Acrobat or Observer - how the first Recon was done

[Olham 164]

This is for Hasse Wind, and all who feel more at home in the two-seaters.

I am reading Theo Osterkamp's book "Du oder ich" (You or Me), and he had

started his military carreer as a long-distance recon observer/photographer.

 

 

 

Osterkamp was a Navy pilot, and he became a famous ace with MFJ I and II.

(MFJ = Marine-Feldjagdstaffel = Naval Field Fighter Squadron)

Osterkamp also flew fighters and scored in WW2 as one of the oldest pilots.

See more at "The Aerodrome":

http://www.theaerodr...y/osterkamp.php

 

Observer and Acrobat - From Fun to Sobriety

 

Gradually it arose, that each observer had his special field.

I had definitely decided for long distance reconaissance with

photography. Here too, we had to begin with primitive ways.

We made the first tests rather privately with a normal folding

camera, as it was in use in those days.

But mine didn't resist the strain, and from the very high air

pressure, the bellows burst during the first attempt.

After that, I let Ica, Dresden, build me a kind of balloon camera

after my own design, with a ZEISS TESSAR 3.5/250 mm lens

and 9x12 plates. I believe it was one of the first models for

aerial photography. I payed for the camera myself; only the

construction was taken over by the Inspection.

(...)

The mounting of the camera was an own special problem.

The observer used the front seat, and his downward view was

blocked by the lower wing, but we understood the tactical

importance of vertical photography.

So we attached two vertical rails with the distance of the

camera's width on the outside of the fuselage. The camera was

moved up and down these rails with a line. This was necessary

to be able to change the plates. There was also a Bowden cable

to release the shutter from the seat.

 

The real problems began only in the air, when I was aiming,

or when I had to change the plates. You couldn't do both from

your seat; it was too far back.

So it had to be done like this. Arriving near the target, you

had to kneel on your seat, facing the pilot. Then you had to

attach the snap hook of a telegraph worker's safety belt onto

the main wing strut. With one leg you stood on the seat, and

with the other on the lower wing, as if you were stepping out.

Bending forward, you could then look down through the visor

of the camera quite well, and release it with the Bowden cable,

once you recognised the target.

Next came the change of the plates. To do this, the camera got

lifted up with the line, and now you had to use both hands.

During these critical seconds, the pilot had to stear the plane

with the left hand. With his right hand, he had to grip the

belt of the observer and pull him tight to the fuselage, so

he wouldn't swing off sideways.

The procedure was a bit laborious, but went fine.

Nothing for people with a weak set of nerves though.

(...)

The higher staff and headquarters received them (the photos)

with great excitement, and they were handed around with an

almost childlike joyfulness.

 

.

Edited October 7, 2011 by Olham

[Wayfarer 5]

... The real problems began only in the air, when I was aiming,

or when I had to change the plates. You couldn't do both from

your seat; it was too far back.

So it had to be done like this. Arriving near the target, you

had to kneel on your seat, facing the pilot. Then you had to

attach the snap hook of a telegraph worker's safety belt onto

the main wing strut. With one leg you stood on the seat, and

with the other on the lower wing, as if you were stepping out.

Bending forward, you could then look down through the visor

of the camera quite well, and release it with the Bowden cable,

once you recognised the target.

Next came the change of the plates. To do this, the camera got

lifted up with the line, and now you had to use both hands.

During these critical seconds, the pilot had to stear the plane

with the left hand. With his right hand, he had to grip the

belt of the observer and pull him tight to the fuselage, so

he wouldn't swing off sideways.

The procedure was a bit laborious, but went fine.

Nothing for people with a weak set of nerves though.

(...)

 

This is just the sort of thing that makes me have such admiration for those two seater crews. You wouldn't have a chance to keep a look out for enemy aircraft whilst carrying out these procedures, or try and evade AA.

 

With Bletchley's mods, when you have a photoreconnaissance mission and have to keep straight and level for one minute, the feeling is very uncomfortable, especially if the AA has already opened up on you. I don't know what it must have felt like in real life.

 

 

 

[Hasse Wind 46]

Very interesting. Yes, I knew it was all extremely primitive and even dangerous at first. Things did get better as the war progressed. Finally they had aircraft built just for reconnaissance in mind, like the Rumpler C.IV and the Breguet 14 A.2 and GR.2.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Wonderful personal writings there from one of Germany's outstanding aces. I am another who respects the two-seater crews in the Great War, and I often choose to fly in their boots in OFF, (and before that in RB3D). Thanks for sharing Olham. I just wish Theo's book had been translated into English, but I have never found such.

 

.

[Olham 164]

No, I guess it wasn't translated.

I read it with mixed feelings, because it is obviously written in a "fresh style", as if to lure

young Germans into the new Luftwaffe; so you sense the Nazi censor here and there.

Theo himself seems to have been quite a humorous, but also not the very sensible type.

His descriptions paint a quite reckless, daring young man.

I will translate more perhaps, when I find special passages. I am still waitng for something

about the Fokker E.V / D.VIII, which he must have flown some time.

[Hauksbee 103]

... it was all extremely primitive and even dangerous at first...

Stone-age primitive, come to think about it. Yet, if you'd been there it was the very soul of hi-tech modern innovation.

Edited October 7, 2011 by Hauksbee