Fascination

[Downwind]

I am just as "guilty" as many of the rest of us---I am fascinated with early aviation and specially WW I. But is there a tendency for this fascination to be more towards the German aircraft, I have been trying my head on for size and wondering wherein this fascination. I am of Austro-Hungarian heritage and had relatives (non-flying) who fought in the "Big" war for Austria, that teutonic DNA may be part of my reason. Though I love 'em all but I have always been "drawn" more to the one side than the other. I remember getting Christmas gifts that my Aunt would buy for me from Polk's and other Toy stores in NYC. When I got a small metal Red Dr1 and a Spad one year---that really turned me on. Now 70+ years later still that same overboard fascination. Is it just me?

[crankcase]

...my grandmother was Bavarian.

I suspect one reason why we are attracted to the Central Powers is that they lost the war. Once the US entered, Germany was on the defensive so one might tend to see Richthofen and his comrades as being in an underdog position. There is a sense of "end of an era" as they take off against superior numbers, knowing the war cannot be won, but do their duty anyway.
marc

[Roadhog]

Here in America, a huge portion of our population has a Germanic heritage to include myself. For the most part (and we can debate gas and U-boat warfare at a later date) from 1914-1918, the Germans waged an honorable war. They fought well and smart and they took care of their enemies' POWs.

People have a tendency to root for the underdog and it can be argued that after the intial attacks in France and Belgium failed, that the war was lost. Yet they fought on against the rising tide of defeat and gave as good as they got.

Here in America the same can be said for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The soldiers fought well but after the two crushing defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg they still fought on for nearly two years in what most of them had to realize was a lost cause.

Also enough time has passed so that to a certain extent the wounds inflicted during the Great War have healed. I would argue that the current situation in the Balkans goes back to 1453 and not 1914.

My uncle was born in Germany and moved to America when he was a small child. During the war he was a front line intrepter and wire man. He was gassed in 1918 and hated "the Germans" for the rest of his life. I remember walking beside him as a child and hearing him mutter "God damn Kaiser Bill this and God damn Kaiser Bill that." I was probably the only six-year old kid in Missouri who knew who the hell the Kaiser was. He died in 1958 from complications of being gassed forty years before.

However, for me personally, as well as most Americans, the Great War in Europe is over. I'm still too busy taking pot shots at Yankees. VR, Scott

[Tailspin]

As fo me, I respect anybody who fought for his country. My bias in World War One aviation is very slightly toward the Allies. I think our hobby is notorious for down playing the role of the French and over playing the role of the Americans. Had the War lasted into the next spring, the Americans would have been more significant. As it was, we barely had a chance to develop a few veteran pilots before it was over.

My Maternal Grandfather was born in 1897 in Philadelphia of German parents. German was his first language. He served in th US Navy before, during and after World War One.

He fought the U-Boats and was involved in rescue operations for their victims. His German language skill was responsible for earning him a stripe when, at the end of the war, he was the only sailor in his squadron who could act as a translator for a surrendering U-Boat crew. Though a Catholic, he would later develop a knack for speaking Yiddish, which was always useful in North East Philadelphia in the 1960s.

He was a good kind man, but he would revert into a beligerant 20 year old Machinist Mate First Class if somebody suggested that he was German. That was not a good thing - the old fellow boxed as a heavyweight and was the wrong guy to tick off - even in his seventies.

He tried to rejoin the navy for the Second World War, but he worked in a war related industry and they wouldn't let him leave. So he became an Air Raid Warden and tended bar at the Soldiers and Sailors Club, where his boxing skills and China Station tattoos let him double as the bouncer.

My Paternal Granfather was much older. He was born in Glasgow in 1875, immigrated to Philadelphia, worked in the shipyards and played in a band. In 1915, he enlisted as a bandsman in the Canadian forces, but did not serve in France. When the Canadian authorities discovered his age, he was discaharged, returned to Philadelphia, and went back to building ships. He liked to point out that during his service the Germans never tried to attack Montreal.

Tom