Albatros D.III (OAW) of Jasta 57
 

Boys and girls!

I do not know if it was already posted, but
look at this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxYlHTj0Gsc

The man "dancing" in front of the crashed Albatros D.III (OAW... rounded rudder) is Ltn. Paul Strähle (kingdom of Württemberg). http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/strahle.php
He was a very succesful pilot with Jasta 18 under Berthold and later the Commanding Officer of Jasta 57.
He survived the war with 15 kills.

The shown plane(s) belong(s) to Jasta 57. Light blue fuselage was the unit colour. The nose and the band around the fuselage (personal marking of Strähle) should be red. The wings are in lozenge.
Other planes of the Jasta had different coloured noses.

The Albatros D.III could well be his own (if the red nose is really a red nose).
There are pictures of him with a similarly marke D.V and lineup with Fokker D.VIIs with the first Fokker in the same colour scheme reportedly being Strähles personal plane.
The crosses were already converted from Iron Crosses to Balkenkreuze. So this Alb D.III was still flown in mid 1918, when other units already had the Fokker D.VII.

I hope you will enjoy. It´s only 3 1/2 minutes.

Regards
Bauernopfer

Great video, thanks.

The crashed aircraft is actually a D.V (we can see the circular aileron control horns when that part of the damaged wing are being moved.

Possibly it's Strähle's well known D.V which he brought from Jasta 18 to 57, but I can't recall the serial at the moment, after being repainted.

Really interesting.

The other Albatros having its top wing removed is indeed a D.III.

Thank you, I did.

Thanks for the correction. Indeed a D.V.
You can see the cover of the horn from minute 2:34 to 2:42.

Regards

The downed plane is an Albtr. D5; the other one, that the upper wing is been removed, is a D.3 OAW (nose footstep and planking)...;)
Thanks for the video! I have never seen it before.

Oh, too late for the correction...:blush:

very interesting indeed
 

Could all the Kaiser's mechanics put the Albi back together again, after its great fall?
Russell Smith did a very nice painting of this crash
jim

I hope Russ has seen the video, he would enjoy it!

I was very impressed by the images of how he was close to a town, how quickly they dismantled the aircraft and how he was describing the action with his hands.