WWI Art....

Of Lufbery's 16 victories, it is believed that his fifth was the most notable, during the famous "Oberndorf Raid" over Germany, 12 October, 1916. Four pilots from N-124, flying Nieuport 17's, were to escort the bomber mission to Oberndorf to destroy the Mauser Works factory there. On the return from the mission escort, Lufbery scored his fifth victory against a Roland CII. It's best described by James R. McConnell of the Escadrille Americaine, in his book "Flying For France", copyrighted in 1916. Here is a quote from the book:

"The Nieuports having refilled their tanks went back up to clear the air of Germans that might be hovering in wait for the returning raiders. Prince found one and promptly shot it down, Lufbery came upon three. He dove for one, making it drop below the others, and then forcing a second to descend, attacked the one remaining above. The combat was short and at the end of it, the German tumbled to earth. This made the fifth enemy machine which was officially credited to Lufbery."


Ace with the wooden leg - Terrence Jones....

Nieuport 11 flown by Lt Paul Tarascon, Escadrille N62, summer 1916.Despite having lost a foot in a flying accident before the war Tarascon became an Ace being credited with 12 victories and 10 probables. He was nicknamed the the Ace with the wooden leg. He survived the war and was active with the French Resistance during World War 2.Tarascon died in 1977.


1916, Nieuport 17 Guynemer - Brian Knight....


1916, Jean Chaput - Paul Lengelle....

18 March 1916, 800m in the skies over Woëvre, the sous-lieutenant Jean Chaput spots an LVG, after half an hour of stalking it, dives on it, adjusts aim and shoots down the observer. Disarmed, the german pilot turns and climbs towards the French so as to provoke a crash fatal for both. But Jean Chaput, with great reflexes avoids the colision, and at the right time, pulling the stick, cutting the fuselage of the Ferman plane with his propeller. A extraordinary feat of arms! The damage is serious, but the little Nieuport holds well: Chaput could land in his lines and he had the luxury of seeing the airplane of his adversary burning on the ground.

Jean Chaput was killed in aerial combat on May 6, 1918 having achieved 16 victories.


Sopwith Strutter vs flak - Paul Monteagle....

Nieuport 16 Balloon Buster Albert Ball....


Nieuport 16 Albert Ball vs Fokker - Mark Postletwhaite....


Nieuport 17 Albert Ball firing Lewis - Foster mount- Peter Dennis....


Morane Saulnier N - S. Tarasovic - Lt. T.P.H. Bayetto No. 60 Squadron....


FE2 41 Sqn Somme October 1916 - Michael Turner....

Avro 504K - Roy Cross....


Airco DH2 vs Fokker - Michael Turner....


Airco DH2 vs Fokker - Martin Novotny - C Flight, No. 32 Squadron, William Curphey....

Airco DH2 6011 shoots down LVG C....


Airco DH2 Lionel Rees VC vs Roland CII - Martin Novotny....

Airco DH2 - Taras Shtyk - S/N 7907 B Flight, No. 32 Sqn Captain L.P Aizelwood, September 1916....

Airco DH2 Robert Saundby 24 Sqn - Martin Novotny....


Airco DH2 6011 No. 24 Sqn Lt C. Kerr - J. Velc....


1916, RAF B.E. 2c - Brian Knight....


1916 RAF R.E. 5 - Brian Knight....

1916, Airco DH2 Lanoe Hawker vs Albatros DII von Richthofen - Brian Knight....


1916, Rees and the ten walfische - Merv Corning....

It was July 1, 1916. Major L.W-. B. Rees, flying a De Havilland 2 on a routine patrol, spotted what he thought to be ten British planes returning from a raid. When he flew over to join them, he found they were German Roland C-II bombers, (called Walfische because they looked like whales). Rees fought them off single-handedly, downing one plane and scattering the rest. For this good day's harpooning, he received the Victoria Cross.


Fokker E.III K.u.K. Marine vs Nieuport 11 - Steve Anderson....


1916, Hansa Brandenburg CI - Brian Knight....


1916, Compassionate Hunter - Merv Corning....

It was September 15, 1916. A French submarine, the Foucault, was spotted inthe Adriatic. Leutnant zur See Walter Zelezny, in an Austrian Lohner flying boat, attacked it with two depth charges. The sub sank more than 250 feet, then miraculously came up to the surface. Zelezny droppped a small bomb, the Foucault shook, and disappeared. Then, with another plane, Zelezny landed and saved every officer and man of the French crew.

Roland CII FFA 5b - Martin Novotny....


Fokker EIV Oswald Boelcke - Roy Cross....


Pfalz EIV - Valery Rudenko....


Fokker EIV - Valery Rudenko....


Fokker EIV - S. Tarasovic - Leutnant Kurt Witgens, Feld Flieger Abteilung....

Fokker Eindecker - Don Greer....


Fokker E III 401_15 - Martin Novotny -Flieger Abteilung 60 / Kek Jametzed....

Fokker DV - Zdenek Machácek....


Eagles over the Pyramids - Tom Leamon....

covering the feat of Oberleutnant Richard Falke and pilot Leutnant Paul Schultheiss who on 13 Nov 1916 took off in their Rumpler CI from Beersheba in Palestine, and flew 5 hours and a half non stop to Cairo, dropped bombs and took photos of the Pyramids.


Albatros DII Oswald Boelcke - Taras Shtyk....

Albatros DII Leutnant der Reserve Robert Dycke Jasta 16b....


Albatros DII Jasta 14 - S. Tarasovic - D.1782/16 Vizefeldwebel Otto Gerbig (4 victories). He was deadly wounded on 18th August 1917.


