World War 1 GB - 1/7/12 to 30/9/12

[Deacon]

This GB is the last of those selected some 18 months ago, running alongside the Arab Air Power GB.

Monty was the proposer all that time ago, but hasn’t been around for a while and hasn’t responded to the email I sent him, so, if you guys don’t mind I’d like to take this on board, not because of any expertise in this period of history, just an admiration for those who fought in this First World War.

Ask the man in the street “Name a fighter pilot who flew during WW1?” he will more than likely respond quite quickly “The Red Baron”. Now ask him “Name a fighter pilot from WW2?” and he would probably struggle and then possibly come up with “Douglas Bader”.

Rightly or wrongly the exploits of pilots during WW1 were seen as knights of old doing brave deeds and chivalrous in their actions. We know differently now, but I think as kids we all were introduced to these early years of military flying along these lines, through the pictures in books about flight. The fighter pilot of WW1 was, and at times is still, referred to as a Knight of the Sky.

Quite a few of them became pilots to escape the horrors of the infantry and trench fighting (even Manfred Von Richtofen was initially a cavalry officer). What a few of these young men did become were national heroes. Most weren’t looking for it, but it happened anyway, their deaths made all the more poignant by the loss felt by the nation.

I thought I’d do one thing slightly different with this GB. Many of us have ‘dabbled’ with trying to make a bi-plane. Our builds now sit half made in a drawer or box somewhere waiting to be noticed and finished. If you’ve got a part made WW1 bi-plane build (I know I have), no matter how much of it is done (so long as it’s not complete obviously) pull it out and enter this GB.

Here are the rules:

1/ Any scale
2/ Kit may be already started prior to 1/7/12.
3/ Aftermarket products allowed in the way of decals/resin/etch.
4/ Injection moulded/ Vac-form/ Resin kits all allowed (snap-togethers and pre-painted not allowed).
5/ No What If's.
6/ All builds must be presented in a WIP format (with those builds already started your WIP will commence from when you picked it up again, obviously), followed by a maximum of 6 photos of the completed build in the gallery.
7/ Please use this thread for any reference requests and any related chat.

Happy modelling guys.

Alan

[FTS]

I've got a few kits for this GB. I may even have a go at rigging

[Deacon]

I've got a few kits for this GB. I may even have a go at rigging

Good lad.

Alan

[Cimmerian]

I'm in for this one. Got several Albatros lurking about and a few other goodies.

[Deacon]

I'm in for this one. Got several Albatros lurking about and a few other goodies.

That makes three of us! Now we're cooking.

Welcome aboard mate.

Alan

[SvB]

A very nice introduction to this GB you've written there Alan

I cannot resist now, I'm in!

I have several WW1 kits in the stash, so I'll have to make a choice... . Are German subjects allowed or would you rather see British? Or French, or maybe a downed aircraft interned by the Dutch can be entered?



(Do I understand correctly we have two months for this GB?)

Sven

[Deacon]

I cannot resist now, I'm in!

I have several WW1 kits in the stash, so I'll have to make a choice... . Are German subjects allowed or would you rather see British? Or French, or maybe a downed aircraft interned by the Dutch can be entered?
(Do I understand correctly we have two months for this GB?)

Sven

Mr Sven sir, if there was one person I thought would be taking part in this GB, it was you.

How many of your bi-planes sit proudly at Benson? 5?6?7?!

Any nation who were antagonists and flew aircraft during WW1 can be represented mate.

The GB is 3 months long (all of July, all of August and all of September).

Interestingly the 4th August (the anniversary of Britain declaring war on Germany) falls within the GB period (it's also my wedding anniversery. I'm saying nothing! )!

Cheers

Alan

[FTS]

I may only have the one kit to enter now, a Nieuport N.28 C-1 in US Air Service markings. A Sopwith Camel I have was trashed by the previous owner, however it was in a boxset with other kits so it's no major loss.

The other kit I was going to build is a Fokker D VII. I was looking through the box last night and found that it only comes with Finnish markings. The D VII was flown by the Germans in the later stages of the war and was the only aircraft mentioned in the Versailles treaty. Finland had put an order in for up to 30 aircraft from Germany but after armistice this order fell through, however they were able to aquire 3 D VII through 'uncoventional' channels. Is the link strong enough to permit its entry into the GB?

