Thursday, 23 August 2012

Saved from the dustbin (9)

Among the many pictures saved by my colleagues Aris Zwart and Bert Besseling in Denmark, there are a number that clearly depict war situations. It can hardly be anything else, there is too much detail pointing in that direction. There is only one problem, I have no idea when and where they have been taken. I think it is a safe bet that all photos have been taken during WWII, although some of these aircraft look very WWI-ish. However, during WWI Denmark was neutral so if these are Danish images, it almost must be WWII. Some pictures carry the mark of  the Statens Filmcensur. This is (also?) Danish for "National Film Censorship". So I assume that we see Danish combat situations. But if anybody can further clarify this, I would be grateful. Please let me know by making a comment at the end of this post.
The first two pictures both probably show the same incident. 
Crashing aircraft. Was it shot down?
(German?) soldiers looking at the (Danish?) aircraft.
Comparing the backgrounds in both pictures, it is likely that we see the same crash. If you click on the images you can see the circular aircraft marks. They resemble the Danish one.
Attacking planes and fleeing soldiers? In the bottom
right hand corner it says 'Statens Filmcensur'.
A German airship being attacked by a Danish (?)
plane. Note the man leaving the balloon basket.
Train under attack. The text on the locomotive is
illegible (to me).
War plane. Note the machine gun(ner) up front. 
There will be more war pictures in my next blog.

For those who have known Bert Besseling, it is my sad duty to inform you that Bert passed away on July 7 last. We will remember him as a fine colleague and a dear friend.

Update August 27, 2012:
Received the following information from Mr. Niels M. Schaiffel-Nielsen of the Danmarks Flyvehistoriske Selskab, the Danish Aviation Historical Society.

"To my best opinion, none of the pictures you showed in your mail is related to the Danish flying forces during WW I.

There was no Danish aircraft operational which has nationality markings on top of the wings.

I have failed to find any report on Danish military aircraft taking part in any war operations during WW I. I must underline that Denmark during WW I had declared her Neutrality which was respected by both Germany and Great Britain and later the United States.

The Royal Navy Air Service) had only one aircraft in service during WWI, a Friederichshafen F.F. 29, delivered to the Navy on the 24. Of February 1917. The aircraft wrecked in the Great Belt (Storebaelt) on the 16. Og October 1917.

The  Army Air Corps had in its inventory four Maurice Farman aircraft, and three Henri Farman aircrafts and none of them had nationality markings on top of the upper wing. See the attached pictures."


4 comments:

  1. Oh my, what an amazing story, and such wonderful photos capturing it all! I noticed your photo on the side "Heiloo-Ypestein" in the thumbnail photo, it looks like an upside down heart shape city!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know whether this heart shape was a preconceived idea of the architects but since our son+family is living there, it is close to our heart anyway :)
    Thanks for visiting!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Photo 3 and 5 look staged. I wouldn't like to be the photographer standing at that location if it was really happening. Maybe they are stills from a movie?

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Rob
    As long as I don't know what we see here, everything is possible. But in that case it must have been a very spectacular movie.
    I'll continue the search...
    Thanks for stopping by.

    ReplyDelete

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