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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

DH2 squadron photo


Adrian Roberts

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Do any of you know who the men were in this photo of a DH2 squadron, and which squadron it is?

I'll put half the photo into the next post, as I had to scan it in two sections.

I've had this photo for about twenty years; it is from Christopher Campbells Aces and Aircraft of WW1(Treasure Press) - a mainstream publication so probably not a rare photo. The caption only says: "RFC pilots in front of a DH2 at the Fourth Army Aircraft Park, Beauval, France, 1916". Could the small dark CO in the centre be the Welshman, Lionel Rees VC?

I'm fascinated by this shot as the men seem particularly "human". I get the impression that the cameraman took ages to get it set up. Some officers, whom I assume to be Regular Army, remain standing smartly but look as though they have Things To Be Getting On With. Others, presumably New Army, seem to have lost interest entirely. The two on the far right [of the right section of the photo] look like a couple of sulky teenagers - they probably were teenagers. Many of these men would have been younger than I was when I first saw the photo; all of them younger than I am now. I dread to think how many survived the war, or even the next few months.

Left half below, right half in next post

Adrian

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Right half of DH2 photo...

Does anyone know how to contain it in a page width so you don't have to scroll horizontally?

Adrian

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Adrian

The men in the photograph are DH 2 pilots of No 32 Sqn RFC, commanded by Major L W B Rees. I think I've seen a list of the men somewhere, but where?

Regards

Gareth

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Gareth

Thanks for your info, it's a start. I may try theaerodrome.com, those guys could probably tell me the squadron's shoe sizes, but I thought I'd try the home team first (Australian as well as UK of course!)

Attached is a photo of Gwilym Lewis who was with 32 sqn and scored two victories in DH2s (and who lived until 1996). Could he be in main photo - the second from the right or the third from the left possibly?

Adrian

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Adrian

I knew I'd seen the photo annotated somewhere! It was in Gwilym Lewis's Wings Over the Somme. Here it is (sideways so it will fit).

Regards

Gareth

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Adrian

Further to my earlier post, I've managed to find a little bit of infomation on some of the men in the photograph.

Capt L P Aizlewood was wounded in action on 10 February 1917 in DH 2 A2548. He was killed while flying at No 2 Flying School in Camel E1456 on 29 September 1918 when his aircraft spun into the ground during the making of an instructional film.

Capt H W G Jones MC was credited with 7 victories with No 32 Sqn. On 1 October 1916 he was shot down, but not injured, while flying DH 2 A2533; on 15 February 1917 he was wounded while flying DH 2 A2535; on 21 March 1917 he was wounded in action while flying Nieuport 17 A305 of No 40 Sqn. He then served at the Central Flying School until November 1918, when he became Commanding Officer of No 19 Sqn, where he remained until December 1919.

Lt G H Lewis was credited with 12 victories with Nos 32 and 40 Sqns.

Lt M J J G Mare-Montemboult was credited with 6 victories with No 32 Sqn. He became a Prisoner of War when shot down in DH 2 7882 on 6 March 1917.

Capt J M Robb was credited with 7 victories with Nos 32, 90 and 92 Sqns. He was wounded in action on 16 August 1918 while [probably] flying SE 5a D5973. He retired as Air Vice Marshall Sir James Robb GCB, KBE, DSO, DFC, AFC.

Capt O V Thomas was flying DH 2 6003 on 22 June 1916 when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire; he was not wounded. He was killed in an accident when flying in Bristol Fighter B1331 of No 39 (Home Defence) Sqn with 2Lt A F Cairns on 29 July 1918.

Capt H W von Poellnitz was posted to the Central Flying School on 2 July 1917.

Lt R H Wallace was wounded by anti-aircraft fire when flying DH 2 A2546 on 2 November 1916.

As far as I can determine from Airmen Died in the Great War, with the exception of Capts Aizlewood and Thomas, all the men in the photographed survived to the Armistice.

I hope this is useful.

Gareth

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Gareth

Thanks, this is fantastic. No need to try theaerodrome!

Just one problem : only half of your photo has appeared, at least on my screen. Is there a way you can get the whole of it up, or the right half? Or email it to me if this is impossible.

Should we be surprised, statisically speaking, that so many of these men did survive?

Adrian

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Adrian

I'll send you an email regarding a copy of the photo.

I was surprised that so many of the men survived - perhaps flying a DH 2 meant learning a lot of survival skills!

Gareth

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Dolphin (Gareth) has kindly sent me the captioned version of the picture, which I attach below. Quality may not be brilliant as I had to reduce it to Jpeg from Bitmap as attachments have to be less than 200kb.

I'll put some other comments in the next post, as the photo will probably make this post too wide to read without scrolling

Adrian

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Some points and questions:

1] The CO is not Rees: we now know the photo dates from July, and Rees' VC action was on the 1st July when he was wounded in the leg, so he would have been away from the squadron by then. But it seems I was right about Gwilym Lewis being second from the right

2] In fact the photo may have later than July: I looked up Robb on another site, and he was not promoted a T/Captain until August 10th 1916 - but he has three pips in this photo

3] Dolphin, we'll probably need your expertise again for this Does anyone know anything about Von Poellnitz? How did a chap with a Von in his name get into the RFC? Was his German ancestry way back or did he change sides? He seems to be getting on all right with the officer next to him.

