Richthofens Two seater?

[Seiseki]

Why does it only fire backwards?
This has me especially puzzled since there's no mention of a second pilot..

And if there was a second pilot, who flew and who shot? :rolleyes:

[Oberst Hajj]

Yep, his two-seater only had a rear gunner. I don't recall who flew and who shot though.

[Davot]

Kilduff's book mentioned that Richthofen nearly had an index finger chopped off in a two-seater in the early portion of the war at the Eastern Front due to Richthofen pointing out of the front of the plane...he apparently sat in a forward observation seat, and was not the pilot. I don't know if this applies to the two-seater in the game, though. I just know that he was an observer when he first flew.

[Carl_Brisgamer]

Von Richthofen flew the Aviatik B.II early on over the Eastern Front, which like the BE2 had the pilot in the rear seat and the observer in the front.

Later he flew as an observer in the Roland C.II and the Albatros C.III before attending pilot training and joining Jasta 2 in September 1916. There he flew the Albatros D.II. As Staffelfuhrer Jasta 11 and Kommandant JG1 he flew the Albatros D.III, the Halberstadt D.II (when the Albatros D.III was withdrawn for a time due to wing failures), the Albatros D.V, the Fokker F.1, the Albatros D.Va and of course the famous Fokker Dr.1.

60 of his victories were scored flying the Albatros D.II/D.III/D.V (48) or Halberstadt D.II (12), only 20 flying the Fokker F.1 protoype and Fokker Dr.1.

[Oberst Hajj]

From what I have been able to find out, MvR was the pilot of the C.II and not the observer.


Richthofen wrote he rigged a machine gun to fire forward and with it attacked/shot down a Nieuport. He does not specifiy with what airplane type this occured, but since K8 flew LVG C.IIs and Roland C.IIs, only the Roland had speed enough to catch a Nieuport from behind, in the manner Richthofen described.


Richthofen claimed his first victory, a french Nieuport, on 26 April 1916 over Fleury, Verdun, flying an Albatros 2-seater. The kill was not confirmed because of missing indepent witnesses.


His first confirmed victory was on 17th September by which time he was with Boelcke flying an Albatros.

[Angiolillo]

In his diary, Richthofen tells about several missions in a two-seater on the Ruissian front. I am not sure, but if I recall it correctly he speaks of his observer without giving his name.

[Carlos Lopes]

Hi,

In the biography of the Red Baron (ISBN184415886-1) at the beginning of August he was still flying as an observer in a Albatros 2-seater in Russia (Kasta 8). Only in 21 of August he was transferred from Russia to Ostend and from a two-seater to a twin-engined (big fighting machine)

The accident with finger append over Ostend, (pag 71-72) and in the edition of 1990 the editor identifies the airplane as a twin-engined Gotha or AEG, because the disposition of the air-screws near the observer-seat.

His first time in the air was in September 1915 and he was an observer.

Bye

[filtonflyer]

Some interesting posts there chaps, can anyone point me in the direction of a couple of good books on this subject.
Cheers in advance

Nick

[The Blue Baron]

I think anything from Osprey (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/world_war_1/) is a goog read.

[Greywolf]

this is a good book:

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2464/richthofenscircusosprey.jpg

just got it yesterday [birthday pressie from the wife]

you can buy it from here:

Richthofen’s Circus (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/%E2%80%98Richthofen%E2%80%99s-Circus%E2%80%99_9781841767260)

Cheers
GW