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

[van der Laan]

As many of you already know, I am the builder of a Ron Sands replica of the Fokker Dr1 Triplane replicating one of the many aeroplanes flown by a German army reservist known as Lt Joseph Jacobs (pronounced ‘yoseph yacobs’ ) but known to many of his friends as ‘Kobes’. ‘Kobes’ could be a patronymic for ARROW or Pumpkin or even ‘pumpkin head’ as we say in English….with the same connotations in this thread I will refer to him simply as ‘JJ”.
The building of my aircraft has been quite a journey: a journey as yet unfinished but I have enjoyed every step in the process. Here is a shot from way back on a sunny day in Tennessee when I rolled it out for a little sunshine. Unlike a few others here building this same aircraft mine will not be an exact replica: certain customizations to personalize it have been made, in much the same way that old JJ customized his aircraft.

Along with the many tasks given me by my mentor in building the plane, I have undertaken documenting as much as I could about the aircraft itself, its services and such. In this research endeavor I have become increasing consumed with finding out as much as I can on Ltn. Joseph Jacobs himself. He is a fascinating subject and fine example of what we like to believe was one of the last examples of chivalry in war. I know, I know many will cite examples of historic figures claiming that this war was no example of chivalry, but chivalry in war to human culture is a part of our mythology that cannot be removed by historical accounts of event long gone. It lived then as now in our imagination and interpretation more than in facts. My guess is it always has. It was a bigger part of the WW1 pilot’s culture than of ours and even if they never attempted to be THE KINIGHTS of old, acting out their mythology still happened even if subconsciously.
Anyway what is this thread about? Well in my attempt to find out more about JJ and his aircraft I have had the good fortune to travel the United States looking at collections and analyzing bits and pieces of his history and the history of the Jastas to which he was assigned. From the Smithsonian in DC and Boeing Air Museum of Seattle to the Lafayette Foundation of Denver to the Ed Ferko collection at the University of Texas at Dallas, I have combed through quite a bit of stuff looking for an elusive image that may not even exist but still it’s been fun anyway. I am on the quest for a better and different image of the 450/17 machine’s icon-badge of the “flying devil”. I’ve never found it but I’ve picked up a lot of stuff along the way. Which makes me think a bit.

Supposedly the badge would have been painted on any aircraft Jacob’s flew as flight leader of Jasta 7. I’m still looking for that second photo after all these years and so far have run up against only rumors and wishful thinking. The one photo we have all seen clearly illustrates the shape of the wings, but the face and horns, the color and expression are all conjecture as far as I am concerned. Unless there is a second photo that could detail these elements, everything you’ve seen with respect to that aspect of the badge is all wishful thinking or faded memory.

You know the photo I’m talking about its this one:

When zoomed in, you can clearly see the tell tale signs of early offset printing: “HATCHMARKS”. This means this well known photo is actually a photo of a printed image and is not really an original. When held in the hand in person at the Ferko Collection, the photo appears to be a standard LICA photo from the period, but the high density scan reveals the truth. It’s a low density copy.

Unfortunately this means that no matter how much you manipulate the image the tiny features of the face which are smaller than the hatchmarks resulting from the offset printing process are completely obscured and therefore can never be truly revealed or defined.

The Ferko Photo collection (the source of this particular scan) is the product of a number of gentleman who began collecting such photos long before most of us where born. Very few of these folks (the original collectors) still survive but their collections are still with us… somewhere. Unfortunately most of us have no idea where. Likewise with their passing and the subsequent sale of their collections to other private persons, the light of day never sees these photos except for those in the Ferko Collection housed at the University of Texas at Dallas.

These collectors and the original photo owners were highly possessive. I really do not understand why but they did not then nor do they now want you to see even a copy of what they spent a lifetime trying to find. I cannot comprehend the sentiment but none the less it’s there.
This bothers me greatly. It has plagued me in my attempts to render accurately the final badge of Dr1 450/17. I do realize they spent their lives pursuing these images and texts but really what good are they if filed away like the last scene of Indian Jones and Arch of the Covenant? Therefore I would hate to fall into this trap with anything I’ve stumbled across and vow to post here for your use everything I’ve bumped into. It’s not much but it’s a start and I hope it will encourage you to get off your duff and go see it for yourself.

