A Fokker EIII in British hands There was a loss of a Fokker EIII 210/16 said to be from FFA 5. This Fokker fell in British hands, due to the inexperienced pilot who landed at the wrong side of the lines. It seems that the Gefreiters name was Johann or Hans Hvüres. This happened on the 8th of April 1916 near Renescure, which is close to Saint-Omer. Some sources say that the plane was shot down… This was not the case ! This plane was part of a batch of 60 planes ordered by Idflieg in February 1916, it had its acceptance flight on 26 March and was shipped to the Armee Flugpark at Valenciennes on the 1st of April 1916. The Gefreiter first did a test flight at the AFP, and then decided to take off to his unit, which was stationed at Wasquehal. He lost his way a first time and had to land at Faumont he declared later to the British. His second error was to follow the canal of La Bassée, and it took him quite some time to see that he might be wrong and lost again. He was about to turn back, when his engine started to give hem trouble and he had to land, at Renescure ! It was only when he saw British soldiers coming closer, that he realised that he was on the wrong side of the lines ! He decided that he was going to destroy the plane and tried to empty the petrol tank and set fire to his machine, but didn’t get the chance, as the first bullets were flying around his ears by that moment, and he decided it was wiser not to continue this any further and surrender ! On 2 April the plane was taken to No 1 Airplane Depot at Saint Omer where 2nd Lt WJC Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick took it in the air for two flights of respectively 10 and 20 minutes. It was also examined by Brigadier-general HRM Brooke-Popham who was the new Deputy-adjutant and Quartermaster of the RFC. He wrote a report on the machine on the 9th. Needless to say that special interest was given to the interrupter gear of Fokker ! On the 11th he also interrogated the pilot at Saint-André-aux-Bois. The pilot declared that it was difficult to fly in windy conditions, had a bad rate of climb, the speed was only 125 km/hr, that he disliked rotary engines, and that all the Fokker machines had them, and also that this machine was the latest type. The general knew it was not and was amused that the pilot was thinking that he had convinced them about this. The pilot was interrogated a second time and much longer at the HQ of RNAS Dunkirk by an intelligence officer. Here he gave more details about the German tactics and also gave contra dictionary info, first saying that Fokker pilots often crossed the lines and later stating that they asked to do so but were not allowed. While at Saint-Omer, the plane was given RFC roundels and rudder stripes. It was also used to fly a mock combat against a Morane-Saulnier Type N flown by Captain WV Strugnell of 1 Squadron, the Morane climbed quicker, was faster on the level. Later the plane moved to No 2 Aircraft Depot at Candas. After examination over there the machine was transported to the UK and the German markings were reapplied. In late May it was examined and tested by the Test Flight of the Central Flying School at Upavon. On 29 May climbing trials were made, and the next day consumption and speed trials, and on the 31st speed trials at height. Davis Filsell wrote about this : “Certainly the Eindecker actually flew little better than any aircraft of its period, and worse than some. The new young RFC pilot Cecil Lewis wrote that, to great excitement, in early 1916 an intact Eindecker was captured by the British. (Until that time the British were uncertain as to whether the aircraft was powered by a rotary or stationary engine.)Lewis considered the aircraft “evil-looking” and noted that such was the fear of the aircraft that: “Rumour credited it with the most fantastic performance! It could out climb, outpace, outmanoeuvre anything in the RFC. You were as good as dead if you so much as so one ... and soon”. In witnessing the captured Eindecker’s test against a Morane, Lewis was about to be surprised. The French built aircraft he reported actually: “.. climbed quicker, it was faster on the level, and when the two machines began a mock fight, the Morane had everything its own way. A cheer went up from the ground. The bogey was laid”. In further tests against a Morane Biplane, the Parasol, the Nieuport Scout and the (BE) 2c, only the 2c, flown by the self admittedly “inexperienced” Lewis apparently failed to give a good account of itself against the Fokker. Lewis recorded:“A description of the of the machine, its size, power, capabilities, was circulated at once to everyone in the (Royal Flying) Corps. It did a great deal to raise morale and prepare the way for the Allied air supremacy later that year” The plane ended up in Allied hands too late to be of any real value, had it been some month’s earlier, it would have been a different story ! The real Fokker scourge was as good as over, and they had new opponents in the sky such as the Nieuport 11, the FE2b, etc. After this, the plane was offered to the Victoria and Albert Museum by the War Office on 18 July 1916, with the statement that it had been shot down over France ! It was still used by the National Economy Exhibition in September 1916, organised by the Public Trustee. It was also inspected in the Science Museum. By 6 December 1917 it had not yet returned to this museum and it seems a two month loan of the plane by the National War Museum was demanded. On 27 February 1918 it finally arrived at the museum. However without the engine, propeller and instruments ! It seemed that they had tested the engine and in this process it had been destroyed… In 1923 it was put in storage, but in November 1923 an Oberursel engine arrived at the museum from the Imperial War Museum and the plane came on display again in 1925. During WW II it was stored again. After the war it came on display again and in 1963 it moved to the new Aeronautics Gallery. In 1978, John Bagley, in charge of this part of the museum, discovered that the engine that had been placed in the Fokker in 1925, was the original engine of the plane, which had not been destroyed ! It is still on display, without the propeller, instruments and fabric, and is the only surviving example in the world !
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 11:12:25 +0000
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