Ltn Joeph Jacobs and the quest for the 2nd DEVIL image

[van der Laan]

YAVORD


You too are correct:

My picture had it listed correctly back on page #2 but I did indeed FAT FINGER the quote above. My appologies and thnks for the input.

[YavorD]

Yes, the reports, the barogramms, and the barograph are great finds. Thanks for sharing them.
The pictures look great too but I do not know enough about people involved.
With kindest regards,
Yavor

[FliegerJG1]

Congratulations on your fortunate acquisition of the barograph! Was this a standard piece of equipment on the airplanes?

FliegerJG1

[van der Laan]

I am not sure that it was standard, or even on most. It does seem that it was on a lot of Bombers and Zepplins quite a bit, at least in Photos I've seen it a lot.

I would love to find out just where old JJ hid one of these in a triplane. On mine, there is literally no place for it. The front is packed to the gills with oil / gas and ammo cans, the cockpit has nowhere to string it up and I dare not hang anything in the tail for fear of cable fouling. Maybe they shoved it up under the oil tank on the floor board or something, but it would be impossible to start/stop or wind it up in there unless you accessed it through the bottom facing panel door.

[van der Laan]

As mentioned before, old JJ flew quite a number of aircraft prior to the Triplane. A quote from SIM’S Book “Fighter Tactics And Strategy 1914-1970.” Taken in an interview by the author in the Munich recounts:

“I went to the front in 1914 and stayed there for the rest of the war. I first flew the Dorner, a very primitive monoplane in 1911. I left flying school at Hangelar, near Bonn, to join the army in 1914. I flew as an observer, a bomber pilot and artillery spotter, the Aviatik, LVE, the Rumpler and a few other planes. Once I flew all the way to Paris in 1915.”

He did not mention it above, but here is JJ on a very cold and wet day, his expression: usually cheery even in war is not so full of mirth that day, maybe the heavy toll was starting to mount on him and he realized that being an all weather pilot in a less than all weather aircraft was not all it was craked up to be

"the LVE typeo is SIMS, I assum its an LVG." mfv

[van der Laan]

He had quite a bit of time in the LVG-CII, and there are lots of photos to prove it. Here he is with a good friend of his and another with his gunner.

[van der Laan]

And another... I like this one, you can just see him peering out from the cockpit upfront.

I was digging through a box of old Jasta 27 photos when I spotted this one. With a jewlers loop in hand I could tell it was old JJ and thought I'd pulled a fast one over on old Ed Ferko: finding something no one else had before, but when I got home and looked in Neal O'Connors book on Medals ... I found he had old JJ sitting in it too and way before me. Darn!

[wulffo]

van der laan, congrats to that steal on the barograph.... those are moments any collector cherishes.... your barograph is even nicer as it has the original rubber mountings. it would mostly have been instaled behind the pilot seat. concerning jacobs, upon his death most of his personal belongings were actualy given to the technik museum in berlin.... i am sure that they are contactable for interested researchers. cheers oli(ver) Jasta 11 - wwi Aviation alias wulffo here

[van der Laan]

wulffo.... thanks for the comments.

The story I heard went like this: On his death he apparently gave about a third of it to Parks in Denver, a third to Peter Grosz and still about a third again of which Bruno Schmaling and Neal O'Conner ended up with portions. On Ferko’s death the UTD folks had someone buy him out and sent it to the library. On Peter's death he donated his collection to the museum in Berlin and therein lies my problem.

I have it on good authority that this museum in Berlin will not allow non-German born citizens to access the materials and really are not interested in being helpful to folks like me (including Austrians, Polish and Hungarians and such... as though they were all “meddling Americans” like me). I do not know from personal experience but those who make the claim are people who are librarians as well as WW1 researchers who have warned me not to bother making any Lufthansa reservations.

Do you know of a different experience with them that could give me hope?
I really do not understand their sentiment.

[baldeagle]

Great photos, they were just kids, but matured fast no doubt.

Wasn't it mentioned on this site once that there was a barograph behind the seat in vonR's triplane when he was shot down? There is room there, when I flew Brian C.'s triplane to Dayton I hung a backpack there with some clothes and etc.




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