[Deacon]

The other kit I was going to build is a Fokker D VII. I was looking through the box last night and found that it only comes with Finnish markings. The D VII was flown by the Germans in the later stages of the war and was the only aircraft mentioned in the Versailles treaty. Finland had put an order in for up to 30 aircraft from Germany but after armistice this order fell through, however they were able to aquire 3 D VII through 'uncoventional' channels. Is the link strong enough to permit its entry into the GB?

Do me a favour!

(Outside of the date range of the GB and a country that was part of Russia till after the war! )
How wrong can you be. I have since found out that Finland declared independence and fought a civil war prior to the end of WW1. Also, the FAF was officially founded in March 1918.

But, Finland's air force did not take part in the WW1 conflict.

Has anybody got some spare German markings for FTS so he can make a build for this GB please?

I'll have a look too. I think I was given a Hannover, part started, that will have decals you can use. I have the Airfix Albatros D.Va which has two decal options so you can have the later Balkenkreuz from this too. If I send you the decal plan from the Revell D VII as well you'll have an idea as to which of the two sets are best and where to stick them.

Alan

[Deacon]

Me again.

I have good news FTS, there was a spare sheet of decals in the Hannover, so you can have them and I have found the Airfix Albatross so you can have the
decals for that too.

Send me a PM with your address and I'll get them out to you.

Alan

[Fumbles]

I forgot all about this one... I have not built any WW 1 aircraft in all my years of kit builds. I think I'll be keeping an eye out in the UK for a kit that I could turn into Billy Bishop's aircraft. Being a Canadian and all. I look forward to the challange of rigging.

[Deacon]

I think I'll be keeping an eye out in the UK for a kit that I could turn into Billy Bishop's aircraft. Being a Canadian and all. I look forward to the challange of rigging.

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to visit Vimy Ridge.

We took the tour along with, as it turned out, a party of Canadian visitors and the guide was also a Canadian.

After the tour it was question time. The guide asked several questions and, whether the Canadians were too polite, myself and my three friends shouted out the answers. Well we are interested in the period.

The guide wanted to redress the situation and encourage the Canadian folk to answer so she said, “Here is a question, for the Canadians only.” We kept quiet.

“Why is the Maple leaf our national emblem?” There was complete silence. It was getting embarrassing. I tentatively raised my hand. She smiled, “You again!” There was a laugh from the group. “Go on then.”

“I can only think, and this is a guess, but it has something to do with the cap badge worn by the Canadian Infantry? I assume that it was already a recognised symbol and consequently adopted by the Canadian nation?”

“How did you know the Maple leaf was the Canadian cap badge?” she urged.

“There are enough maple leaves shown on the head stones of the men who fell taking this ridge in the cemetery across the way. With British soldiers the regimental cap badge is shown. With the Canadians, when I saw the leaf, I assumed it was their cap badge?”

“Correct.”

She then explained what happened after WW1 and started winding up the tour.

I am a sentimental old fool.

“Can I say something?” I asked

“Yes of course”

Turning to the Canadians in the group.......

“They may not know it, but the people of Britain owe a great debt to the Canadian people. You’re young men came over here to fight in a European war, twice. So many of them gave their lives so that Britain would remain free. This must never be forgotten, nor the men who paid the ultimate price. Thank you.”

If you get the chance to visit this place, take it. It is awesome. The monument, the surviving trench network and caverns. Also of course, the opportunity to pay respect to those that died.

Alan

[Deacon]

I I'll be keeping an eye out in the UK for a kit that I could turn into Billy Bishop's aircraft. Being a Canadian and all.

Then you will be wanting either Roden's 1:72 or 1:48 SE.5 w/Wolsley Viper. Both have decals for Billy Bishops machine.

Alan

[Deacon]

Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sofia in Sarajevo.

28th June 1914.

Today is also the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

28th June 1919.

Note that it was exactly 5 years to the day from the assassinations to the signing of the Treaty. This was deliberate, although no one knew it would take 6 months to get an agreement to the treaty after the end of the war.

Also, the Battle of Gully Ravine started this day in 1915 at Gallipoli.

Alan

[Deacon]

What am I going to do guys! I've got 20 kits for the Arab Air Power GB and I have got 16 kits
I can make up for this GB!

So, if I make one a week for the three months of the WW1 GB I can make 12 (I'm on holiday for a week) and then the remaing two months of the Arab Air Power GB I can make another 8 (one a week). That leaves 16 kits not touched!

I need to take up embriodery!

Alan

[Deacon]

I don't quite believe that, by chance, this GB starts on one of those dates that still echoes through the ages.

