More Photos From The Great War (1916/17)

Hi,

these pictures were taken by my great-grandfather Ernst E. Fastenrath during 1916. Originally they were taken on glass, but I had them printed on paper some years before and finally scanned them this morning. But first some notes about my great-grandfather:

Because of his experience after having constructed and briefly flown his own areoplane in 1913, he was posted as an aircraft-mechanic to the Kampfgeschwader 4 at Le Chatelet. He stayed with that unit , which moved in that time to an unknown airfield at the Champagne and later to Vendune until summer of 1918.

At the KG4 he became crew-chief of a two-seater fighter, which was mainly flown by the crew Lt. Schröder (pilot) / Lt. (Lothar) von Richthofen (observer/gunner) until both volunteered to single-seat fighters. He also was responsible for resurrecting pranged airplanes (called “Brüche”), due to his experience with his own “Flugapparat” three years before. However, his “own” pilot Schröder always took good care of his plane and my great-grandfather seldomly had to carry out larger repairs on the fighter.
Early 1917 the unit became a Bombergeschwader converting to A.E.G.-planes (A.E.G. today still exists and is building goods like washings-machines). Someday during the fall of 1917 the field was attacked by allied fighters and he had to jump into a trench, resulting in a complicated fracture. After recovering, he left service in July 1918, later regretting not having stayed with his comerades until the end of the war soon after.

In the early 1930s he started building gliders in the cellar of his factory with a group of local glider-pilots until they were beeing shut down by the nazis, starting gliding again after WW2, using an ex-RAF Auster AOP. In 1958 he recieved the “Diplom Otto Lilienthal” for his earnings (?) over the years. Following his death in the 1960s the Fliegergruppe Plettenberg-Herscheid carries out a commemorative fly-in every two years until today.

Well, back to the pictures.

The first one shows my great-grandfather (left) and his assistant (second mechanic) August Speichert. Both kept contact until their death. The plane in the backgrund is thought to be a D.F.W. C.V. The last survivor of this type is in Krakow(?), Poland.

The second one seems to have been taken at the unkown airfield at the Champagne, because he mentioned living and working in tents. I think the planes in this picture are Rumpler C.Is so it could be taken in 1916. The “23” on the fuselage identifies the Squadron (Kasta 23), the roman letter the individual aircraft.

The third picture shows an mechanic working on the cylinder heads of an engine. The original photo was taken on a 6×4 cm piece of glass, so I can´t read the name on the plate in the foreground. Maybe it´s “Mercedes-” (engine-manufacturer) or “Albatross-Werke” (airplane-manufacturer).
Im still puzzling about that …

The next one could be taken early at Le Chatelet. He mentions large “Eisenhallen” (iron-hangars?) at Le Chatelet, so maybe the photo was taken there.

The last one – well, it´s obviousely an aerial view of an unidentified, intact, but deserted village. I do not know whether the photo was taken by him, or how he took possession of it. It is also taken on a different format of glass, he used to work with.

There must have been more photos (taking pictures was his dearest hobby from growing up until his death), but I think these were finally lost, when his widow moved out of their house in the 1970. 🙁

However, I hope you enjoy the ones surviving.