Creaghorn 10 Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) daniel cvjetanovic, son of croatian immigrants with a humble background, was born February 20th. 1895 in nuremberg bavaria. like many german aces, cvjetanovic started in a r/b squadron. since he never was in a military school and because of his background, he started in april 1916 as a "driver" of roland two seaters with the rank of "flieger" while the navigators were traditionally higher officers. soon he mastered piloting quite acceptable, but with the reputation of rather rough landings. first days of his flying duty were rather calm. His franz and himself were photographing the frontlines at the somme area and just occasionally they saw other enemy two seaters doing their recon jobs. usually they just flew by them and if close enough they exchanged some shots to intimidate them, but without any results. on april 6th 1916, after cvjetanovic and his navigator oswald ziegler had finished their photographing job, they saw in the west over enemy territory a formation of three FE2b's. they decided to stalk them a while and then, beeing alongside with the last one, ziegler opened fire. they have never experienced a real aerial fight so far. to their horror they completely forgot that the enemy also has a mounted gun and they got hit into their fishlike fuselage. thinking that the fight over enemy lines was enough and the plates were much more precious than a destroyed enemy, they decided to go back to their airfield. as they turned away they suddenly saw the opponent FE leaving a black trail of smoke. Immediately cvjetanovic swerved around and attacked the FE from behind with his frontgun, chasing him deeper into enemy territory while his shooting didn't seem to have any visual effect. the enemy glided down and cvjetanovic and ziegler carefully stayed above him and enemy groundfire. to their joy the enemy two seater made a crashlanding near a lake. that was the first confirmed downed aircraft of the duo. in mid april the artillery spotting became by far more difficult. suddenly more and more of the small, agile, french single seater nieuports appeared. fighting against those little crates was almost suicidal without protection, losses increased, so the first sign of attack meant immediate retreat. in may the german home office decided to sent the famous eindecker scouts to protect the german eyes of the army. cvjetanovic and ziegler successfully continued their recon work while the eindeckers distracted the nieuports. at that time cvjetanovic for the first time considered going to a fighter squadron. he was impressed by the fighting spirit of the single seater scouts and at the same time furious about the lack of fighting abilities of the roland. his conclusion was that protecting two seaters and hunting down enemy scouts was a better way to survive. in august 1916 after many more missions and losses of friends, his request was finally permitted. he and ziegler learned how to fly eindeckers and they were surprised how agile and easy to fly the eindeckers have been compared to the rolands. especially the landings. they were stationed in verdun. soon they realized that hunting was also very dangerous because they often were hunted by themselves by the superior french machines. on 23rd of october, flying the new albatros scouts, cvjetanovic scored his first official kill as a fighter pilot in the relatively new formed jasta 5. soon after that his friend oswald ziegler was shot down in flames by two french nieuports. cvjetanovic realised that the intensity of aerial warfare increased almost weekly. his killtally grew and in early 1917 he received the infamous pour le merite. though beeing more and more under stress and tired he was not able to get leave (besides couple days in january due to bad weather) because in april the british launched a big offensive in the somme area. it wasn't until june he took 2 weeks leave. soon after his return he received a wound in a fight against a sopwith strutter and was hospitalized for another 14 days. fighting was more and more desperate due the hughe numbers the entente threw into battle. his main goal was not to down many aircraft anymore, but simply to lead his man to survival as good as he could. with 50 downed aircraft under his belt he went up to his last flight on november 4th 1917 to patrol the frontarea at ypres, where the 3rd battle of paeschendeale was raging. some spads appeared. one of them hit cvjetanovic with a short burst from behind. cvjetanovic evaded his attack and flew for a while alongside the spad. according to a witness the spad suddenly turned right while cvjetanovic tried to zoom up to avoid him. the spad underestimated his speed and collided with cvjetanovic. both aircraft went down. cvjetanovic's aircraft floated down in 1000 fragments and crashed in nomandsland where a creeping barrage was taking place. his body was never discovered. Edited December 7, 2009 by Creaghorn Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Firecage 1 Posted October 27, 2009 Very Impressive career.... Sorry to see one go down in thismanner after such a good run. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