As such, I will use this thread to post every image I run across on old “JJ” and his birds in the highest resolution the site can handle and still function properly. Most of my scans are in excess of 20 meg but I will bump them down to fit and make available the high density to those that really need it. 90% of the best scans I will post are from the Ed Ferko Collection at UTD but there will be others and I will note their source. My hope is that others that hold secret undisclosed photos literally thoudands of them, (maybe even that second shot of the devil badge) will post them, but I hold no allusion that they will. I do this because I honestly believe the correct format for all these historic photos is on the NET rather than socked away in some drawer or museum.

This thread should be looked at as a testament to what could be done with a modern scanned collection like that of Ed Ferko’s: thousands of photos and texts just waiting to be placed in cyberspace. Treated like GOOGLE, it could be filtered and searched by countless methods, annotated by experts like Wikapedia and the Wikipedians, it would always be there even a thousand years from now and could yield an infinite amount of new knowledge. We could benefit from searching it and finding anything we ever wanted from our snowed in cottages in Tennessee, Englewood Colorado or even Marlborough New Zealand.

At the Ferko Collection you can literally pick a person or a bird and follow it through posts and photographs through Jastas until its demise. Imagine if the whole thing were scanned in and freely available online. The impact is unimaginable. I think if we pulled together, we could make that happen, but we’ll talk about that later … until then let’s talk and look at the real master of my favorite flying machine from Anthony Fokker’s the DR1 and its ACE of ACES: Ltn. Joseph Jacobs.

I cannot post them all at once so be patient

[van der Laan]

Maybe the best single Jasta and pilot photo I've ever seen, its got everything

The entire Jasta 7 pilot corps standing in front of 470/17: the nearly all black Fokker Dr1 with minimal crosses in white, Jacobs dead center and in the mans ulitmate ACE wear a black laether flying jacket and the PLM beaming from under his chin.

I say 470/17 because if you zoom in on JJ you’ll see the tale tell sign of its famous dent in the left side of the facing cowling. If you look at the crosses bleeding over the leading edge of the wings you’ll see they are not the all white thin ones eventually found on 470 so it leaves me with the impression that this is 470 prior to its final paint job seen in other photos. Can anyone weigh in?

A close up of old JJ

FYI: if your interested in downloading these and going into the sale of copies on EBAY do not! It's both a violation and I've altered each image in some undetectable way, which will be obvious if you attempt it and the FERKO collection will be notified Otherwise enjoy! mfv

[van der Laan]

Hey microsculpt if you are interested in doing a production mini-JJ I'm a buyer, love your work!

[van der Laan]

And they claimed chivalry did not really exist. These RAF airmen sure got a better reception than Sen. John McCain.

A proud JJ stands over his latest score, two RAF airmen: a pilot on the left and an observer on the right. JJ had mortally wounded their aircraft, close to his Flanders aerodrome and forced them to land out. Here he stands with the two men, his PLM on display and the observer wearing a forehead bandage I believe, probably due to the impact of the broken bird.

According to a Neal W. O’Connor (Author of Aviation Awards of Imperial Germany in WW1 and the men who earned them) account: the observer must have been a good one, as he is wearing a British Military Cross Ribbon under his single wing.

Regarding the two airmen: there were photos of the Jasta 7 pilots all leading the two men to a ‘call shack’ where they all shared cigarettes while sitting inside and what looked like a drink of water while a telegraph of their capture was being sent. I’m sure it was their last real day in the war and would love to know if anyone knows what happened to them. Had this been a modern conflict, we could probably guess how it would have gone.

[Tim West]

Originally Posted by van der Laan

At the Ferko Collection you can literally pick a person or a bird and follow it through posts and photographs through Jastas until its demise. Imagine if the whole thing were scanned in and freely available online. The impact is unimaginable. I think if we pulled together, we could make that happen, but we’ll talk about that later …

Would that not be swell?

About the "gonw"... there's a painting made for Jacobs in the 60s that has a version, I would assume its "close". But even then the facial details are rather vague. I dont know anything more specific about it.

Anyhow...Thanks for posting the photos!! Anymore?

[MK2]

Great stuff, thank you.

Do you know any of the collectors or original photo owners that have pictures not being shared?

