RPPC Of a balloon buster Nieuport 16

[Ritterton]

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z175/ritterton/OldPostCards/959Nieport.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z175/ritterton/OldPostCards/959NieportRocketsNos.jpg

Just thought that these might be of interest! Working to confirm that this is in fact N959 forced down in May 1916....more later.

R

[SoldierSteve]

Amazing Pictures. Do you know if the chap standing by the plane is the pilot?

[The Blue Baron]

I could imagine that it is the pilot who forced the plane down...

[SoldierSteve]

I could imagine that it is the pilot who forced the plane down...

That is certainly possible. However I do wonder if it's a 'tourist' photo. We all do it dont we? Wherever we go on holiday we get photographed beside things of interest and I certainly did that when I was a soldier too. (The picture of me on this site was taken when I was in Bosnia.) Although cameras would have been more of a rarity in WWI I expect it still happened to some extent.

[The Blue Baron]

Also üpossible. Let's wait what Rod will tell us.

[Ritterton]

Unfortunately mates, I don't know. The photo is of Adjutant Henri Reservant's Nieuport 16 that was forced down by artillery fire. This is another photo and what is interesting is that it is number 386/1 and the plane is numbered 386/2.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z175/ritterton/OldPostCards/AllHopeisinVain.jpg

The downing of this plane was a big deal as this was one of a few planes rigged with the new rockets that were being deployed for one of the first times to shoot down the German DRACHENS.

Please note that there is an old German saying about all hope, or skill, being in vain when an angel .... but I wil let others fill that one in! :-)

[sparty]

I'm constantly struck by the application of technology in it's most rudimentary forms prior to the science catching up with it....so destructive and uncontrolled!

Incredible pictures and thanks for sharing.

[Ritterton]

And yet Sparty, there was this firm belief that "we can do this" with what ever rudimentary application of emerging science -- Of course, coupled with that was either a disregard for the concept of "unintended consequences" or a misbelief that "unintended consequences could be controlled."

The situation with this picture, if it is in fact associated with the downing of Rservant's Nieuport 16 immediately after, is even more interesting -- the rockets were "cutting eduge technology" that was secret...but that secret lasted for all of about 30 days or so in action. There were, according to Jon Guttman's Balloon Busters book by Osprey, eight French aviators were sent off to down a series of German balloons on 22 May 1916. Six of the eight balloons were shot down, Reservant was apparently the one plane forced down with half of his rockets still in the ready position. Germany used the captured plane as both a test item and also an opportunity to study the rocket launch mechanism...

So much for secret technology....

[The Blue Baron]

Please note that there is an old German saying about all hope, or skill, being in vain when an angel .... but I wil let others fill that one in! :-)

I am a German native speaker and have no idea what you mean... Can you help me?

[Oberst Hajj]

Amazing stuff!

[AlgyLacey]

I am a German native speaker and have no idea what you mean... Can you help me?

"...Pees in the touch hole of your musket"

is the rest of the phrase. - Too true:p

[The Blue Baron]

"All hope or skill is in vain when an angel pees in your musket" may be true but I doubt that this is a German saying.

Edit: One of the other German native speakers may corret me if I am wrong.

[AlgyLacey]

"Alle Kunst ist umsonst Wenn ein Engel in das Zündloch prunst"

(Or something - My German is embarassingly bad :()

[Ritterton]

Alle Kunst ist umsunst Wenn ein Engel auf das Zuendloch brunzt.

(All skill is in vain when an angel pees in the touchhole of your musket.)
Old German Proverb

Now - I learned this first in German class, but couldn't for the life of me recall the German for it. So had to look it up. Actually, the way I learned it was "All hope is in vain when an Angel of the Lord pees down the barrell of your musket." But, again couldn't recall the German and still cant. Also want to say that it had a Napoleonic or earlier origins.

R

[The Blue Baron]

"Alle Kunst ist umsonst Wenn ein Engel in das Zündloch prunst"

(Or something - My German is embarassingly bad :()

I did some research in the internet and now I don't think that this is a porverb in the strict sense but a quotation of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

[Volant Gun]

I don't think the man in the picture is a pilot for the following reasons:

He is not wearing pilot wings or the German aviator's badge
He does not have a chest full of medals
He is not wearing his helmet, jacket or scarf (heck we all wear that when we fly)
He is not smoking
and most obvious of all -
He does not have a drink in his hand!

[Ritterton]

Herrn Baron - if it is Blücher, you can not get much more "Alte Deutsch" than that! And, it explains oh so very much if it was something he said...Yes, I have visited the monument to the Germans at Waterloo. ;-)

Volant - you forgot the most obvious thing - his head is just way, way too small to be a pilot! :p Great list and you had me laughing aloud by the end of it.

R