appraiserfl 0 Posted October 27, 2009 Very Impressive career.... Sorry to see one go down in thismanner after such a good run. OH MAN! I think that I would probably walk away from this game for awhile if I lost an ace of that caliber! I just lost a 19 confirmed german ace to flak... flak, flak, flak, flak flak has claimed the last ten of my pilots.... i get flakked, then captured til the end of the war, so I have now turned flak to easy... it was either that or refuse to fly anywhere over enemy territory... FU FLAK! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ras 0 Posted October 27, 2009 A truly amazing career that will stand for a LOOONNNNGGGGG Time Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Baldric 42 Posted October 27, 2009 Salute to Daniel Cvjetanovic's memory and his many actions. Absent friends Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dej 17 Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) How bizarre that his record should end on the virtual date Siggi's campaign idea is to start Collision claims yet another. Awesome record Creaghorn, one of A Flights aces should carry Cvjetanovic's Ordenkissen. I'm sorry for your loss. 'Neath Flanders Skies, the poppies blow...' Edited October 27, 2009 by Dej Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hasse Wind 46 Posted October 27, 2009 It's really amazing how you are able to keep your pilots alive one after the other for hundreds and hundreds of hours. For me, it's impossible. I once made it to almost 50 hours and a second time a little bit over 40 hours, but never again. Lately I've been flying in 1918 and living only 10 hours is a challenge. And I've done my utmost to be as situationally aware and careful as possible, but to no avail. I just can't do it. Sooner rather than later somebody shoots me down, or AA hits me, or I collide with my wingmen, or spin out of control in the thick of battle. Creaghorn, you're a master pilot. It's really a humbling experience to see your logs. Makes me feel myself quite insignificant as an OFF pilot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted October 27, 2009 It's really amazing how you are able to keep your pilots alive one after the other for hundreds and hundreds of hours. For me, it's impossible. I once made it to almost 50 hours and a second time a little bit over 40 hours, but never again. Lately I've been flying in 1918 and living only 10 hours is a challenge. And I've done my utmost to be as situationally aware and careful as possible, but to no avail. I just can't do it. Sooner rather than later somebody shoots me down, or AA hits me, or I collide with my wingmen, or spin out of control in the thick of battle. Creaghorn, you're a master pilot. It's really a humbling experience to see your logs. Makes me feel myself quite insignificant as an OFF pilot. thank you all for your kind words. hassewind, i think it's less master piloting but more sense of when momentum shifts and it's time to run away. the other thing is that over friendly territory i don't mind if i have to land. a big advantage when flying for the germans. 40 or 50 hours are a great achievement, especially in later war. no need at all for you to feel insignificant. one thing i experience over and over again, that dicta boelcke is the best key for survival. every single rule. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) KOMMANDIERENDER GENERAL DER LUFTSTREITKRÄFTE DEPESCHE An den Staffelführer und alle Offiziere der Jagdstaffel 5 Mit Bestürzung und großer Trauer mußten wir zur Kenntnis nehmen, dass unser großes Fliegerass Daniel Cvjetanovic gestern im Luftkampfe für Kaiser und Vaterland den Heldentod fand. Wir wissen, dass die Lücke, die sein Tod in Ihren Reihen hinterlassen hat, schwer zu füllen sein wird. Wir haben veranlasst, dass die sterblichen Überreste unseres grossen Fliegers nach Berlin überführt werden, wo Seine Majestät eine angemessene Zeremonie mit allen militärischen Ehren ausrichten lassen. Gez: General von Hoeppner (KoGenLuft) Edited October 27, 2009 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted October 27, 2009 TELEGRAMM + + + DEPESCHE + + + TELEGRAMM + + + DEPESCHE KOMMANDEUR JAGDGRUPPE I An den Staffelführer der Jagdstaffel 5, Boistrancourt Lieber Fritz Mit Bestürzung und großer Trauer erfahre ich eben, dass unser großer Flieger und Träger des Pour le Merite, Daniel Cvjetanovic, gestern im Luftkampf gefallen ist. Ich kann mich gut an ihn erinnern, weil ich noch im Juli versucht habe, ihn in unsere neue Jagdgruppe I zu holen. Aber er wollte lieber bei seinen Kameraden bleiben - ein feiner Kerl allemal. Ich habe viele gute Männer verloren und weiss, dass ihr ihn schmerzlich vermissen werdet. 