Found a new Boelcke photo...

[Hauksbee]

Boelcke being helped into (or out of...) his coat.

[Capitaine Vengeur]

Quite a black face, it seems. He may have just abundantly used his machine-guns. So I wouldsay out of his coat.

[Shiloh]

Quite a black face, it seems. He may have just abundantly used his machine-guns. So I wouldsay out of his coat.

 

It appears as though he just landed as a plane is visible in the background so you're probably right. By the look on his face he got one!

[JFM]

Often it is said Boelcke had "powder stains" on his face. Indeed, in one photo he is seen wiping a black substance from his chin. However, I always wonder if the black on his face actually is powder stains, and not some cold-protective grease, how did these stains get through the upturned collar and scarf that always covered his chin and lower face? And, if so, why isn't it on the rest of his face and appears just on his chin?

 

 

If grease, did it collect dirt/oil from his upturned collar and thus only his chin was black? In any event, in the first post's photo his entire face wouldn't be black from "powder stains" because a good portion would have been covered by goggles and therefore unstained. Also, respectfully, there is no connection to what he is doing to what he has just done--no way it can be said with any certainty at all that he did anything with the plane in the background. That's just pure flight-sim-forum-speculation. But, to further that, IMO he is putting his coat on, based on 1) assistance and 2) his outstretched arm. When you take a coat off you don't stretch out your arms horizontally like that, but you do when you want to get your arms down the sleeves and shoot a bulky coat up onto your shoulders. To me it appears he has just gotten his right arm in and has swung his left arm into the sleeve to "shoot the cuff." But, like you guys, that's just rampant speculation. Maybe a bee flew in there and he was trying to get it out? We have NO idea.

Edited February 12, 2013 by JFM

[von Baur]

Putting the coat on, without question. Note, the left collar (right side, as we look at it) is between his shoulder and the assistant's open hand. But it could be a flying coat, since the assistant doesn't seem to be wearing any cold-weather gear, not even gloves.

[+Olham]

To add something rather respectless: the photographer caught him unexpectedly in a moment

when he didn't make a "normal" respectable face - he looks like a "square-teeth zombie" to me.

 

I'm with Jim there - he was just helped into the coat.

So he would be back from a sortie. The dark face could simply just be shadow.

Edited February 12, 2013 by Olham

[rjw]

I would like to put forward that the darkness could be the result of the development process of the film. High contrast and under pushed during dev.

[+Hasse Wind]

I would like to put forward that the darkness could be the result of the development process of the film. High contrast and under pushed during dev.

 

This what I thought when I saw the pic. It's not a very good one, though it has some value as being somewhat unofficial, with no well-prepared poses.

[rjw]

I would like to put forward that the darkness could be the result of the development process of the film. High contrast and under pushed during dev.

 

so with a little fix.... Albeit, very crude at that.....voila!! Grainy but not so black!

 

Edited February 12, 2013 by rjw

[+Olham]

I have seen photos of Eduard Ritter von Schleich, were his face/tan is dark as a Tuareg.

There could be two good reasons for that:

1. the sun was not behind the photographer, but was rather hitting the lense from slightly forward left or right

2. the pilot may have been one of those people, who get a pretty dark tan in summer (usually dark-haired guys)

 

There would bwe a third good reason, but it's naughty to assume that:

- when the guy was drinking too much and constantly had a red face from that

(I had this suspicion from several Berthold photos)

[rjw]

I have seen photos of Eduard Ritter von Schleich, were his face/tan is dark as a Tuareg.

There could be two good reasons for that:

1. the sun was not behind the photographer, but was rather hitting the lense from slightly forward left or right

2. the pilot may have been one of those people, who get a pretty dark tan in summer (usually dark-haired guys)

 

There would bwe a third good reason, but it's naughty to assume that:

- when the guy was drinking too much and constantly had a red face from that

(I had this suspicion from several Berthold photos)

 

It's difficult to tell from the photo, what time of year it is. If it was late summer to early winter, a tan would be quite possible and probable.

Just compare his complexion with the man behind him and you will see that they are quite similar in my altered photo.

 

I do agree that the sun angle is at play here and your suggestion is quite plausible as confirmed by the location of the shadows on his face, and the light flare on the far right where it shows in his coat flaps.

 

Good observation (Sherlock)Olham!

[RamblingSid]

Whenever I see photos of Boelcke like this I feel they are almost too intimate.

 

What strikes me is not so much the clothing or the a/c but the body language and

the raw tension and anxiety, observe the face and hands in this image:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/232/boelcke.jpg/sr=1

 

Very sobering.

[+Olham]

I think he just buttons up his coat.

I see no anxiety, but maybe the strain of the last sorties?