A deadly trap

[Check Six 2]

Found an interesting article about this chap in the 1994 edition of our journal. The "Eagle of the Aegean Sea" was very active in this area of operations, and made a complete pest out of himself. The British were conducting observation flights and other duties, including incendiary raids on the wheat fields and he continually chased away the Sopwiths and BE2c's claiming at least 19 confirmed kills.

 

He had particularly been active at taking out an observation balloon put up on several occasions near Orljak, and on the last occasion, the balloon observer (who happened to be the CO) jumped out of the balloon but due to his slight disorientation due to an injury caused in one of the pilot's earlier attacks, he had failed to secure his harness to the parachute correctly, and plummetted to his death.

 

This section was given an escorting flight of three scouts due to the attention of the enemy on this balloon. On his next visit, he approached from above and behind the scouts, and dived through them, narrowly missing collision. This threw the scouts off enough for him to get twenty rounds into the balloon, and he dived away and made his way back to base.

 

Having had his old CO killed, and his balloon attacked three times in as many weeks, the new CO devised a deadly trap. A bomb was assembled from a 60-gallon drum, filled with 500lbs of ammonal and hermetically sealed. The main charge was primed with guncotton and the bomb was set up to be detonated by electric cable. A dummy observer was its "passenger".

 

On the fateful day, Lt von Eschwege dived on the balloon, closed to 50 yards, and zoomed away in a climbing turn and when he was approximately 100 yards away, the switch was thrown. The Albatros emerged from the smoke seemingly intact, but then it sideslipped, catching itself momentarily before spinning and crashing to earth.

 

The gallant pilot was given a full military honours funeral by the RFC, placing a wreath and a flag (dropped by his squardon mates) with his coffin.

 

MORAL: Balloons CAN fight back.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Check Six

[Wels 2]

Hello,

thanks for posting, the macedonian or Saloniki front is seldomly mentioned.

 

I had read about the balloon trap in Jentsch's combat reports. It was considered as unfair on one, and as a good trick on the other side

 

Following Jentsch's reports there was an incident when Eschwege's observer once fell out of the plane with the seat , that had not been fastened to the fuselage by a mechanic, during a test looping. So Eschwege must have flown a two-seater then, but the type is not mentioned (does anyone know?). He anyway did fly a Pfalz monoplane, and a Halberstadt D.II, but i never heard of an Albatros, or two-seaters ?

 

Greetings,

Catfish

 

edited: did not make too much sense i'm afraid ahem

Edited October 16, 2009 by Wels

[Dej 17]

Hmmm, there's a Biggles story that has a very similar theme. I wonder if it was based on this. If I can dig it out of the loft I'll post a transcript and ye can judge for yeselves. I'd never heard of von Eschwege before I read this post... that whole area of conflict is one I've kinda noticed but put on the 'for later' agenda.

 

I've still so much to learn... Joy!

[Check Six 2]

Hello,

thanks for posting, the macedonian or Saloniki front is seldomly mentioned.

 

I had read about the balloon trap in Jentsch's combat reports. It was considered as unfair on one, and as a good trick on the other side

 

Following Jentsch's reports there was an incident when Eschwege's observer once fell out of the plane with the seat , that had not been fastened to the fuselage by a mechanic, during a test looping. So Eschwege must have flown a two-seater then, but the type is not mentioned (does anyone know?). He anyway did fly a Pfalz monoplane, and a Halberstadt D.II, but i never heard of an Albatros, or two-seaters ?

 

Greetings,

Catfish

 

edited: did not make too much sense i'm afraid ahem

 

 

Rudolph von Eschwege graduated flying school in August 1915 after a stint in Third Mounted Jaegers. He was posted to Feldfleiger Adteilung 36 on the Western Front to fly two-seaters (type unknown. The incident of him "losing" his observer is not mentioned in this article). He served with that unit for 10 months. After re-training as a scout pilot he was transferred to the Monastir sector in Serbia. When the Bulgarians advanced into Greece, von Eschwege was transferred to FleigerAbteilung 30 at Drama.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Very interesting bit of history here, and thanks for posting the info Check Six. If there's one thing mankind can always be counted on it's finding new and innovative ways of killing each other.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Duce Lewis 3]

Great read, thanks for posting Check Six

I think Eschwege's mistake was to become repetative

Keep doing the same thing and some wily fox will figure out a way to get you

A gallant hero nontheless

Edited October 17, 2009 by Duce Lewis

[Check Six 2]

The more I read that, the more I kept thinking...a hundred yards away is a touch far to be detonating that trap (no matter how large the explosion might be... the pilot might be disoriented, or concussed, or even temporarily blinded, but he MIGHT be able to regain consciousness or sight or balance, and make for home).

 

But the thing was, he was used to striking this target...knew how to get in and out quickly...and had gotten some rounds into it on his first pass. Perhaps he got a close look at the "passenger" and discovered the trap and would not return (problem solved?). Perhaps he thought things were "fishy"...no attacking escorts, minimal Archie etc.

 

SO, perhaps, even though he WAS a fair way away from the trap, explode it anyway and hope for the best???

 

Then I got to thinking...what if he simply put lotsa holes in the balloon and it started to fall rapidly...

 

I would NOT want to trust that guncotton fuse would not go off on impacting the ground at most speeds of descent (guncotton is very volatile, and sensitive to impact), and DEFINITELY would not like to be within 100 yards of its detonation.