in my copy. I assume German dealers of antique books try regulary to cut out these pages and sell them separate for very high prices because of the aviation content. At least I tried two times to buy "L´Illustration" with the pages 317-324 and both times the pages were missing and I refused the deals.

In generall I agree with the winter time but in long cold winters (like this year in Germany) the trees are still looking so in early April.

Maybe it was not an air combat at all - despite of "La Guerre Aérienne´s" claim - but a high-res picture shows a dark spot like blood on the chest of the aviator.
So did he become the victim of ground fire if no air combat fits??

I added photograph # 3.