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Mittwoch, 28 November 1917


Only the minimum needed was unpacked at Houplin and the distance is short. The trucks make several trips and almost everything is moved by the end of the day.

We make the short hop by Kette again at 1115. We’re on the field by 1130. We have decent weather, only some low clouds and a mild southwesterly wind.










I bring the Kette low over the field to have a look at it. We’re the last to land and the other aircraft are already by the hangar tents.

I don’t particularly like the field, it’s small and there are too many trees. Some of them need to come down or someone is going to get killed.














CAPTION: The Avelin airfield in these screenshots is from the Consolidated Custom Facilities Airfields Mod for WOFF BHHII by Robert Wiggins. The Jasta 18 aircraft on the field are there because I have the Historically Populated Airfields Mod by JJJ65 and RJW activated as well. The Historically Populated Airfields Mod must be activated AFTER the Consolidated Custom Facilities Mod in order for this to work properly.

We share the airfield with two Flieger Abteilung (Artillerie) units, FAA 224w and FAA 292b.

The Württembergers fly the Hannoveraner.* The Bavarians have some of these but are mostly equipped with the DFW. I take a few pictures of these. There are lots of the Bavarian blaue Männer** about.


*Hannover CL type two seaters.

**blaue Männer – blue men. Bavarian ground crew often wore blue work clothing instead of the usual black. I’ve never seen them described as blaue Männer but I think it is probable that someone did, and Carl does.









CAPTION: These are the WOFF Skin Pack squadron defaults.





We do some combat turn practice and orientation flying this afternoon. We will begin regular operations tomorrow morning.

We’re cramped here and the Arbeitsflieger und Beobachter have to make room for us in the two buildings available for quarters, which doesn’t make any of us happy, but they’re good fellows and put up with it.

The animals aren’t so agreeable and there is much noise and fighting over territory.

It made no sense to move us this short distance from an airfield just as close to the front, with plenty of room and permanent hangars, to an overcrowded airfield, with tent hangars and our enlisted men living in a tent city.

But, as usual, Befehl ist Befehl, no amount of reasoning on Vater’s part changed the decision from 6. Armee to cram us in here.










ENDE

108


Donnerstag, 29 November 1917

Our first Patrouillenflüg takes off at 1000. Vater leads Dingel, Rahn, Viebig, Seppl, and Paul. My Kette and I have a Balloon Protection patrol scheduled to take off after them.

We have stratus clouds and a south-west wind. We’ll be protecting the Beobachtungsbalon at Abschnitt FB2173, just north of Lens.

We find our fete Hilda (fat Hilda) and circle about for an hour, until relieved by a pair of Albatros from Jasta 30, who are stationed nearby at Phalempin. They appear to paint their aircraft in different colors for personal identification. I’ll have to make a point of visiting sometime in the future to get some photographs.















CAPTION: These Jasta 30 Albatros DVs are all from WOFF User Skins by jerbear, Pack 1. The green DV in the foreground belongs to Paul Erbguth, the next, with the red O belongs to Hans Oberlander and in the distance is Rudolf Freiherr von der Horst’s ‘sugar egg.’

These are based on information and photographs in Bruno Schmäling and Winfried Bock’s, “Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 30, with illustrations by J.F. Miller, Aeronaut books 2014.

When we land, everyone is just finishing Mittagessen (lunch). We will have another patrol at 1500.

A Leutnant Buckler from Jasta 17 comes in for fuel to make it home to Neuvilly. I just happen to have my camera with me so I go up, speak to him and offer him a good cigarette. Friendly fellow, obviously came up from the ranks, a working man.

He agrees to let me take a photo of him since he’s not going out on a combat flight, but wants a copy of it, which I’m happy to oblige. I need a secretary for all the correspondence and photo delivery I’ve been doing for the last few months.

It’s a time consuming hobby, but I feel compelled to do it.

I’m vaguely aware of who he is, he’s the Grosskanone of his Staffel, with I think, 30 Luftsiege. This would be two more than Eiserne. He should have gotten the blue bird (BLUE MAX) some time ago but I’ve not heard of it having been awarded to him yet.