[van der Laan]

Tim West: ""gonw"... there's a painting made for Jacobs"

I have both an impressionistic painting done for JJ and hung in his house and a colored drawing done in colored Crayola supposedly done by none other than Jacobs himself for the author Neal O’Connor and will post each shortly, but unfortunately there was a catch in both of these as “in my analysis", I can prove that old JJ did not really draw either of these but did verified the colors used in each. Hold tight and I’ll post them both.



MK2: Do you know any of the collectors ?

Nope. I "know of them" by reference, but did not know any of them myself, but I do speak to folks who were their friends.

The big time collectors were the Authors: Neal O'Connor, Bill Puglisi, Ed Ferko, Peter Grosz, Bruno Schmaling to name a few, I believe Schmaling is still around, the rest I think have all passed away and other than Ferko, their collections are locked away somewhere. Most of these guys and a few members currently of "theAerodrome" really formed the core of "Cross and Cockade": the ultimate historical journal of the subject.

If we could only get the collection combined and put a wikipedia/google engine over them the world would be a beter place

I the case of Peter Grosz his collection was donatedto the Mueseum in Berlin, which sounds like a good deal, but everyone I've ever spoken to even Germans claim its a BLACK WHOLE and you'll never be allowed in to take a look, I hope they are wrong. Mayne over time it will change. The Ed Ferko collection was put up for sale and somehow, the UT D snatched it up, thank God! but they did not get Grosz's

[Tim West]

I'll be waiting....As the interpretations of colors used varies greatly. I think the face was red but have seen it portrayed as a grey/black. Im really interested in seeing the crayon version...I love to color

If we could only get the collection combined and put a wikipedia/google engine over them the world would be a beter place

Imagine all the great things that people could do with open access to these materials. As of now...I can only see a list of what's in the boxes

[van der Laan]

Someone close to old JJ was quite the artist if not himself then possibly someone he met during the war or maybe even his wife Tatyana. When you browse through his stuff or that of the Jastas he was associated with all kinds of little sketches and drawings start popping up. While digging through Ferkos collection I ran across this little post card.

Now I have been trained in the graphic arts and am a software engineer with about 25 years of doing graphics, user interface and detailed development of graphics systems with transformation algorithms. This little card appears to be an intaglio print: a print made from an engraving, it’s a type of high quality printing for artistic purposes. In this case, done on a high quality Arches paper in black ink. The color was added later and by someone who knew exactly how to get the effect of rough wool for the sweater: in a curious mix a greens and blues to affect the olive drab.

This card was a personal note to Ed Ferko from JJ. I believe it was one of many JJ must have had made and then he, his wife or some unknown artist hand tinted these and sent them off to friends and acquaintance. It may seem insignificant but in the quest for the second image of the “flying devil” or the “fire spitting witch” as JJ sometimes referred to his badge, knowing just where all this little sketches are coming form could be important. In the Jasta 7 box of the Ferko collection there is a little envelope just full of these little things and they are all individually colored by someone with a passion for art.

Here is another found in his diary kept at the Vintage Aero Flying Museum just outside Denver Colorado.

Now it may seem insignificant but I reason that all these little artistic images of old JJ, which are deadly accurate, could not have been done 50 years later when he needed them to remind people of just who he was. #1. His facial features match exactly his features back when he was a pilot in Jasta 7. #2 The artifacts of his gear, his uniform, his flieger helmet are all dead on. #3 the color schemes are right on, in fact there are almost no mistakes at all. It’s as if the artist was an EYE WITNESS…… and maybe just maybe he was.

If you photo-enhance each of these little tid bits you find that the artist signature is always the same no matter whose collection you found the sketch with in.

I cannot for the life of me read this person’s name. Can anyone help? You can tell from the dates, they were completed just after the war. If you wanted someone to accurately portray your image you would probably have contacted someone who was there and anyone who could have drawn this well and was there…….well who would you have had paint your fuselage while flight leader?

What will you bet, that this artist is the very artist that originated the “Devil” image for Jasta 7 450/17 ?

[Hans]

Great pictures!

"Kobes"....I have never heard of this name for an arrow or pumkin. According to the leading german dictionary, Kobes is a short form of "Jakobus" or "Jakob".

H.