Frank Linke-Crawfore War Diary when flying the KD aircraft

[john snelling]

From Brandenburg D.I by Karl Meindl and Walter Schroeder
abbreviations used, CP=combat patrol, DP=defensive patrol, MGJ=machinegun jammed, EA=Enemy Aircraft, EF=escort flight

Feb 1917 with Flik 12
10: CP
11: CP
13: 2 CPs
14: CP
16: CP
25: 3 CPs, combat with EA
26: CP
27: CP turned back due to heavy clouds
28: CP
total 12 CPs and 1 engagement with 1 EA

Mar 1917
1: CP
10: 2 CPs
11: CP
17: CP combat with Caudron G.IV
18: CP combat with 2 Caudron G.IVs and 4 Nieuport single seaters.
19: CP
total 7 CPs and 2 engagements with 6 EA

Apr 1917
5: CP
12: CP
13: CP, combat with a Caudron and later 2 Nieuport single seaters.
19: CP
total 7 CPs and 2 engagements with 3 EA

May 1917
1: 2 CPs, 3 combats with a Caudron G.IV and 2 Nieuport single seaters.
3: 2CPs, 3 combats with Caproni bomber and 2 Nieuport single seaters.
5: CP combat with a Farman and Nieuport single seaters, MGJ then another CP
10: EF, combat with a Farman, MGJ
11: DP MGJ then CP
12: CP 9 EA pursued, combat with 2 Nieuports and 1 SPAD, suffered one MG hit through the leather of the pilots seat
16: Line Patrol, 2 EA driven back
18: 2 CP, engaged 1 EA and 1 Line Patrol
19: Line Patrol
21: EF for recon aircraft, combat with a Caudron G.IV and Nieuport
25: 2 Line Patrols, combat with a SPAD, took 14 hits
Total 17 patrol or escorts, 13 combats with 18 EA, suffered 3 MGJ

Jun 1917
17: EF and bombing raid, combat with 1 Nieuport fighter
18: LP, combat with 1 Nieuport fighter
19: EF
20: LP
21: LP, combat with 1 Nieuport fighter, MGJ
22: LP
25: LP, combats with 4 Nieuports
26: 2 LPs,
28: EF for photo recon
30: LP, MGJ, turned back
Total 10 patrol or escorts, 4 combats with 7 EA, suffered 1 MGJ

Jul 1917
13: CP, combat with a "lattice-tail"
14: CP, combat with a "lattice-tail"
17: DP
19: CP
20: EF, bombing raid on Cividale, DP combat with EA
24: EF
26: EF
28: EF, combat with a SPAD fighter
30: EF
10 patrols and escorts and 4 combats with 4 EA,

Aug17
4 transferred to Flick 41J as a fighter pilot
5: EF, fired at from long range by a SPAD
21: 2 CPs, 3 combats with 2 "lattice tail", a Caproni Bomber and a Nieuport, first air victory
22: 2 CPs, a combat with a "lattice tail" 2nd air victory and several combats with EA
23: CP, combat with a Savoia-Pomilio for 3rd air victory, CP combats with Caproni and SPAD
24: CP, combat with a SPAD, Nieuport and Caudron
25: CP, combat with a "lattice tail", forced to land, CP with a Sopwith two-seater
26: CP, 5 combats with 4 SPAD's and a "lattice-tail" shot down a SPAD 4th air victory
29: CP, combat with a Nieuport
30: EF, emergency landing due to engine defect
31: 2 CP

Sep 17
1: CP, combat with EA
6: CP, combat with a SPAD
7: 3 CP
from 8 Sep on he flew other types of aircraft.


Note: In 7 months he suffered a total of 5 machine gun jams.

I rest my case about about the jamming aspects of the Schwarlose MG. If you want to counter please use facts and not Wiki.

[gully_raker]

Very interesting stats John.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Seems pretty conclusive for FLC at any rate John.
Any idea if he were a bullet checker?
Interesting that three of his jams came at the same time on one day and the rest within a period of two months.
Could that indicate just a bad batch of ammo or poor gun maintenance for that period alone?
Rob.

[john snelling]

Seems pretty conclusive for FLC at any rate John.
Any idea if he were a bullet checker?
Interesting that three of his jams came at the same time on one day and the rest within a period of two months.
Could that indicate just a bad batch of ammo or poor gun maintenance for that period alone?
Rob.

Rob I agree, I was thinking since 3 MGJs happened to the same aircraft there was probably a specific feed related malfunction on that aircraft but, that is a guess.
I am not saying the gun and feed mechanism were flawless but once the AH personnel figured out the problem, like moisture in the belt, they were able to come up with a fix and implement the fix through out the force.
Bullet Checker? They give Brumowski credit for that ability. I just never read were gun jams were a huge problem in the AH air force.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

It has raised a very good point John. It is a pity we can't get equivalent dertaild records for he Germans, French, Americans and English/Commonwealth pilots. It would be interesting to discover just how frequent these jams were.
I have often felt that the Red card for pilot and Green for Observer jams on two seaters was about right.
Rob.

[OldGuy59]

It has raised a very good point John. It is a pity we can't get equivalent dertaild records for he Germans, French, Americans and English/Commonwealth pilots. It would be interesting to discover just how frequent these jams were.
I have often felt that the Red card for pilot and Green for Observer jams on two seaters was about right.
Rob.

I haven't read enough pilot autobiographies, or biographies, to say definitively, but I have read a biography of Raymond Collishaw. In Collishaw and the Black Flight, the number of jams he reported was very noticeable. It doesn't appear from the narrative that he checked his ammunition.

PS: Most of his flights were in the single-gunned Triplane.

[Jager]

The bigger problem with a lot of the A-H scouts wasn't whether the Schwarzlose machine gun was more prone to jamming than other Maxim designs, but that they mounted the MGs in top wing pods or buried in the fuselage; a lot of the former, IIRC. Thereby, any jam could not be cleared in the air. Apparently, the Schwarzlose machine gun had issues with the synchronization gear then available.
Karl

[john snelling]

The bigger problem with a lot of the A-H scouts wasn't whether the Schwarzlose machine gun was more prone to jamming than other Maxim designs, but that they mounted the MGs in top wing pods or buried in the fuselage; a lot of the former, IIRC. Thereby, any jam could not be cleared in the air. Apparently, the Schwarzlose machine gun had issues with the synchronization gear then available.
Karl

Frequency of jamming was the issue I was addressing and the fact that the Schwarzlose jammed less than other widely used MGs.

Andreas W. Schwarlose invented and accomplished true simplicity of mechanism. The gun was inexpensive, due to parts being at a minimum, reliable and easy to service. But it was somewhat overweight and had a relative low rate of fire. The reason it was hard to synchronized because it did not have a positive breech-lock action.

Game wise: Why is this a subject at all is the amount of jam cards, in the deck, rendering aircraft like the Brandenberg D.I useless without house rules.

[Jager]

Game wise: Why is this a subject at all is the amount of jam cards, in the deck, rendering aircraft like the Brandenberg D.I useless without house rules.

Actually, you need house rules to make the gun pod/can't clear jams issue a problem. With RaW, it may jam as much as others guns, but it clears the same way too.
Karl