Rudolf von Eschwege

[ivstefano]

Hallo friends,

Here is another discussion about Halberstadt DII flown by German aces – Rudolf von Eschwege in particular.

I was checking out different sources – about Halbrstadt scouts on the net.

Here is some background on von Eschwege:

He was flying in Fliegerabteilung 36 on Western front where he downed two aircraft in 1916. Later he was posted to Fliegerabteilung 30 in Macedonia where he downed 14 planes and 4 baloons. He was killed on November 21 1917 whilst attaching British balloon near Dama in Bulgaria. British trapped him by detonating 500 kg of explosive that was hidden in the post of the balloon observer as he approached it, he lost control and crashed.
Von Eschwege was named "Adler der Aegaeis" by Bulgarian and German soldiers.

It is general belief that his Halberstadt DII was of the serial number 118/17 – but he probably was killed flying different machine (it might have had been Albatros)

This is the story – back to facts and reconstruction.

First of all serial number 118/17 was not existent in the numbers issued to the Halberstadt fighters. On the other hand 118 was the number of Halberstadt scouts produced by Halberstadt – early production aircraft that most probably were clear dope with serial in small lettering in black if any at all.
We might conclude that Fliegerabteilung 30 had Halberstat aircraft most probably of serial 118/16. Why was the part of serial misdtaken in the reports remains a mystery…

Now let us consider all opportunities.

Most Halberstadt fighters in the west were lacking the serial numbers – many of the aircraft were overprinted in camouflage as it was normally done by later serial aircraft. It seams that batch D800-829 produced by Hannover was made exclusively for the Jasta 25 serving in Macedonia. Here is a pick based on reconstruction done by George Grasse 2008. Note that position of national markings is different than in the rest of Halberstadt aircraft you will see on the photos… Also note that these aircraft were coded by individual letter and also had prominent code number.

One of the Halberstadt DII fighters that was never reproduced in profile is this one flown by Oswald Boelcke – you can see my reconstruction near to the original photograph you can find on Wikipedia. It is typical representative of Halberstadt scouts used in the west – no serial number can be seen. Other aircraft were painted in camouflage colors too so it seams to be happening to all the later types such as DIII or DV models…

Back to the von Eschwege – I conclude that:

1 - von Eschwege was flying early type of Halberstadt DII – he spent all his flying carrier in the Fliegerabteilungs – thus the lack of modern equipment might be normal especially for the Macedonian front. (German units received only 2 or 3 Fokker DVII fighters there during the war)
2 – his serial may have had been 118/16 but either it was lost due to overpainting of the plane in camouflage or it was not existent on the plane at all. ‘/17’ might as well be a technical mistake done by the clerk that was filling up the report.
3 – there was probably no individual marking such as letter or number as in Fliegerabteilungs there were only one or two scouts available.

I propose two reconstructions that you can see on the picture I made next to the photographs I found on the net.
First one is aircraft in clear dope, with small lettering of the serial or no serial number at all.
The other reconstruction might be the way his airplane appeared later in the war when national makings went trough the transition and when most probably his aircraft was painted in camouflage like the Halbestadt fighters from Jasta 25.
Comparing it to the picture from a book (sorry – no info -I think released in 1930’s) due to the long use of this plane he might have had uncovered wheels as well (as on the reproduction).

Any comments would be welcome – also if anyone has the picture of wreck of his plane I would be grateful to see it…

Cheers!