Nieuport 17 in RFC markings

The Nieuport 17 was undoubtedly one of the major successes of 1916 and part of 1917, until the Albatros outclassed it. The Nieuport was almost copied by Siemens-Schuckert of Germany, and Britain bought several Nieuports to supplement its Sopwith Pups and the obsolete DH-2s. The Nieuport 17 was usually armed with a just one belt-fed machine gun, but some units added a Lewis gun on top of the wing for added firepower. The fact that the wing-mounted gun didn't need to be synchronized enabled it to utilize its maximum rate of fire as well, although the changing of ammunition drums in air-to-air combat proved difficult.

The model is the ESCI 1970s vintage model. The kit, originally designed to be made up as one of Charles Nungesser's mounts, came together very nicely, but the cockpit was so sparse and almost impossible to detail, so a (hopefully) victoriously waving aviator was added to the little fighter. The Lewis gun came from a Roden kit, and the mounting was scratch-built based on photos in various books. The paint scheme of dope and red is from Choroszy Modelbud, but the exact unit remains unidentified.

Albatros D.Va

Here's the 1959 vintage Airfix model of the Albatros D.Va, although some parts were added or replaced. This includes the machine guns, the top of the engine, a windshield, the propeller blades and the extra strut that was added for structural integrity on the D.Va. The kit does, of course, show its age, and it will be interesting to compare this Albatros to the Roden version. The model is finished in one of the decal sets that came with the kit, namely the mount of Leutnant Max Näther of Jasta 62, who flew this Albatros from Balatre in April and May of 1918. By that time, the Albatros was past its prime, but it was nevertheless in use until the end of the war.

Leutnant Näther (8/24/99-1/8/19) may have been the youngest German ace of WW1 with ten balloons and 16 aircraft to his credit. Näther's score of 26 victories comprised over half the wins for his entire Jasta, which totaled 49 aerial victories.

He was from Tepliwoda in Silesia, which at that time was a part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Näther joined the German army in 1914 when he was a mere 15 years old. He was twice wounded before being commissioned as Leutnant der Reserve on August 11, 1916, just before his 17th birthday. He won both the Second and First Class Iron Crosses during this time, the latter on 1 February 1916. In the summer of 1917, he volunteered for transfer to the Air Service.

Näther took basic flight training in Bucharest. He then progressed to training with FEA 7 at Braunschweig. His final training was at Jastaschule I at Valenciennes, France. He was subsequently assigned to Jasta 62 March of 1918. Näther scored his first aerial victory on May 16, 1918, when he shot down a SPAD XIII. June saw him credited with six victories over enemy observation balloons, and in July a Sopwith Dolphin and three more SPADs fell victim to his guns. He became Staffelführer on July 7, 1918, just before his 19th birthday.

Näther spent August on leave; he probably waited to change planes to a Fokker D.VII until after his return^.
He scored another six victories in September, including two more balloons. Especially notable was 26 September, when he downed a SPAD XIII in the morning and a balloon and another SPAD in mid-afternoon. He was slightly wounded the following day.

Näther began October with back to back double wins, on the 9th and 10th. After another victory on the 18th, he incinerated his tenth and final balloon on the 23rd. As he returned from this mission, Näther was shot down in flames by American ace Jacques Swaab in a SPAD XIII of the 22nd Aero Squadron, but somehow Näther survived. It was Swaab's fifth victory, thus making him an ace as well.

His final three victories were scored on October 29. Coincidentally, he was nominated for the Pour le Merite on that same day; however, his nomination was one of several that weren't approved before the abdication of the Kaiser on November 9. Following the end of the Great War, Näther served in the border war with Poland. He was shot down and killed by ground fire when flying over Kolmar in what is now Poland (source: theaerodrome.com).

The gentleman standing on the ground and taking notes is wearing a one-piece flying suit made out of moleskin cloth (napped corduroy) over his service uniform. He also wears the standard-issue reinforced leather flying helmet and a privately purchased scarf.

Brooklyn on the High Seas

This article was written for The South Brooklyn Post:

November 30 marked the 75th anniversary of the light cruiser U.S.S. Brooklyn (CL-40) being launched at The Brooklyn Navy yards. The vessel was sponsored by Miss Kathryn Jane Lackey, daughter of Rear Admiral F. R. Lackey, and she was completed approximately a year and a half later, on July 18, 1938. The U.S.S. Brooklyn was the first in a class of nine light cruisers, and she was also the third U.S.S. Brooklyn in the history of the U.S. Navy. The first was a wooden sloop-of-war that served during the Civil War and subsequently up to the end of the 19th century, while the second was an armored cruiser and the U.S. flagship during the Spanish-American War. 