1st July 1916 - The start of the Battle of the Somme, which will result in 60,000 casualties, the greatest number ever suffered in
any one battle in British Military history.



Alan

[Deacon]

OK, some more events that happened during WW1. There are quite a few as I need to catch up.

2nd July

1915
Action of Gully Ravine ends
Naval action in the Baltic between Russian and German squadrons off Gottland. German minelayer "Albatross" driven ashore.

1916

Battle of Baranovichi begins on the eastern Front

1917

First regular convoy of merchant ships sails from Hampton Roads (Va.) [Experimental convoys had been tried in May. Convoys outward from Great Britain did not start till August.]

3rd July

1916

Russian and Japanese Governments conclude treaty with regard to future policy in the Far East.

1918

Sultan Mohammed V of Turkey dies. Mohammed VI succeeds to the throne

4th July

1915

Lahej (South Arabia) taken by Turkish forces (4th/5th).
Durazzo (in Albania) occupied by Serbian forces

1917

Ponta Delgada (Azores) shelled by a German submarine.
Concerted attack by German submarines on United States transports defeated.

1918

Battle of Le Hamel (Somme).
Siberian Council declare Independence

5th July

6th July

1917

Aqaba (Arabia) occupied by Arab forces led by T. E. Lawrence,
Conscription Bill carried in Canadian House of Commons.

1918

French and Italian forces begin offensive in Albania
German Ambassador at Moscow (Count Mirbach) murdered
Declaration of Siberian Independence cancelled

7th July

1915

First Battle of the Isonzo (a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River) ends.
Italian cruiser "Amalfi" sunk by Austrian submarine in the Adriatic.

1916

Italian counter-offensive in Trentino ends
Tanga (German East Africa) occupied by British forces
Mr. Lloyd George succeeds Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War, Great Britain

1917

Severe aeroplane raid on England (Margate and London; casualties 250, mostly civilian: last on London by daylight)
Manchu Emperor abdicates

1918

Agreement signed between France, Great Britain, United States of America, and Murman Sovdep concerning Allied expedition to Murman Coast (coastal area in Murmansk, Russia)

8th July

1917

Russian forces begin withdrawal from Western Persia; Qasr-i-Shirin evacuated

9th July

1915

German South-West Africa capitulates to General Botha

1916

Battle of Baranovichi ends

1917

H.M.S. "Vanguard" sunk by internal explosion in harbour.

1918

Admiral von Hintze succeeds Herr von Kuhlmann as German Foreign Minister

10th July

1916

Russian hospital ship "Vpered" sunk by submarine in the Black Sea.

1918

Berat (Albania) taken by Italian forces
New Government formed at Vladivostok under General Horvat

11th July

1915

German light cruiser "Königsberg" destroyed in Rufiji River, German East Africa, by British monitors

1916

Seaham harbour (on coast of Durham) shelled by German submarine.

1917

British attack on Ramadi (Mesopotamia)

[Deacon]

So to bring us up to date again:

12th July

1914

Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut, pitches for the Red Sox (absolutely nothing to do with WW1, but I thought I’d include it).

1916

Mamakhatun (Armenia) again taken by Russian forces

13th July

1915

· Great Austro-German Offensive on Eastern front begins.
· Battle of the Narew and Bobr begins .
· Second Battle of Przasnysz begins.
· Battles of Maslomencze and Grabowiec begin.

1918

Irkutsk (Siberia) occupied by Czecho-Slovak forces

14th July

1915
· A Dominion Premier (Sir R. Borden, Canada) for the first time attends meeting of the British Cabinet
Sherif of Mecca opens direct negotiations with British Government for co-operation against the Turks.
· Battle of Schaulen begins.

1916

Battle of Bazentin Ridge (Somme) begins.

1918

Kazan (East Russia) captured by Czecho-Slovak forces.

15th July

1916

Battle of Delville Wood (Somme) begins. 4 VC’s will be awarded to soldiers who took part in this battle. This was the first major engagement fought by the South African 1st Infantry Brigade who suffered 80% casaulaties during the Somme battles.

