World War 1

[CFcops]

Originally Posted by Carlo

So, CFCops, please share with us the stories! And, if possible, also some pictures. This would be really interesting.

I will, I just need to brush up on my families history.

Also, Im making a new thread about war stories. Thats where I'm posting. Look for it in general discussion.

[CFcops]

Anyways, lets get to another best fighter topic: Which fighter was the best in World War 1? For me, it's a close tie between the Camel and the Fokker Dr 1 triplane. Maybe the triplane is a little superior.

[sicsok]

Well, here it goes grahically:

[sicsok]

The name I do not recall for sure, but maybe "Nesterov" family. This WW I aviator figured at those times that a big iron ball (like bowling ball or cannon ball) on a rope is preferable to ramming enemy planes. He flew above the opponent (mostly in pursuit from t6he rear quadrant) and dropped the ball on him. Since he had the rope, he could repeat the "bombardment" again, if he missed. He became an ace officially, using his economical weapon.

[sicsok]

In his newly released book (Un sens a la vie) Antoine Saint Exupery describes his stay in Moscow in 1935. He was allegedly the only non-Russian who flew on this magnificent plane (not as pilot, the pilot was Zhurov), next day the Maksim Gorki was crashed. I strongly recommend anyway to all with self-respect and true love for good things to read his books. Thanks

[CFcops]

Im going to put a poll.

[Unther]

I guess one fact that makes us "ignore" the air war in WW1 a little is this:

Although I (and many of us here, I believe) are interested and fascinated by everything that can fly, the air war in WW1 didn't have any significant influence on the outcome of the war. While in WW2, the air war did have significant impact (tactical air support in battles, strategic battles over the country while bombarding industrial targets, air/sea-battles between carrier groups in the Pacific to mention some examples), the air war in WW1 didn't have that impact.
No ground battle was decided because of air superiority, no fleet engagement decided by aircraft involvement and the damage caused by strategic bombardement was so low that it could be ignored.

The air war was more of a prestige thing. Pilots lived dangerous - they had no protection at all against enemy machine guns, no parachutes and even wounded they were in great danger of dying - landing a damaged aircraft while being wounded is difficult enough, but the medicine of that time wasn't so good either. Even Penicillin wasn't discovered, yet.

So "cut off" from the "real" war, the pilots (at least on the German side, I don't know about the western allies or Russia) were able to develop a weird pseudo-romantic knighthood-feeling while their comrades-in-arms in the infantry were fighting a bloody, horrible, dirty and merciless war. That kind of feeling wasn't around in WW2, it was exchanged by a professional attitude on all sides.

Technically, the war speeded up the development of robust warplanes, introduced fighters and bombers and retired the Zeppelins.

Here are some interesting German combat planes of WW1:

Fokker E-III, first fighter-plane built in series, 1915


Siemens Schuckert VIII, German "Riesenflugzeug" (Giant Aircraft), bomber of 1918


Junkers J1, first full-metal-aircraft without usage of wood in construction, 1915

[sicsok]

These pictures were made with Rhino graphics. But they are not bad articles!

[sicsok]

For those who may have forgotten how war looks like. From the time when all things were real (except decoys) even the chivalry! No Parachutes, IR-missiles, ejection seats and no simulators, just death and glory in vain attempt to make losses forgotten.