The U.S.S Brooklyn was designed according to the limits of the London Treaty of 1930, a treaty that attempted to limit naval arms races, but she was nevertheless a powerful vessel. Displacing 9,767 tons, the ship was armed with 15 six-inch Mk 16 rapid fire guns using semi-fixed ammunition that could fire a 130 lb shell up to 26,100 yards. She was also armed with eight five-inch secondary guns and a plethora of anti-aircraft artillery. The heavy armament did lead to modest armor protection in an effort to save weight, though.

Her four-shaft turbines could propel the Brooklyn at a flank speed of 32.5 knots, and she carried two catapults for launching aircraft. Most importantly, she was manned by 868 officers and enlisted men that would take part in fierce actions later on. One of these men was young Leonard Alfred Schneider from Mineola, who only later on was to become Lenny Bruce.

The U.S.S. Brooklyn saw much activity even before the United States joined World War Two. She was the base ship for the rescue of crew from the sunken submarine U.S.S. Squalus, performed a goodwill tour of the South Pacific, and took part in both a New York World’s Fair and the Golden Gate International Exposition. With war looming, the U.S.S. Brooklyn took part in convoy escort and neutrality patrols.

Once the United States entered the war, the U.S.S. Brooklyn escorted several convoys across the Atlantic. On September 3, 1942, Brooklyn rescued 1,173 troops from the Wakefield after a fire caused the Wakefield to be abandoned. Two months later, Brooklyn finally fired its guns at the enemy to support the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch). The targets for Brooklyn were shore installations at Fédala, between Casablanca and Rabat in neutral French-controlled Morocco. She also suffered her first casualties during that engagement when French coastal artillery hit the Brooklyn. Fortunately, the shell was a dud, but five crew members were wounded and two of the Brooklyn’s guns were damage. U.S.S. Brooklyn took part in the on-and-off naval engagements between November 8 and November 16 around Casablanca, engaging a French destroyer flotilla on the late morning of November 8. Later that day, the French submarine Amazone fired a spread of torpedoes at the cruiser, fortunately without hitting the Brooklyn.

Following Operation Torch, the Brooklyn once again performed escort duties as well as exercises off the coast of Maine. She also received an overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Yards.

On July 10, the cruiser brought the name of the Borough back to the place of origin of many of its inhabitants: Sicily. The Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) took place between July 10 and July 14, 1943, and the Brooklyn was tasked with supporting the landings near Licata on the south coast of Sicily, a small town that was the namesake of several Americans of Sicilian origin.

The Brooklyn sighted the Sicilian coast just after 4 AM in the morning of July 10 after braving heavy winds. By then, the Sicilian shore was already subject to both naval and aerial bombardment. The Axis forces ashore fire star shells to illuminate the Allied naval forces, and at 4:12 AM, the Brooklyn was subject to aerial bombardment herself. With bombs landing both port and starboard of the cruiser, the crew fired back with their anti-aircraft guns, reportedly hitting and shooting down an enemy bomber with 20mm fire. Sometime before 4:45 AM, the Brooklyn opened fire with its 6-inch guns against pre-determined targets, although the artillery spotters in the aircraft operated by the Brooklyn claimed that it was still too dark to see the targets and thus to correct the artillery fire.

As the sun rose, Radioman First Class Milton A. Briggs reported that “We have lost communication with our planes and are firing by radar only. Great billows of smoke can be seen rolling into the sky, as our shells explode in the town [Licata]. A lot of people must be dying in there. We have finished off all other targets and are ordered to resume shelling the town again.” The pre-planned naval gunfire was ordered to cease shortly after dawn, but the Brooklyn and her sister ship U.S.S. Boise (CL-47) continued to engage enemy artillery and mortars firing on American soldiers on the beaches west of Licata, eventually silencing the enemy guns at approximately 7 AM.

