Boelcke's Albatros DII 386/16

[scooterjmuggs]

I am building an Albatros DII model and would like to make it Boelcke's DII.
Problem is, I don't have a profile for what his DII looked like. I have heard it was quite plain with no real personal markings. Could anyone supply me with reference material for Boelcke's Albatros DII 386/16?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

[Patrick]

386/16 was part of series D.380-391/16 of Albatros pre-production or prototype machines. This batch was ordered by Idflieg at the end of June, 1916 and was a mix of D.I and D.II varients (see Windsock Datafile 100, Albatros D.I/D.II by Peter M Grosz, pages 3 & 7).

I can't find a profile or picture of 386/16, but page 2 of the above Datafile does show 384/16 (a D.I) and on page 27 there's a description of 391/16. Going by this, the wings, horizontal stabilizer and elevator are either two-color camo green and chestnut on the upper sides and pale blue below (if you follow the description of 391/16), or, clear finished natural fabric, a translucent buff-colored off-white (if you follow 384/16 a shown in the Datafile picture). The wooden fuselage and vertical stabilizer surfaces were probably straw-colored natural varnish finish (or stained a chestnut brown; Dan-San Abbott says this wasn't done, others argue the point, take your pick. To me, the photo of 384/16 looks like a natural varnish finish). The rudder was clear finished natural fabric with the Albatros factory decal above the Iron Cross marking. The photo of 384/16 shows the tail Iron Cross entirely on the rudder; it does not overlap the hinge line onto the vert stab. Metal engine cowling parts, struts & spinner in light gray. Wheel covers either light gray or the same light blue used under the wings. National markings of Iron Cross on a white square background on the fuselage sides and upper/lower wings. The fuselage crosses were further forward than normally seen on a D.II, slightly forward of center between the cockpit and tail surfaces. The serial number is not visible in the picture of 384/16 and is absent on other photos of early-series D.IIs. it appears to be inconsistently applied. If you're going to apply it, it should appear on the vertical stabilizer as D.386/16. Boelcke's D.II had no personal markings, leader streamers only.

Dan may have a complete color profile of 386/16 available, you should drop him a line.

[Patrick]

As I read and re-edit my earlier post, I realize that I've described two completely different finishes for Boelcke's D.II. One is the all-natural factory finish (384/16), the other is an early version of the Albatros terrain camo finish (Karl Büttner's 391/16).

I finally found a sequence of four photos claimed to be of 386/16, on pages 8 and 9 of the Schiffer book Albatros D-II, Germany's Legendary World War I Fighter, by Rudolf Höfling. The photos are credited to Jörg Mückler. They are not great quality -- bad angle and lighting, apparently shot in haste as Boelcke emerges from the cockpit and describes his 34th kill to a crowd who encircles him. If authentic, at least they clear up the following:

1. The tail cross is black cross on a white square background, just like the fuselage and wing crosses.

2. The tail cross spans the hinge joint, part on the rudder, part on the vertical stabilizer.

3. There's no sign of the Albatros factory decal or the D.386/16 serial number on the tail.

4. The rudder appears to be a dark color (green or brown?), not natural finish, although this may be a lighting/shadow effect. I'm leaning towards the dark color though -- the demarcation between the white cross field and the the rudder surface is very black-and-white.

Overall, the four photos appear to show a plane more like 391/16. The film grain and reflected light glare of the photos makes it hard to pick out surface detail, but the main impression is of a darker-surfaced plane. I don't recall seeing any of these four photos in another publication & I wonder if they really do show Boelcke -- I can't ID him for certain.

Greg, Dan?

[josef scott]

Here is a detail of one of the photos (the best one of the plane) from that series that recently sold on eBay. It clearly shows the serial # on the tail. I know I have other sources of these photos but I can't find them right now. There is a frontal shot of this DII in Osprey's "Albatros Aces of WWI", but no profile. As Patrick noted, it had no special markings, just the leaders streamers.

One thing: this was the first Albatros fighter to use the centrally mounted upper-wing radiator instead of the "ear" type on the sides of the fuselage.

[Patrick]

Here's a detail from the best tail shot in the series from Rudolf Höfling's book.



I can't make out a S/N or factory decal in this shot, but it must be that the angle and lighting are bad so they aren't visible (or the pic itself is mis-attributed). I completely missed the Boelcke shot in Albatros Aces of WWI -- like the Höfling pics, it does look more like the plane was camo painted rather than natural finish. I'm still guessing that it's finish was more like 391/16 than 384/16.

Would really like to see those eBay shots if they are available anywhere.

[ManfredT]

Fortunately the exact color of the underside of the wings is known. Some of the fabric of Alb. DII 386/16 was souvenired and sold by the Boelcke family.

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[Dan_San_Abbott]

Scooterjmuggs:
Alb.D.II386/16 was the prototype machine with the wing mounted Teves und Braun radiator.
The fuselage and fins are a warm straw yellow with a shellac and varnish finish. The wings and tailplane are a three color terrain camouflage of pale green, dark olive green and rust brown on the upper surfaces. The rudder is rust brown. The under surfaces of the wings, tailplane and wheel covers are sky blue. All struts, cowlings, spinner and all external fitting are pale grey.
I have a colored print of this machine, it is $10.00 plus $1.50 for USA postage and $3.50 for foriegn orders.
Check OK in USA, cash or international money order for all foriegn orders.
My address is: Dan-San Abbott
1800 Stone Cress Court
Ceres, Ca 95307
U.S.A.

[Gregvan]

Hi All,

Well, everbody's pretty well spelled out the colors and markings of this aircraft. Here's a photo, showing the serial number on the fin clearly.

As mentioned, there were black/white (or probably black/white/red) attached to the lower wings at the interplane struts.

Have fun!

Greg

[Gregvan]

Hi,

Here's another shot, taken at the same time .



If you check Patrick's posted photo above, you might notice what appear to be small blotches or 'sworls' (not unlike some of the Austro-Hungarian camouflage patterns) applied to the top of the lower left wing. According to Alex Imrie's "German Fighter Units 1914-May 1917", Ltn Höhne's Albatros D.I 390/16 in Jasta 2 also bore similar 'random brushed blotches' on the fabric rudder. Of course, Alex always maintains that many of these early Albatros D.Is and D.IIs had their fuselages stained reddish-brown, an assertion which remains controversial. He says that the 'random brushed blotches' on Höhne's rudder were made with the same stain. Whatever the case, it seems additional brushed sworls were applied to the lower left wing of Boelcke's D.II 386/16 for some reason...

Greg

[ManfredT]

Greg-
for a while a Höhne Album exists, but was lost in the seventieth. It was clearly seen, that Jasta 2 start to apply an extra camouflage with a mottling effect to dampen the high gloss. There was also a shot of Boelcke's aircraft after the accident, stored in a barn.

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