4] This leads to another question - does anyone know how Frank Linke-Crawford came to be an ace of the Austro-Hungarian Air Service? Was he truly Austrian or did they pay more?

Adrian

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Adrian

I hope that someone on the Forum knows something of von Poellnitz's background, as I haven't found much. Captain Hermann W 'Harry' von Poellnitz was a well known member of the RFC who gained Royal Aero Club Certificate No 1953 on 26 October 1915. His patriotism and flying ability must have overcome the prejudice against his Germanic ancestry. Interestingly, [then] 2Lt G H Lewis described von Poellnitz as being 'as blind as a bat' while marvelling at his having shot down at least two enemy aircraft. A well known photograph of Capt von Poellnitz taking off from Abeele aerodrome in his DH 2 is attached - I've put it on sideways to make this readable - his Flight Commander's streamers are quite prominent.

Oberleutnant Frank Linke Crawford of Flik 41J owed his name to his parents: Austrian Major Adalbert Linke and English (I have read Scottish) Lucy Crawford. He was born in Krakau/Cracow on 18 August 1893. During his flying career, Linke-Crawford was credited with 27 victories before he was killed in combat with Italian aircraft on 31 July 1918. A victory was credited to Corporale Pilota Aldo Astoli; it was his only victory of the War.

For more information on Linke-Crawford, see the excellent book Air Aces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1914-1918 by Dr Martin O'Connor.

Regards

Gareth

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Adrian

Just to add a little more to the topic (though getting quite away the No 32 Sqn theme), a photograph of Oblt Frank Linke-Crawford in front of his aircraft, Albatros D.III (Oef) 153.11, at Sesana in October 1917, is below. He was credited with five victories while flying this machine, marked with a distinctive falcon. Linke-Crawford's nickname, "The Falcon of Feltre", stems from his bird of prey emblem.

Regards

Gareth

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Adrian

I'm not sure how I missed it earlier, but Capt Hermann Walter von Poellnitz of No 72 Sqn RAF (formerly 2nd Bn, Lincolnshire Regiment) was killed in a motor car accident in Mesopotamia on 11 May 1918 and is buried in Baghdad.

I think that I must have only looked for a 'Poellnitz' and not a 'von Poellnitz' in the RAF section of Airmen Died; I definitely looked under both names in the RFC section.

There's some information about the man's ancestry at: http://www.wynnesdiary.com/section_pages/family/family2.html

Regards

Gareth

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Gareth, Matt

thanks for your help - I checked out all the links you suggested.

I also looked at that excellent site www.rafweb.org , which among other things lists all those who achieved air rank (Air Commodore or above) before 1946, and some after. Trawling through the names in the photo, I found:

1] CH Nicholas. The photo caption doesn't give initials, but CH was born 1894 and was promoted T/Capt and "Flight Commander ? sqn", on 10th July 1916, so with a fairly unusual surname there is a good chance that this is our man. In 1921 he was awarded a DFC in Iraq; during the Battle of Britain, as Air Commodore, he was SASO [senior Air Staff Officer] at 13 Group Fighter Command. Lived until at least 1966.

2] FH Coleman - less info, but also became Air Commodore.

Adrian

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  • 1 month later...

Adrian

The officer at the extreme right of the No 32 Sqn photo, Lt Benedict Philip Gerald Hunt, (formerly with the Shropshire Yeomanry) was shot down and captured on 11 December 1916 while flying DH 2 5986 of No 32 Sqn. A victory was credited to [then] Ltn Manfred von Richthofen of Jasta 2; it was the 12th of his eventual 80.

Lt Hunt was exchanged into Holland in April 1918 and repatriated on 18 November 1918. He served as a Major in the Royal Army Service Corps in the Second World War.

I hope that this helps.

Gareth

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  • 2 months later...

Here is a little extra about Herman Walter Von Poellnitz. Served with the 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment in Malta (1912-1914), Bermuda (1914). Arrived with the battalion to France on 6th November 1914. He was a Lieutenant in D Company and later was promoted to Captain and the Major.

Hope you find this of interest.

Kev.

Would be very interested in copies of pictures of this man. :rolleyes:

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Kevin

There's at least one photo in the link that Dolphin gives above

Adrian

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Thanks Adrian but for some reason all the attached images in this sudject fail to open!!!

Kev

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  • 15 years later...

Hi,

Joining this forum thread very late in the day I know, but I am a relative of Herman Von Poellnitz.  I have just started to do some research on some of my relatives who were involved in WW1, so will probably have loads of questions in future.

In terms of Herman I have read the excellent document "From the First to the Last" by Guy Warner which has lots of information and a few photos.  I wasnt however able to see any of the photos posted in this forum for some reason and would really be interested in seeing copies.  We have a couple of family ones - an example attached taken in 1913 with my grandmother. Hermann is on the left.

I would be interested in any other photos or information that might be available please, including any pictures of him in the Lincolnshires.

Many thanks.

Nick

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