The Brooklyn and all other support vessels remained at general quarters, ready to provide fire support for the soldiers ashore throughout the next several days. The Axis forces – and the Germans in particular – responded by intense air attacks, sinking the destroyer U.S.S. Maddox as well as a transport vessel, a tank transport vessel (Landing Ship Tank, LST) and the ammunition ship S.S. Robert Rowan within eyesight of the crew of the Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn had managed to avoid getting hit by enemy ordnance, but near-disaster struck at 5:15 AM on July 14, when the cruiser struck at least two mines while patrolling southward and westward off Licata. But despite two mine explosions, the damage was slight: the Brooklyn’s main pumps were flooded and she lost 30,000 gallons of fresh water, not to mention losing the ability to maneuver and avoid enemy air attacks. Radioman Briggs described the mine explosions in the following way: “I have never been so shaken up in my life as I was when we hit those mines! The ship shook and jumped so that one's teeth clicked together like castanets.”

But the luck of the Brooklyn held, and she could leave the Licata area next day. In July the Brooklyn became the flagship of Cruiser Division Eight’s Rear Admiral Lyal A. Davidson, and she went on to support the Anzio-Nettuno landings on the west coast of Italy on January 22, 1944 (Operation Shingle). She also provided naval gunfire support for Allied troops in the Formia-Anzio area between May 13 and May 23, and she finally supported the Allied landings on the south coast of France (Operation Dragoon) on August 15, 1944. The U.S.S. Brooklyn remained on duty in the Mediterranean during the fall of 1944, but in November it was time for the Brooklyn to be extensively overhauled and altered.

She left Sicily on November 21 and arrived at New York on November 30. The overhaul of the Brooklyn took place at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and work was completed in May 1945. Post-overhaul exercises took place along the eastern seaboard between May and September of 1945, and when these exercises were complete, the Second World War was over. Thus, the U.S.S. Brooklyn sailed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for a pre-inactivation overhaul, being commissioned to reserve on January 30, 1946. She was de-commissioned on January 3, 1947.

However, the vessel still had a long career ahead of her. On January 9, 1951, the former U.S.S. Brooklyn was transferred to the Chilean Navy as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. The cruiser was renamed O’Higgins after Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme, arguably the most prominent leader of the Chilean War of Independence and subsequently the country’s first dictator. O’Higgins served under the Chilean flag for 40 years, and she was sold for scrap in 1992. Perhaps time eventually caught up with her, since she foundered and sank off Pitcairn Island while under tow to ship breakers in India.

The United States’ naval contribution to the war in the Mediterranean is often overlooked, but it was a long and grueling campaign that lasted until V-E Day. The U.S.S. Brooklyn took part in both the Mediterranean naval campaign and perilous Atlantic crossings while escorting convoys for almost three years before returning to the Brooklyn Navy Yards. For her service during World War Two, the U.S.S Brooklyn received four battle stars. 

There is little left today to remind us of the most recent warship bearing the name of our Borough, but the 303-pound ship’s bell of the U.S.S. Brooklyn is on prominent display at the Brooklyn College Library.

Artillery in the Hürtgenwald

I made this little vignette almost two years ago after a particularly drab an wet day made me think of the extended battles in the Hürtgenwald during the fall of 1944. I had also just found out that a friend 's neighbour is the son of General Westmoreland, who served as a young officer in the Hürtgenwald. This experience may or may not have influenced his performance in Vietnam later on in life, but there are indeed some parallels to be drawn between combat in the Hürtgenwald and search-and-destroy missions in Vietnam. In any case, this is the 1/35 Italeri M1 105mm howitzer, although it is actually the post WW-2 version. I decided to ignore this for the sake of the build, and place the howitzer on a stand for a whiskey glass that came with a birthday bottle. The odds and ends around the howitzer are Tamiya, Italeri, Lindberg and scratch built items that seem to litter many deployment areas. The figure is also from all kinds of sources with a Warriors head and a Dragon torso with Tamiya legs. This poor guy may be guarding the artillery piece between fire missions, a cup of cold coffee in front of him together with a captured P-08. The howitzer has a handful of rounds at the ready, since there will undoubtedly soon be need for more fire support.

Colonial Viper Mk I

And now to something completely different: the Colonial Viper Mk I. I haven't built any Sci-Fi models for many, many years, but I have always liked the Viper from the old campy Battlestar Galactica as well the new and gloomy version. The Viper Mk I is the re-vamped and re-issued 1/32-ish Revell kit from the 1970s, and it is obviously the Viper of glitzy and glittering Galactica. Nevertheless, it still looks pleasing to me, and the kit was a fun build. The decals of Apollo's Viper were of excellent quality, and I did provide some weathering to make this particular model look more like the gritty Viper Mk IIs in the new Galactica.