Continuing my tour of the great collection of WWI planes, replicas, memorabilia...
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| The German Gotha, first purpose-built bomber; terrorized London for a time before attrition set in
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| The Brits' answer, the Vickers Vimy | 
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| Photograph of a Gotha; the museum is replete with photos, some films, much else
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| Thus, close-up movie of a German 2-seater with the bombardier hand-tossing anti-personnel bombs on allied troops
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| Quite a few of the life-sized dioramas depict real events; here a pilot, about to abandon ship, learns he can maneuver his craft to a landing by standing outside
 the fuselage and creating drag with a leg...flying a still fairly primitive in 1918;
 interesting tidbit: the Brits did not allow use of parachutes until late in the war...
 they were afraid the pilots would be less inclined to saving their craft...
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| The Centre has four Fooker triplane replicas, all air-worthy... | 
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| Scene depicting a Brit flyer who landed in a tree and was captured | 
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| The four Fokkers ("no, dem Fokkers was flyin' Messerschmidts" (favorite joke)) | 
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| Model of one of the Zeppelins; they also terrorized London for a time until the Brits figured out they were a bit, um, flammable; note the table service from
 one of the trans-Atlantic versionsof later years
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| Art Nouveau clock with airplane model surmounting it; a model of the Etrich Taube (devil) first produced in 1910; the Taube was the most bird-like of all planes ever
 built (see previous post for life-size version)
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| Baron Manfred von Richtofen; greatest ace of the war with 80 victories; crashed near an Australian artillery battery
 and thus much of his personal effects came to this part of
 the world
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| Another German ace, Hermann Goering, who went on to greater infamy in the Third Reich; he was one of the major
 weaknesses in the German military, his bone-headedness so
 legendary that the Allies carefully avoided bombing the Air
 Ministry in Berlin; it is the only WWII structure that has
 survived the war and reconstruction
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| Richtofen's hankie | 
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| About the Red Baron's last flight | 
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| Australian troops looting his plane and person for souvenirs; he was quite well known and recognizable, perhaps the best known individual of the war
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| A favored prize was the black cross taken from German crashes | 
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| Photo of German aerodrome | 
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| Films and other media | 
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| I really wanted this T-shirt but Vicki reminded me I now have a T-shirt for every day of the year; and have already
 bought three in NZ this year
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3 comments:
Well, you could have bought the T-shirt for Wes!
The new National Geographic History magazine arrived today, and it has an article and several photos on “The Red Baron.”
I note that M is conspicuously absent from these photos! ;)
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