"RAF take Germans Spoils" 1919

[Perth Digger]

In an article written by war correspondent George Ward-Price in the Daily Mirror of 2 January 1919 dealing with the German handover of aeroplanes at an airfield near Cologne, under the headline above, he mentions a strange aircraft for attacking trenches: is anything more known of this? 

Thanks

Mike

[Buffnut453]

Sounds like the Junkers J.1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_J.I

Edited 27 October , 2023 by Buffnut453

[Perth Digger]

Thanks, I had no idea that such a plane was actually in combat during the war. It sounds as if the one mentioned is now in Canada.

Mike

[GROBBY]

The A.E.G  J11 was also armoured and had two fixed downward firing machine guns behind the rear gunner but I dont think either had metal corrugated wings

[topgun1918]

The Albatros J.I and J.II were also armoured and had fixed, downward-firing machine guns, but neither was of metal construction.

[Buffnut453]

Mention of corrugated metal for the construction made me think immediately of Junkers.  I'm unaware of any Great War aircraft manufacturer that employed that construction technique.  

[Perth Digger]

Thanks for the responses.

Mike

[MikeMeech]

17 hours ago, Perth Digger said:

In an article written by war correspondent George Ward-Price in the Daily Mirror of 2 January 1919 dealing with the German handover of aeroplanes at an airfield near Cologne, under the headline above, he mentions a strange aircraft for attacking trenches: is anything more known of this? 

Thanks

Mike

Hi

The Junker J.I was not a ground attack aircraft it was for, what the British termed, Contact and Counter Attack Patrols, that is finding your own troops and identifying where the enemy was building up for a counter attack and reporting this back.  For this the J.I was equipped with a wireless and also had a hand held camera to photograph their own troops signal panels.  The observer had a single machine gun for defence, I expect he would take pot shots at the enemy but it was not equipped for any major ground attack sortie.  It is mentioned that two downward firing machine guns were fitted experimentally but it was not found to be effective on this type (it was tried on a Sopwith Camel as well but rejected in favour of forward firing MGs).  The Becker 20 mm was also tried out experimentally.  For these fitments they had to get rid of the wireless and camera so it was unable to do other duties, also for ground attack it was not really manoeuvrable enough.  According to Jack Herris in 'Development of German Warplanes in WWI', p.39, the numbers at the front were: 31 Aug 1917 - 1, 31 Oct - 1, 31 Dec - 4, 28 Feb 1918 - 16, 30 Apr - 25, 30 Jun - 25 and 31 Aug - 60.  This tended to be spread around in units in ones and twos, there are reports of these units running out of J types and having to use 'ordinary' aircraft.  There were other J Types, AEG J, J.I and J.II, also Albatros J.I and J.II.  Totals of J Types: 30 Jun 1917 - 7, 31 Aug - 2, 31 Oct - 12, 31 Dec -76, 28 Feb 1918 - 113, 30 Apr - 139, 30 Jun - 184 and 31 Aug - 186.  Some of these had downward firing MGs but were not as heavily protected as the Junkers.  

'Flight' had an article on the Junker J.I over four weeks in 1920, starting 26 February, this was from the official wartime report made by the British based on looking at two machines of the type, one of which was salved by British troops near La Vacquerie, during the German retreat and one that was shot down by a French ground based machine gun using armour piercing bullets.  An AEG Armoured aeroplane report appears in the 29 August 1918 edition of 'Flight'.

It was good at its role but it was not a ground attack aircraft in a true sense.  It gave the crew good protection but the aircraft would still be put out of action for repair after being hit and because of its weight and engine power it had a long take off run and had a fair few landing accidents.

The main German ground attack aircraft in the Schlachtflieger units had no or light armour using CL types.  The British were developing the Sopwith Salamander and Buffalo (for Contact Patrols) armoured aircraft.  However, they were also using light armour in Sopwith Camels from the Spring of 1918, in the form of armour plate in the pilots seat that was fitted for ground attack missions on a number of squadrons.  If a Bristol Fighter unit was undertaking this type of mission then it could also be fitted with a seat plate although this is stated as being the standard RE.8 seat armour, so presumably that type would be fitted with it when on Contact and Counter Attack Patrols and using their bombs and MGs to harass the German troops.

Mike