FA 22 and C46 aerodromes

[totoroman]

I'm hoping somebody might be able to enlighten me as to where these units were stationed, and what aircraft they were assigned throughout their operational life-spans in WWI.

any help would be appreciated

[Soderbaum]

Hi

Do you mean FFA 22 or FA 22...?...they are completely two different units..?

:-/
Gunnar

[Cliff]

Hi

From a couple sources I assembled the following:
C46 was formed in Mar/15 @ Dijon with Caudron G.3s
It was active over Quennvieres with 6th Armee.
Equipped with Caudron G.4s & G.6s in Apr/16 and based at Vadelaincourt.
It became R46 on 13/6/16 with Caudron R.4s.
In Nov/16 it was at Chipilly.
It became LET46 in Mar/17 with Letord recon a/c.
It became C.46 again on 17/2/18 with Caudron R.11s and was active over the Aisne and Marne.
It split to form C246 and ESC.204? in Oct/18.

Cliff

[totoroman]

the reason I've asked about FA22 is on account of researching Leutnant Albert Dossenbach and Oberleutnant Hans Schilling and the 8-9 victories they obtained whilst flying together.

I've used three sources in an attempt to confirm the unit, as I'm aware that FFA and FA and FEA are not at all interchangeable designations.

Above the Lines
"German Knights of the Air"
"the Aerodrome ace index"

all of the aforementioned sources indicate that these two men served with FA22 while they scored their victories. hope that clears things up a bit and helps you out.

and, while I'm thinking of it, are there any books I can purchase in the future that will help me get this sort of information? my nearest public library only has copies that focus on British fighter and bomber units respectively throughout their operational life spans.

and one last question--are these books still in print?
I hope I hope....

[totoroman]

thanks for the info Cliff, much obliged
your neighbor
totoro

[Soderbaum]

Hi again Totoroman

Unfortunate the Grub Street authors have "failed" until know to describe the correct names/numbers of the German units during the War so that a "new" person can easily understand it... :-[

The reference list of German FFA/FA has been published in C&C and OTF, but the last time for more than 10 Years ago...

The good news it that at the moment the German magazine "Propellerblatt" is publishing a "list" of German units and their designition...

Dossenbach for example was never a member of FA 22, and FA 22=old FFA 52 seems never to have served on the Western front...

However Dossenbach served in FFA 22 which later was renamed FAA 261...
He arrived to FFA 22 on 4 June 1916 while the unit still was serving within the 3rd German Army(since BOW) in my notes...

Around 1 July 1916 FFA 22 moved over to the 2nd German Army for the forthcoming Somme battle. When the 1st German Army was re-establish in mid July 1916(still Somme)they came under this Army.
I have some fragmentary notes on airfields during this period like:
Velu 1 Jul 16 - 2 Jul 16
Bertincourt 2 Jul 16 -
Flavy le Martel Jul 16
Flesquieres Aug 16

Hans Schilling(O) did serve within FFA 22 from BOW.

Hope it helps a little
8)
Gunnar

[Billy9]

FRom the material I have available here are the locations of C 46 bases, this is NOT all inclusive as I don't have all their records.

1915
Mar, formed at Dijon, moving to Lyon-Bron
4 Apr. departed Lyon-Bron
5 Apr arrived at Villers Cottetêts
7 Apr moved on to Mont Gobert
17 Aug moved to St Martin-sur-le-Pré.
19 Aug moved to St Etienne-au-Temple

1916
30 Jan moved to Lhuitre
17 Feb moved to Saint Dizier
13 Mar moved to Vadelaincourt
19 Jun moved to Fère Champenoise
28 Jun moved to Villers-Bretonneux
26 Jul moved to Demuin
1917
1 Jul moved to Château de Bonneul
7 Jul moved to Villeselve

1918
15 Apr based at Montagne
14 May moved to Airaines
22 May based at Hornoy
15 Jun based at le Plessis Belleville
9 Jul based at Ormes
18 Jul moved to Pars-les-Romilly
24 Jul moved to Le Plessier Gassot
7 Sep moved to St Dizier
18 Oct moved to La Grande Romanie.

Sorry, this is all I have,

Bill

[totoroman]

thanks. when I looked over all the documentation--some documents just said FA22--and another said "Feldflieger Abteilung". My first instinct was that since "feld" and "flieger" were obviously welded together into a compound word that it would make sense to dub the unit FFA. but since all of the sources I looked at called it FA22--I was uncertain.

the other cause for uncertainty was I remember reading on some previous threads that earlier in the war FFA and FAA were used more commonly, and that FA didn't show up until later--that TOO could have been wrong... but thanks for the information.

that's why I figured I should just "blurt out" that I was investigating Dossenbach and Schilling--because it's easier to get your names straight when your dealing with people!

8)
thanks again
your neighbor
totoro.

[totoroman]

no problems here! I haven't been around this subject for very long--but I've already learned that sometimes we won't find everything, in spite of our best efforts. it's been well over 2000 years now and people are STILL looking for more historical evidence to figure out who that Jesus of Nazareth person was--so I'm not sure I would expect us to have all the WWI history set up to our perfect satisfaction--especially with so little time (comparatively speaking) spent researchig it.

my first reaction to all of those bases is "wow, they moved around a lot." based on my research thus far C.46 actually had a few aces in it:

LECOUR GRANDMAISON, Didier Louis Marie Charles Capitaine

VITALIS, Marie Gaston Fulerand Leon Adjudant Chef N67, C46
being the ones I've discovered thus far.

oh, did I mention that you guys are cool?
thanks

[gregoire]

Great info on C46
About the C46 abd caudron R11 (one of my favorite plane)
here is what I have
the C46 was the first unit to receive it being re equiped in feb 18
The mission of the C46 was bomber protection for the Air division escadre 13 (made of GB3 and GB4 all on breguet)
it took part to the aisne and marne battle. it is credited with 37 victory for 26 death (on caudron R11) the unit had 3 citation at the army order and have the right to carry the fourager of the medaile militaire (making it one of the most decorated air unit of the french army top 5%)
the C46 at the end of the war was afighter squadron (even if post war it became the squadron 204 of the 3rd RB)
The symbole of the C46 was a blue trident that is still carried by a fighter squadron it is the third fly of fighter squadron 1/5 flying mirage 2000