1918

Second Battle of the Marne begins

16th July

1915

Battle of Krasnostav begins

1918
· Field-Marshal Conrad von Hötzendorff, Commander-in-Chief, Austro-Hungarian Armies, relieved of his command.
· Ex-Tsar Nicholas II, ex-Tsaritsa and family murdered at Ekaterinburg

[Deacon]

17th July

1915
· Durazzo evacuated by the Serbian forces at request of Italian Government
· Treaty of alliance signed at Sofia between Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey. Albania to be ceded to Bulgaria in return for Bulgarian participation in war.
· Battle of Sienno (one day).
· Second Battle of Przasnysz ends.
1916
Battle of Bazentin Ridge (Somme) ends
1917
Proclamation issued changing name of British Royal House to Windsor.
1918
RMS Carpathia sunk by a German U-Boat in the Atlantic. This was the same ship which had rescued survivors from the RMS Titanic in April 1912 and which rescued hundreds of stranded Americans in Naples at the outbreak of the war in 1914.

And this is an excerpt from the History Today website posted today:

‘Archaeologists in the Alsace region in north eastern France recently discovered the bodies of 21 German soldiers from the First World War in an underground shelter that has not been touched since it was destroyed in a French attack in March 1918.

The site was first discovered in October 2010 during excavation work for a road building project. War causalities are still frequently found during construction work on the former western front battlefields of France and Belgium; however, the discovery of so many bodies in a single location is particularly unusual.

Perhaps most interesting, however, is what the discovery reveals about the ways in which the First World War is, and has been, remembered in the different countries involved in the conflict. In Britain, a multitude of books have been written about the war, numerous films and plays have been produced, veterans such as Harry Patch became celebrity figures and were revered as heroes, and the discovery of remains of soldiers would have undoubtedly made the headlines. When the bodies of British and Australian soldiers were discovered in Fromelles in 2008, for example, a large-scale project was launched to excavate the mass grave in which they were buried, identify the bodies and rebury them in individual graves in a new purpose-built cemetery.

Arguably, many more bodies were found in Fromelles; however, the recent discovery of German soldiers in Alsace only reached the inside pages of just a few newspapers in Germany. It reveals a great deal about how Germany has dealt with the memory of the First World War: it has largely been eclipsed by the Second World War and the guilt and horror of the Nazi regime and Holocaust.

According to Fritz Kirchmeier, spokesman for the German War Graves Commission:
"Britain, France and Belgium still refer to [the First World War] as the Great War, but our memory of it is totally buried by World War II with the Holocaust, the expulsion from the east, the Allied bombardment. World War I plays only a minor role in the German national memory".

The Commission is not hopeful that it will be able to track down the families of the dead. But the names and dates and places of birth of all 21 soldiers are known.They include Musketeer Martin Heidrich from Schonfeld, who died aged 20; Private Harry Bierkamp born on January 18th, 1896, in Hamburg; and Lieutenant August Hutten from Aachen, who died aged 37. Their names are inscribed on a memorial stone in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth. Unless the Commission manages to contact the families and they request the bodies to be repatriated to Germany, it plans to bury the bodies in the cemetery in Illfurth.

The remains of around 10 to 20 German soldiers from the First World War are usually found in France and Belgium each year; an average of 35 Commonwealth soldiers are discovered each year. It is estimated that over 165,000 Commonwealth soldiers are still unaccounted for on the Western Front.'

[Deacon]

19th July

1916

Battle of Fromelles in one night 5,533 Australian soldiers were killed, wounded or reported missing. The British sustained 1,547 casualties.

Private 20805 Arthur Drew of the 14th Bn, Gloucestershire Regiment is killed on the Somme. Husband of Agnes Florence Drew, of 80, Hutton Rd., Handsworth, Birmingham. He was my Great, Great Uncle.

[Deacon]

Just to let you know that I am away in Ypres for a week so I may not be able to keep
up with the WW1 posts.

Happy modelling guys.

Deacon

[Deacon]

Just one week left on this GB guys.

Alan

[Cimmerian]

Just one week left on this GB guys.

Alan

Really. I got kind of sidetracked with my daughter getting ready to leave for Uni and wanting to spend as much time as I could with her before she moved out. She left yesterday and I was all set to start melting pieces of plastic together again.

[Deacon]

Really. I got kind of sidetracked with my daughter getting ready to leave for Uni and wanting to spend as much time as I could with her before she moved out. She left yesterday and I was all set to start melting pieces of plastic together again.

And so you should mate. Glad to see you've got your priorities right.

I'm not sure what is happening with the GB's. Nothing is proposed yet to follow the WW1 one, so I'd just carry on and keep posting on the thread.

Alan

[Deacon]

Thanks to all those who took part and well done to those who managed to complete a build.

I hope enjoyed yourselves.

Alan