I and my Kette join the 1500 patrol. We have Vater leading, myself, Schafer, Deberitz, Seppl, Sigi, Paul and Rahn.

We pass through layers of stratus at 4,000 meters and continue on up to 5,000. Paul drops out of formation as Vater takes us toward Armentiers, south along the front, then to Carvin, Lens, Henin-Lie’tard and back to Avelin.

We receive the blessing from a few Flak batteries but we see no Entente in the air.

Paul comes in about sunset. He had to land at Raubaix to have his pressure pump replaced. It came loose during flight and fell off.








This evening I talk to some of the Arbeitsflieger about the Hannover, which I find an interesting machine. They have a good opinion of the ‘Hawa.’ It’s a good observer machine, a good view for the observer on all sides, very spacious inside for camera, radio, etc. They don’t fly high enough for long-distance reconnaissance, but she’s very agile in air combat and as a result of the high fuselage, she doesn’t fall down when performing a steep turn. They experience few technical faults and have had no crash landings in them.
[i]
The Württembergers use their few Hawas [/i]mainly as escorts for their DFWs.

But, the young pilots want to talk about our Albatros and Pfalz, many of them want to be a Jagdflieger and want to take a test flight in our machines.




]







ENDE

There will be no post for a few days. I have cataract surgery tomorrow.

109

Frietag, 30 November 1917


0530: We’re called to the briefing room at dawn. Vater calls us to attention, “I have just received a call from Gruppenführer der Flieger 6. Armee. We are moving again! This time to Boistranecourt in the 2. Armee Sector. There must be something brewing down there and we are needed immediately.”

“So ein Misthaufen!”* Not only are we moving, we’re moving today, as soon as we can get in the air!

Everything is to be loaded again and our equipment will follow us.

Vater continues; “We will fly again in separate Kette formations. The wind is from the west this morning and the Wetterfroch says there will be continuous stratus all the way to Boistranecourt. This is the Flashar Staffel’s airfield, in a sugar factory**. You should be able to find it by looking for the smoke stacks of the sugar factory at that place. Pack your bags and suit up! Wegtreten! ***

We moan but don’t complain to Vater, it’s not his fault. It makes me miss Berthold….just a little. He would certainly be standing on the desk of the Depp**** responsible at the first hint of this sort of run around and put a stop to it.


*what a load of crap.

**Jasta 5

***step away/fall out

****idiot

CAPTION: Typical WW1 era motor pool for an aviation unit.




0800; many a curse is aimed at the Etappenschwein * responsible for this Quatsch.** The Schwarzer Mann have worked hard to set everything up, thinking we would be here for a while.

Malmann is particularly angry, he and the men and trucks of his Kraftwagen Abteilung*** are worn out from this constant moving about.

He says to me, “Verdammter Scheiß! I might as well have taken my discharge and joined the verdammt circus!”


* Etappenschwein rear swine, rear area personnel, derogatory

** nonsense, bullcrap.

***Motor Vehicle Department, what in English speaking armies would be called the Motor Pool.

Personally, I’m not happy, but I can take it in stride. I’ve certainly seen worse in my time. Befehl ist Befehl

There was a dusting of snow last night ,which quickly burns off.

Hermann cracks the whip and the machines are pushed out of the hangars and our Schwarzer Mann get them ready while we get our flying kit from our quarters and pull on our monkey suits. There’s little time to pack up what belongings we’ve unpacked. All of us pack a small bag with necessities and a few things we value most. We just have to trust that everything will get to our destination.

We’re in our machines around 0830.







CAPTION: Don’t make fun of Dietrich! He has shiny butt syndrome.





Heinrich yells, “Off!”

I pull my goggles down and put my gloves on, then reach for the ignition switch. “Off!”

I pull my goggles down and put my gloves on, then reach for the ignition switch. “Off!”

Dieter pulls the propeller through several revolutions to draw the priming fuel into the cylinders.