50 Abschüsse schafft so schnell wohl keiner wieder. Wir werden uns bei seiner Bestattung in Berlin sehen. Bitte richte Otto Konnecke, Josef Mai und Rudolf Mathaei sowie allen Offizieren mein tiefes Beileid aus. Gez: Manfred von Richthofen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted October 27, 2009 Oh me oh my, Daniel - I really wanted to see that Log, but not this way. How that must feel, after such a long time with one pilot - I'll never know, I don't last long enough, but it must be a painful loss. You are an inspiration though to try it again. With 50 victories you where close on Udet's heels! One thing I'd like to know though: isn't it an enormous stress to fly such a pilot, with the thoughts of losing all these achievements in one bad moment? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Creaghorn 10 Posted October 27, 2009 Oh me oh my, Daniel - I really wanted to see that Log, but not this way. How that must feel, after such a long time with one pilot - I'll never know, I don't last long enough, but it must be a painful loss. You are an inspiration though to try it again. With 50 victories you where close on Udet's heels! One thing I'd like to know though: isn't it an enormous stress to fly such a pilot, with the thoughts of losing all these achievements in one bad moment? you are amazing, olham, thank you for the telegram of von hoeppner and the kind words of friend and rival, MvR. (who's hughe numbers in the same period of time compared to mine really showed what a great pilot he must have been under real life odds) stress is in is first flight about the same as in the last flight. reason is that i treat him like a living pilot who can really die. a real pilot with 0 kills and hours wants to survive at least as much as an ace. in sim-behaviour one might treat his rookie pilot more careless because he's not as worth as a long living pilot. i try not to do that. in emulating real life behaviour one takes the same care for him in the beginning. simply because he wants to survive, with ribbons or without. he has one life. grew for about 20 years with a background, has family, girlfriend, whatever. why should he then treat himself more reckless only because in this stage of live he started beeing a pilot in a war. his life did not begin with the introduction in the officers mess but about 20 years before. reason enough to take care about him from flight 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted October 27, 2009 Absolutely right, Creaghorn, and my respect, that you manage to develop such feel. From reading most posts of other fighters though, it looks like most of us (me included) fail to emulate that feeling. I still am such a crazy hotspur sometimes, that I can't let one Nupe fly home intact, when I still have ammo. In other words: I fail to act like a real life fighter pilot mostly. I have only one Full DiD pilot, named Daniel C. Harms (as a reference to your flying), who flies like that. But I won't tell more, before his carreer is over, one or the other way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zoomzoom 2 Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) appraiserfl, I have to agree with you, (and by the way apologize to whomever it was I dissagreed with on the forums earlier regarding this) that the flak is a bit too accurate. I turned mine to easy as well after losing most of my pilots from it. The only problem with this is, it makes the flak too sparse. A perfect combo would be flak just as thick as normal setting, just a bit less accurate. Guess you cant have everything though. ZZ. Edited October 27, 2009 by zoomzoom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Siggi 10 Posted October 27, 2009 That's a hell of a career achievement mate, congratulations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
itifonhom 6 Posted October 27, 2009 Amazing career indeed, sorry to see he is down. I don´t even dare to think how you feel like right now... itifonhom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rickitycrate 10 Posted October 27, 2009 Creaghorn, sorry for your loss. Perhaps he has passed but he will be remembered. I look forward to serving with you in the German DiD campaign. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
