skip to Main Content

Victory 23

Event ID: 164

Categories: 

Under the guns of the Red Baron, Norman Franks, Hal Giblin and Nigel McCrery

04 March 1917

50.385443220123484, 2.88901904235462
Acheville

Source ID: 13

Under the guns of the Red Baron, Norman Franks, Hal Giblin and Nigel McCrery p.  69 

ISBN: 9781898697275

“Combat Report: 1620 hrs, Acheville. Sopwith two-seater. Occupants: Lieutenant W Reid and Lieutenant H Green, both killed, buried by local command at Bois Bernard.

Accompanied by five of my planes, I attacked an enemy squadron above Acheville. The Sopwith I had singled out flew for quite a while in my fire. After the 400th shot, plane lost a wing whilst making a curve. Machine hurtled downwards. It is not worth while to have plane taken back, as parts are all over Acheville and surroundings. Two machine guns were seized by my Staffel. (One Lewis gun No. 20024 and one Maxim (Vickers) gun L7500) Weather:fine.”

This Post Has One Comment

  1. source: Inside the victories of Manfred von richthofen – Volume 1, James F. Miller, Aeronaut Books, 2016

    High-resolution photographs published in Lance Bronnenkant’s Manfred von Richthofen, Volume 5 of Aeronaut’s Blue Max Airmen series, reveal Richthofen sitting in the cockpit of Albatros D.III 2006/17 and then subsequently taking off from La Brayelle in the same machine. As will be seen, Richthofen’s combat reports of 1918 consistently list the serial numbers of machines he flew during victorious sorties, and they reveal he often switched between machines. Now it is obvious he also did so during March 1917—and likely had since the beginning. Thus it must be presumed that he flew Le Petit Rouge without exclusivity and that during any given sortie could have flown any given Albatros. Since there is photographic provenance of him flying 2006/17, which was ultimately “handed down” to his brother Lothar after he joined Jasta I l, 2006/17 is an obvious alternative to associate with this combat report. However, this does not mean Richthofen did not fly an Albatros other than the two listed here. Determining which machine Richthofen flew during his victories in 1916 and 1917, aside from the very few he listed in combat reports, is uncertain and continually being researched.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top