Photo of Green Tail wreckage

[charles]

This is a photograph of the wreckage of the famous 'Green Tail' Albatros downed by McCudden on 18 February 1918 as seen in Cross & Cockade Vol. 6, No. 4, 1965, page 393. I am trying to find a higher resolution image to compare this aircraft with the wreckage of the D.V at The Aero Conservancy. Please let me know if you have a higher resolution photo you can share.

[Breguet]

Is C&C, C&C USA or C&C Great Brittain (Which became C&C International)? If it is the latter I can do whatever res you like otherwise.......

[charles]

It was C&C USA. The picture was provided to them by Von Hipple, who flew in Jasta 5 along with the pilot of the wrecked aircraft. I don't know what became of his photos, but I figure someone has got to have them.

[Gregvan]

Hi Charles,

Technically (to be picky) that is a photo of Vzfw Martin Klein's wrecked Albatros D.V, but it's generally held (today, anyway) that Klein was not the "Green Tail" shot down by McCudden on 18 February (though Klein's machine did have a green tail). It is largely accepted today that McCudden's victim on 18 February was Uffz Justus Kaiser of Jasta 35b. If you'll do a search in the forum archives for "Green tail" you'll find all kinds of discussions on this.

However, that's not what you're interested in at the moment. Yes, the photo came from Joachim von Hippel of Jasta 5, who himself had quite a hairy escape that day. It was supplied for the C & C article through the late William R. Puglisi. Since Ferko bought the Puglisi Jasta collection, I am fairly certain you could find a good print at UTD. You might send them a xerox or scan of the halftone photo and ask them to search for it in their Jasta 5 files. They have a great many Jasta 5 photos. They will do a good res scan of the photo if you ask them to.

Pete Grosz might have a copy of this photo, but I doubt it. Pete's not so interested in photos of wreckage, and I don't recall seeing this one in his collection. If UTD fails to come through for you, Alex Imrie would be the next great hope.

Very best regards,

Greg

[charles]

Thanks, Greg. I will get in touch with UTD. They've helped before. They copied the photo of Schildknecht I had been searching for years to find.

By the way, hope you'll be visiting the completely redone website at The Aero Conservancy

Charley

[alex_revell]

I wonder how many years it will be before people at last accept that the Albatros shot down on 18 February 1918 was Kaiser of Jasta 35b. I have rarely seen such incontrovertible evidence to confirm a victory. Time and place both fit, as do the details of the combat from each side. Jasta 5 were based further south, and Hippel and Klein were probably brought down by - if memory serves - 84 Squadron.
Alex R

[charles]

Alex,

Do you know of a photograph of Kaiser's Albatros taken before it was destroyed? Any idea of how Jasta 35b marked their aircraft?

Charley

Jasta 35b would mark themselves by painting there planes I beleive a Lilac color.

["Junior"]

Charles, worth seeing a copy of Alex Revell's High in the Empty Blue as one of its appendices deals with the identity of "Green Tail". I would imagine that you will find it interesting reading.

Best,

Junior.

[PFFF]

Where is photo?