Olham

You may have seen these, but I send them just in case.

In the DH-2 you have the best possible forward gun sight - that's why they built it as a pusher, I assume. At that time they were not able to fire through the prop. When you take some time for learning, she is an interesting lady. Only when I had to fight her I realised how well she could be flown - amd how bad I had piloted her. Major Hawker could have shown you a graceful dance!

Collisions will be the last bad kill factor in furballs, when you do everything else right. Flying with Jasta 11 is a good choice for learning some best behaviour in combat. You'd just have to stay high and out of the thickest, and the aces would save your bacon quite well. But you could also start a bit earlier and in an area where it's quieter (below St. Quentin), with an Albatros D.II. Besides collisions, the worst kill factor is our own eagerness to achieve victories. It makes us enter and stay in very dangerous situations. We usually collect kills quite fast - and then we also die fast. To avoid deadly patterns, the best would be to fly with eyes on your own safety first - as if you could really be killed, or terribly wounded. You would still collect victories, only slower. But with 3 years ahead of you, you would still get far - if you survived.

Did you count the hours you've put into making this, Bravo? Just found this funny animated graphic from a modeller. Maybe it helps with the details?

That Siemens-Schuckert looks really good to me so far. I wonder how far the modelling went - if it has cockpit interior? That's where the nasty detail starts, I think.

Thanks for the reminder, Dej - that book is still on my open list.

Make sure you also read "No Parachute!" by Arthur Gould Lee (if you haven't already). He was another feller who used up at least 5 of his 9 lives. His "adventures" during the battle of Cambrai alone are hairraising.

Robert, that is how McCudden's book really continued. I often think, that the now famous aces are only famous aces now, because they simply had a much longer strain of good luck, and survived several situations, which others didn't.

Have fun and enjoy the new top speed graphics!

Mmuahahahahaaaa!!!!

Never read that from a German pilot. But then they had 1.000 rounds since the introduction of the Albatros. If it is easy to add to WOFF - why not. But if it should hold up the release even more, I guess it wouldn't be worth it?

Mmuahahahahaaa!!! Yeah, I know what you mean - I was very happy each time I survived a tight turn in her, and my admiration for Major Hawker's flying skills grew hugely!

To remember the outbreak the first world war - instead of celebrating it's end - is a very bizarre decision IMHO.

I'd like to hear the doggy make "WOFF! WOFF!"

Heard about that too. Especially in the USA they seem to die from stress and exhaustion. There they are getting driven in huge trucks from one farm to another. But also the European bees seem to suffer from weakness - whatever the reason is.

Raaahhh!!! A teaser, a teaser!!! When?!? When?!? When?!? When?!? When?!?

Yes, inscription or dedication. No idea, what "Glupopo" means. It may be a word made of shortages, which they used to use - or the nickname of the friend?

From Julius Buckler's (Jasta 17 leader) book* I learnt how poor many handcraftsmen's families were before WW1. In winter, when they couldn't build buildings, they were simply without work and income. No social money! They just had to think of something else. Often they had no money for the rent or for buying food at the end of a month. After WW2, some big German cities were mostly in ruins. Men returning home from Russia could often not find their home street, because all the familiar buildings were missing. The women collected and cleaned bricks from collapsed buildings; they were used again for rebuilding them. *("Malaua! The battlecry of Jasta 17" - translated into English by or with Norman Franks, and still available)

I had some fights against Roland Cl.II, when I was with 24 Sqn RFC, flying DH-2. They gave us all hands full to do to keep up with their high and low fighting. In a DH-2 you can be really proud, when you get one with your single gun.

Seems the Strutter had bomb bays. I just found this short text in a modeller's forum: "I'll need to check Windsock 80 when I get home but I think the French loaded the bombs vertically. on the underside of the fuselage should be a 4x3 grid. which was then covered in paper. the bombs dropped veritcally through this. The British strutter bombers had 2 sets of bomb bay doors on bungees." Sounds like you were a lucky Blighter today, to escape Boelcke's lot and then Rolands!

Yeah, the old "ironweeds" - when Berlin was in ruins after WW2, people ate pigeons and "Dach-Hasen" (roof rabbits) - which were really cats. Well, hunger does that, I suppose. Never heard of dogs been eaten. I guess even very hungry Germans just can't bring themselves to do that?

I didn't say that the white man is an illegal alien in the US. I only compared his status of legality to that of the armadillo. You decide, wether it's legal or not. That makes you a "mongrel" - those are the toughest, best tempered fellers usually. Again - you might as well be talking about human beings. Tranquillo, whatever you mean, I guess it's not the length of time we can have, but the quality that makes the bill acceptable. However - I wish you that all negative prognoses will be proved wrong in the end, my friend.

Some years ago they had a nasty disease, which made their fur look scrubby, and they got blind. You wouldn't want to eat them, I guess. I can only assume, that the City poised them, when they became too many. They did the same with the pigeon overpopulation, and poised them. With the result, that they also exterminated almost all of our sparrows. Only slowly now their population recovers. Yeah, well, some people tend to exaggerate their ideas about animal welfare. Another "Mmuahahahahaaa!!!" would fit well here. Animals can usually help themselves quite well, and they even get used to manmade landscape changes. We actually have foxes IN the city of Berlin. One day I had to meet a client very early and waited at their parking space behind the main building. And on came a female fox. She stopped and stood as still as me. She tried to catch a scent of me, looked me up and down carefully - and then she trodded on, passing me by only 4 meters without showing any shyness. Of course the community would kill them, if they should get rabies - the safety of kids goes first.

PS: David Bowie and "Ashes to Ashes" were so popular in Germany in 1980, that "Major Tom" even appeared in a song of a German group around Peter Schilling. "Major Tom" was their only hit as far as I know, and it was originally sung in German, but I only found a video of the English version for the international market.

One of his greatest songs IMHO. The arrangement is brilliant.