World War One

[Sailor Steve]

"A member of the German Bahnschutzwache, or Railway Protection Guard, shoots down the well-known French airman Roland Garros in his flight over German positions in Flanders, France, on a bombing raid."

I've tracked this statement through several websites, which was easy because they all quote it verbatim. What I haven't found is who wrote it first, or any corroborating original document. it seems to be one of those internet things that gets copied from place to place without anyone ever checking it.

There are a couple of sources that say Garros was brought down by ground fire, but others simply say that a clogged fuel line was the culprit. Whatever the cause, the Morane parasol fell into the hands of Idflieg, who then invited all the major manufacturers to copy or improve upon Garros' deflector plate system. It was eventually the Fokker corporation who came up with the first working interrupter gear, applying them to their existing M.5 monoplanes to create the legendary eindekkers.

More on this here and in the '100 Years' thread when the time comes.

[Aktungbby]

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/battles/second-ypres-1915/prelude/garros-captured.htm
A report of the incident on 18th April was written by the leader of the Bahnschutzwache unit, Feldwebelleutnant Schlendstedt, and published in the Bulletin of the German 4th Army:

“At about 7 o'clock in the evening of 18 April two enemy aircraft, flying very high, appeared over the area between Sainte-Katherine and Lendelede. One was shot at by one of our Ballonabwehrkanone and he disappeared in the direction of Menin. The other flew away over Lendelede in a north-easterly direction. At that moment we saw a southbound train approaching on the railway line Ingelmunster-Kortrijk. Suddenly the plane went into a steep dive of about 60 degrees from a height of about 2,000 metres to about 40 metres from the ground. He flew over the train in a loop and as he rose up into the sky again with his wings almost vertical, he threw a bomb at the train. Fortunately it missed the target and there was no damage. The bomb landed about 40 metres east of the track and blew a crater about one metre deep and two metres in diameter. The driver of the locomotive brought the train to a stop.
As the plane had swooped down over the train the Bahnschutzwache troops had fired on it following my order to open fire. We shot at him from a distance of only 100 metres as he flew past. After he had thrown his bomb at the train he tried to escape, switching his engine on again and climbing to about 700 metres through the shots fired by our troops. But suddenly the plane began to sway about in the sky, the engine fell silent, and the pilot began to glide the plane down in the direction of Hulste.
I immediately got on on my bicycle and set off to chase the plane, accompanied by some of the men from my unit on foot. As soon as the plane landed the pilot set it on fire and ran to a farmhouse in Hulst. I was the first to arrive at the scene of the burning plane. Several others soon joined me and my men, including some dragoons from a Württemberger cavalry brigade, as we searched for the airman in Hulste.” (1) In some accounts this includes the statement: "on my order to shoot' At any rate it's a detailed officer's eye-witness account-to give it verisimilitude, and pretty well settles the matter IMHO. A bullet probably hit a fuel line and Garros had a better day than Von Richthofen or Mannock- also hit fatally by ground fire. At least as good as Forstner's description of the sea dragon!

[Catfish]

^ thanks for posting

Garros, after spending 3 years as a POW, was then able to flee to Belgium, and from there to France. After some flying hours, he rejoined the french air force and shot down at least one more german plane. He settled into Escadrille 26 to pilot a Spad, and claimed two victories on 2 October 1918, one of which was confirmed. On 5 October 1918, he was shot down and killed near Vouziers, a month before the end of the war and one day before his 30th birthday.


regarding Forstner .. i like Mosasaurs and their relatives .. but we should probably call this "dichterische Freiheit", to avoid harsher words
Although .. one cannot be 100 percent sure

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/battles/second-ypres-1915/prelude/garros-captured.htm

Very nice, and a seemingly valid account. The site itself however, has two glaring mistakes. The picture they have, as copied by yourself, is not the Morane L as cited but rather a Morane N. Second, they have this comment:

Within a few hours of his forced landing on 18th April by the German 4th Army, as described above, the machine-gun firing device and the Morane's propellor were sent to the Fokker aircraft factory in Germany.

This is emphatically not true. In his autobiography Flying Dutchman Fokker himself claims that the Morane was handed directly to him, and he took a machine gun home with him and designed and built a synchronizer gear in just 48 hours. Idflieg's Deputy Director Major Helmut Förster, in his article 'Die Entwicklung der Fliegerei im Weltkriege' (Walter von Eberhardt, Unsere Luftstreitkrafte, 1930), wrote that Idflieg showed the Morane to pretty much every major German aircraft manufacturer, including LVG and Albatros. It would seem that Fokker engineers had already developed a working synchronizer gear but had no opportunity to test it. Once the device was installed and proven Franz Schneider of LVG would sue Fokker, since the latter's gear was taken directly from Schneider's original 1913 patent. Fokker refused to pay the fine, even when ordered by a court to do so on 1926. In 1933 Schneider again tried to sue Fokker but this time the courts rejected the lawsuit.

At any rate, thanks for finding that account. It helps clear things up a bit.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Catfish

^ thanks for posting


regarding Forstner .. i like Mosasaurs and their relatives .. but we should probably call this "dichterische Freiheit", to avoid harsher words
Although .. one cannot be 100 percent sure

NO WAY MAN! A Uboat kaleun asea (with six officers on the con with him) sees what he sees and that's IT BBY! http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2302055#post2302055

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Very nice, and a seemingly valid account. The site itself however, has two glaring mistakes. The picture they have, as copied by yourself, is not the Morane L as cited but rather a Morane N.
At any rate, thanks for finding that account. It helps clear things up a bit.

Your welcome! A little too BLUE TO B TRUE! The account lists interesting maneuvers by the Garros plane: an almost vertical climb-to throw the bomb; a loop; and an engine restart and an 'escape climb' through gunfire to 700 meters (from 40 meters) Very detailed-lending to credibility- and accurate enough to indicate not a carburetor induced engine quit. Mauser fire or a machine gun? at a range of 'only 100 meters' is pretty point blank. No doubt the officer saw it all from a good vantagepoint... I doubt M. Garros was paying attention to details just then

[Aktungbby]

I have flown my Morane twice. It is a most comic affair, but I think I shall like it when I get more used to it.

Sometimes, flying a moraine is a terminal affair: As with the famous disappearance of 1947's StarDust Avro Lancaster which was gone for 50 years until remnants...and remains turned up in the Andes glaciers's 'terminal moraine' 90% of the aircraft is still in the glacier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_BSAA_Avro_Lancastrian_Star_Dust_accident