1916 11 Albatros DI 391-16 Jasta 2 Leutnant Karl Büttner - Robert Karr....


Albatros DI 435 - Taras Sthyk - D.435/16 Leutnant Spitzhoff Jasta 5.


1916, Pfalz EIV - Brian Knight....

1916 Fokker EIII - Brian Knight....

1916, Aviatik C I - Brian Knight....


1916, AEG CIV - Brian Knight....


1916, Albatros CIII - Brian Knight....


Just as the German monoplane reared up to loop and turn sideways, the F.E. 2c opened fire. The Fokker E.III bucked and shuddered. At the controls as his ship plummeted to earth was the master of the Immenlmann turn. It was June 18, 1916. Oberleutnant Max Immelmann had finally kept his date with death, and the R.F.C. credited 2nd Lt. George R. McCubbin with the kill.

Morane Saulnier L - Eric Loutte....


Le sentinelle - Russell Smith....

Depicts the 3rd victory of famed French ace Jean Navarre. Jean Marie Dominique Navarre (1895-1919) carried the distinction of being the first officially designated French air ace of the First World War and eventually amassed a total of twelve aerial victories between 1915-18. His success in the Verdun sector of the front earned the nickname "The Sentinel of Verdun".Navarre's third victory occurred on Oct. 26, 1915 while flying MS- N 523/ 15. That morning, while Navarre was on standby at the airfield of MS12, word came from observers in the Chateau-Thierry lines that a German two-seater was overhead.Navarre caught up to the German aircraft, and attacked head-on. After only 8 shots the German was forced down to land alongside the Marne river. Navarre flew overhead and observed that the German aircrew were attempting to set fire to their airplane. Navarre dove and fired some warning shots at the Germans to dissuade them: the Germans understood and walked away from the aircraft with hands held high in the air.Seeing no French troops at hand, Navarre decided to land nearby and protect his second captured aircraft from any further damage. He learned from the captured airmen that 4 of his 8 bullets had struck the motor, disabling it on his first firing pass.La Sentinelle depicts Navarre as he makes his pass on the grounded German LVG. The German crewmen walk away from their aircraft with their hands in the air, having been "warned" by the Hotchkiss gun on Navarre's Morane.


Zeppelin vs BE2c - Michael Turner....


Short finds the Königsberg - Tom Freeman....


1915, Vickers FB5 Gunbus - Brian Knight....

1915 Morane Saulnier L - Brian Knight....

1915, Dangerous Baby - Merv Corning....

July 25, 1915 Captain Lanoe G. Hawker was over Belgium searching for German batteries. Flying a Bristol Baby biplane and armed only with a rifle, he met up with a German two-seater. Ignoring the machine gun, he sent the German plane scurrying home. Twenty minutes later, he forced another two-seater down. Then he sent an Albatros flaming to the ground. His Victoria Cross was the first ever given for air to air combat.


1915, Warneford and Goliath - Merv Corning....

1915 June 7, Twenty year old Flight Sub-Lieutenant R.A.J Warneford of the Royal Naval Air Service was on first night bombing mission over Belgium. Moments after take off, he came upon a menacing 521-foot long Zeppelin. Ducking away from machine gun bullets, he flew his tiny Morane Parasol above the bulging behemoth, swooped down and dropped six bombs on the thing. The boy David had beaten his Goliath.


1915, The Strange story - Merv Corning....

1915 May 10, The British pilot clutched his ammunition drum and prayed. Thrown out as his Martinsyde Scout flipped into a spin, he dangled helplessly. The pilot kicked toward the cockpit behind him, finally got his feet hooked inside and jammed on full aileron and elevator. As the Martinsyde righted itself, he fell back into the cockpit and pulled out of the dive. It was an episode Captain Louis A. Strange of the Royal Flying Corps never forgot.


Zeppelin gunners....

Fokker Eindecker E.II 105-15 Ernst Udet - Martin Novotny....


Fokker EIIII vs BE2 - Thijs Postma....


Fokker EIII Sachsenberg - Martin Novotny....

LF196, Leutnant zur See Gotthard Sachsenberg, MJGr I, Marine Freikorps | Mariakerke BE (November 1915).


Fokker E.III - Jaroslav Velc....


1915, Rumpler CI - Brian Knight....

1914 10-05, They watched the first dogfight - Merv Corning....

1914, October 5th. A mere 600 feet above the startled French and German soldiers, two planees were acting a grim drama. The Voisin bombing plane, piloted by Sergeant Joseph Frantz, fired 47 rounds into the retreating Aviatik. The German flipped over, spurted a cloud of burning gasoline, flamed and dropped straight into the ground. In 10 minutes it was over. And a whole new chapter in aerial warfare had begun.


1914 Biplaza aleman recon....


Avro vs Taube - Peter Dennis....


1909, Louis Blériot cruza el Canal - Eric Loutte....


American hero - James Dietz....

Lucky13 said:

he date is tentative, on this year the Italians begin experimenting with air launched torpedoes, judging by the lights on in the cruiser and the shore this seems to be an exercise, not an attack on an enemy harbor.

Click to expand...

I'd say you're right about this, but the Italians began experimenting with air-dropped torpedoes before the war in the beginning of 1914. A fella named Pateras Pescara built a floatplane, from which he launched a dummy torpedo in February 1914, but little more was done with the idea at the time, despite the experiment being considered a success.

I don't know the artist, but this is a photo of a painting in a museum in New Zealand (of all places).

Knights of the Sky 68

It does happen to be accompanied by this from Richtofen's Dr I 425/17 in which he was shot down.

Knights of the Sky 70

Good ones!