GSWA Aviatik

[James A Pratt III]

In Windsock Datafile 102 Aviatik B-Types by the late great P.M.Grosz. There are some pictures of the Aviaik P 14 possibly B.268/13 and the pilot Willy Truck , an ex mechanic. The plane, Truck and a mechanic were sent to GSWA for 3 months of tropical trials. They arrived on 19 May 1914 and were stationed at Karibib. Hamstrung by a lack of parts, tropical weather, mishaps, and minor crashs. Leutuant Alexander von Scheele and Truck performed sporadic bombing, reconnaissance, and leaflet dropping raids until the surrender of German troops on 9 July 1915. The remains of the Aviatik P 14 along with other weapons were dumped into the Otjkoto Lake near Tsumeb.

[Martin Bennitt]

There are also pictures of this machine in Swakopmund museum, which I visited a couple of weeks ago. The German forces in what is now Namibia had a number of aircraft, one of which is said to have been "responsible" for the country's herd of wild desert horses.

See here

cheers Martin B

[athelstan]

Lt Paul Fielder's Roland Taube plane crashed in high winds near Karibib in April 1915 and did not fly again. It was taken to Tsumeb and set alight and destroyed as the South Africans advanced on the town in July 1915. See 'Urgent Imperial Service' by Gerald L'Ange, Ashanti, 1991 for more on the two aircraft and their pilots.

There is a story of one of the planes dropping artillery shells on the men of the 1 Rhodesia Regiment. This made a lasting impression on one Rhodesian Trooper, a certain Arthur Harris, who of course went onto greater things in World War Two as the head of Bomber Command.

The men of the Rhodesia Regiment also fought at the battle of Trekkopies on 25 April 1915. A few days before nine Rolls Royce armoured cars of the Royal Naval Air Service had been sent up to Trekkopies on the railway line. Lt Von Scheele in his Aviatek flys over Trekkopies, spots the armoured cars but reports them as water carriers or food trucks depending on the account. A bit of a nasty surprise then for the attacking Germans on 25 April when they ran into these 'water carriers' machine guns blazing.

Hope this is of interest.

james

[centurion]

Some shots of German aircraft in SWA

[rmarg-jim]

according to Harry klein, Light Horse Cavalcade:

" In the interim the squadron (D, 2ILH) had several brushes with enemy patrols and had the rare experience of being involved in one of the first aerial bombings of modern warfare. This happened at Haalenberg, some miles east of Luderitzbucht, on November 29th (1914). A German aircraft dropped two percussion bombs on the squadron lines, one of which exploded and "frightened the horses, causing 15 to break away into the desert. No troop casualties were caused."

The German pilot who made these odd aerial forays was affectionately called "Fritz" by the Union troops, who looked upon his hazardous career with interest. The missiles dropped from the air were not real bombs but shrapnel percussion shells with kite fins affixed to keep them vertical when falling. The small aircraft had no proper release mechanism for the "bombs", and the troops on the ground were vastly intrigued to see the pilot lift a shell out of his cockpit, balance it on the side of the machine and drop it in the vicinty of the expectant audience below. A "safe-spot" in which to take cover from air bombing was the hole blown by the first shell dropped on any given raid, as it was considered certain that no two could land in the same spot."

He also has a pic of a South African Aviation Corps plane flown by (later)Major-General KR van der Spuy, in GSWA, 1915, on page 88.