Free to read or download: WW1 War diaries, Flying Corps:

Catfish · 21 March 2011, 08:34 AM

Australian war memorial
First World War Diaries - AWM4, Class 8
Flying Corps

Australian War Memorial - First World War Diaries - AWM4, Class 8

Greetings,
Catfish

tcrean7828 · 21 March 2011, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catfish

Australian war memorial
First World War Diaries - AWM4, Class 8
Flying Corps

Australian War Memorial - First World War Diaries - AWM4, Class 8

Greetings,
Catfish

Mate,
Outstanding info. Thanks for sharing

ttfn

tcrean7828

tom

R Gannon · 21 March 2011, 04:39 PM

Kai

They take a little while to down load but they are an invaluable window to AFC opperations.

Through them I was able to confirm that Lt Benjamin of 2 AFC made an emergency landing immediately after sending a German scout down in flames on 4 Apr 18 near Villers Bretonneux. Which has almost certainly led to the mistaken belief by German observers, that the noted ace Heinrich Geigl of Js 16 met his end in a collision with a British aircraft. People since making the leap of faith that he collided with a missing 65 Sqn Camel - which in fact had been shot down in an attack on a German 2-seater (probably FAA 219).

Cheers Russ

aces_high · 22 March 2011, 10:05 AM

Thanks for the link.

Catfish · 22 March 2011, 11:35 AM

Hello,
i think it is phantastic that the Australian War Memorial made this effort to make those documents accessible to the public, and (@Russ) nice to see that you could already use it to some extent.
I hope you could write a book about your findings sooner or later, for not having to work on the whole war you could still limit it to one squadron, or a certain time interval, or one of the battles (?)

Greetings,
Catfish

R Gannon · 22 March 2011, 04:39 PM

Hi Catfish

I ran up a detailed history of 1 Sqn RFC / RAF 1917-18 back in 90's but due to partisan politics within our fraternity, it did not see 'international' the light of day (an early version did appear in the Australian C&C journal).

But you are right a detailed combat history of say 2 AFC or 4 AFC would be a real possibility. Problem for me is that I use a library PC - one hour, per day, perhaps - and it takes an age to download the SRB's & CR's.

Cheers Russ