“Clear!” he shouts and steps back.

The shiny blades of the propeller slowly start to cut through the air.

Now it becomes a blur. The valves and lifters tick in even time.

I signal that I want to race the engine then slowly push the throttle lever forwards. The propeller becomes a glassy disc of light and the puffing of the explosions in the motor blend into a single tone, swelling into a wild drone. Antiope trembles. The stream of wind from the propeller whips some of the fine snow that still remains around my head.

I push the throttle back again and the roar dies down, popping and sputtering as the motor calms down.

The wheels are freed from the chocks and George and Heinrich hold onto the wings.

I look to my left, Rudi and die Schlange signal that they’re ready.

I push the throttle once again and the ground crewmen release the wings. The grass and snow run away beneath me into a rushing blur. Mud flung up by the tires drums against the lower wing. The bumps caused by the unevenness of the ground become milder, and then suddenly I’m softly swaying as though on a swing.

It’s 0845.







The cloud cover starts at 400 meters and we don’t come out above it until we’re over 1,000. The cross wind’s very strong so after about twenty minutes flying above the clouds we descend to get our bearings.

Scheiße! Verfranzt! I have no idea where we are.

I find an airfield, land for directions. Avesnes-le-Sec, north and west of our destination. We can follow the Escaut south. After about four or five kilometers we should see the smoke stacks of the sugar factory of the Jasta 5 airfield on our left. Not as lost as I thought.

CAPTION: Two views of Boistranecourt airfield and a photograph of it from WW1 for comparison.

This airfield is part of Consolidated Custom Facilities Airfields Mod for WOFF BHHII by Robert Wiggins and friends. Boistrancourt was made by RAF-Louvert.

We land at 0930. Seppl and Sigi are already here. Paul was separated from them in the clouds. He comes in at 1100 with Vater, Rahn and Viebig.

Paul won the prize for the most off course, had to land at Jastaschule II at Soultain. Rittmeister Grieffenhagen set him on the right path and he found Vater’s flight on the way.

The airfield’s a hive of activity. Jasta 5 is flying missions in support of a counterattack that had begun with trommelfeuer* at 0600 before the infantry went forward at 0700.

I was talking to Paul when several of the pilots from Five came over to us. These were acquaintances of Paul’s from Fokkershule, the Staffelfuhrer, Obltn Flashar, a Ltn Lehmann and another Obtln named Esebeck.**


*Drumfire

**This is an aside from Strähle’s diary, Obltn. Rudolf Freiherr von Esebeck is now commander of Jasta 17, which is stationed at Neuvilly, just to the east. Must have just been visiting.










TO BE CONTINUED

30 NOVEMBER 1917 CONTINUED



110


1130: Vater, die Schlange, Rahn, Viebig, Seppl, Dingel, Paul and I take off as soon as our aircraft can be refueled by the Boistranecourt ground crews.

We circled through the stratus which are as thick as before, coming up in the sunshine at a little over 1,000 meters, we strike out in the direction of Cambrai.

We come back under the cloud cover to find our bearings over Raillencourt, our first combat flight in this sector serving as our orientation.

Bourlon, Fontaine, Cantaing, Mercoing, Rav’e, Lesdain, Fontaine again.

German air activity is especially heavy, we see many fighters among the clouds and our artillery and infantry machines are everywhere. This is a massive effort on our part. An immense artillery barrage from our batteries can be seen below, with blueish-white gas clouds rising from the explosions.




















CAPTION: These Hannovers are from the WOFF skin pack. They represent FA33, which actually participated in the counter-attacks at Cambrai.

A short distance from our flight path, an RE8 and four SEs are chasing some of our twin engine bombers.

We go to their assistance.












CAPTION: The SE5a are the squadron default for RFC 41 which was stationed in the Cambrai area at the time.

The Gotha with the dragon is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It will be in the next release of the Two-Seater Mod. I’m sure most of you have noticed the Balkankreuz on the fuselage. Just squint your left eye and maybe you won’t see it. 😊