German Seaplane Fighters of WWI #02 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes).pdf

German Seaplane Fighters

of WWI

A Centennial Perspective on Great War Seaplanes

Jack Herris

Great War Aviation Centennial Series #2

This book is dedicated to the pioneer Naval Aviators of the irst Great War in the air.

A print edition of this book is available at www.Amazon.com, ISBN 978-1-935881-09-4

Acknowledgements

I want to especially thank Colin Owers for providing many of the contemporary aircraft photos from WWI

and for his drawings of the Brandenburg W16 and W25. Martin Digmayer created the rest of the drawings.

All drawings are reproduced to 1/48 scale.

Cover and chapter paintings by Steve Anderson. Please see his website: www.anderson-art.com

Color aircraft proiles © Bob Pearson. Purchase his CD of WWI aircraft proiles for $50 US/Canadian, 40 €, or

£30, airmail postage included, via Paypal to Bob at: bpearson@kaien.net

For our aviation books in print and electronic format, please see our website at: www.aeronautbooks.com .

You may contact me at jherris@verizon.net .

An edition of this book designed for the iPad is available in the iTunes store; search ISBN 978-1-935881-51-3

Interested in WWI aviation? Join The League of WWI Aviation Historians ( www.overthefront.com )

and Cross & Cockade International ( www.crossandcockade.com ).

ISBN: 978-1-935881-51-3

Design and layout: Jack Herris

Cover design: Aaron Weaver

Digital photo editing: Jack Herris

www.aeronautbooks.com

GERMAN SEAPLANE FIGHTERS OF WWI

Table of Contents

Introduction

FF33L – Fighter Forerunner

Single-Seat Floatplane Fighters

Albatros W4

Brandenburg KDW

Brandenburg W11

Brandenburg W16

Brandenburg W25

Rumpler 6B1 & 6B2

Friedrichshafen FF43

Roland W

Sablatnig SF4 Biplane & Triplane

Ursinus Floatplane Fighter

L.T.G. FD1

Flying Boat Fighters

Brandenburg CC

Above: The logo of the German Axial propeller company.

Brandenburg W17

Brandenburg W18

Two-Seat Biplane Fighters

Brandenburg W12

Brandenburg W19

Brandenburg W27

Brandenburg W32

Albatros W8

Friedrichshafen FF48

Sablatnig SF3

Sablatnig SF7

K.W. (Wilhelmshafen) No.945

Two-Seat Monoplane Fighters

Brandenburg W29

100

Brandenburg W33, W34, & W37

110

Above: The logo of the German Garuda propeller

company.

Below: The logo of the German Behrend & Ruggebrecht

propeller company on a Behrend & Ruggebrecht propeller.

Friedrichshafen FF63

114

Junkers CLS.I

115

Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) Cs.I

116

In Retrospect

118

Afterword

124

Bibliography

124

Drawings

125

Above: Lt. d.RMI Fritz Hammer, lying the KDW prototype, Marine Number 748, from the German naval air station at

Angernsee, downs a Russian four-engine Sikorski Il’ya Mouromets reconnaissance-bomber on 23 September 1916.

Sikorski IM-6 crash-landed at its base with 293 bullet holes and three of its four crewmen wounded. This was one of only

three air-to-air victories scored over these tough bombers during the war.

GERMAN SEAPLANE FIGHTERS OF WWI

T he birth of the airplane had an impact on naval

monoplane W29 derived from the W12 provided

greater speed by reducing the drag of the airframe.

Finally, the enlarged W33 monoplane provided

both the increased speed of the W29 and the longer

range of the W19, and all these types were employed

effectively on combat operations over the North Sea.

German submarines transited the North Sea en

route to and from their patrol areas, and Britain

naturally engaged in extensive anti- submarine

operations in and over the North Sea to counter the

U-boats. These operations included anti-submarine

patrols by lying boats, loatplanes, and non-rigid

airships, which posed a signiicant hazard to German

submarines. The Germans needed to counter these

operations, and the arrival of the Brandenburg

ighters made an immediate impact on the situation.

From that time onward British aircraft had to be

prepared to defend themselves against effective air

attack and the resulting combats were frequent and

brutal. Flying from Zeebrugge, Norderney, Borkum,

and Ostende on the Flanders coast, the Brandenburgs

earned the nickname ‘The Hornets of Zeebrugge’

for their ierce attacks on Allied loatplanes, lying

boats, airships, and surface ships. In addition to

downing their share of British aircraft, all six MTBs

(Motor Torpedo Boats) involved in an operation on

11 August 1918 were destroyed by the Brandenburgs.

Three of the MTBs were sunk by machine-gun ire

and the other three MTBs, all in desperate condition,

deliberately ran themselves aground in neutral

Holland to avoid being sunk, thus saving most of

their crewmen.

Naval Aircraft Categories

Category

operations in WWI similar to that on land

warfare. Like the generals, the admirals immediately

saw the possibilities of naval aviation for long-range

scouting and direction of naval gunire. However,

the question was whether the new technology was

mature enough to be practical.

Naval aviation means light over water, and that

puts a premium on reliability. Many early aviators

were forced down by a minor ignition or fuel system

fault they were able to correct after landing, then

were able to resume their mission. However, faults

over water meant the aircraft had to land on water.

If a landplane has to ditch, the light is over and the

crew are in grave peril. So naval aviation focused on

loatplanes and lying boats to improve the odds of

successful mission completion and crew survival.

Providing the sea is not too rough, the seaplane

or lying boat may be able to loat indeinitely, or

even take off again if repair is possible, so structural

robustness is especially important for naval aircraft;

the additional airframe strength required plus the

loats or boat hull make seaplanes heavier than

landplanes.

Considering that the best qualities of airships,

long range, long endurance, and relatively good

reliability, closely matched the critical requirements

of naval aviation, it is not surprising that airships

played a major role in WWI naval aviation. In

Germany, which led the world in airship technology,

Zeppelins of the Naval Airship Division found

more employment for North Sea scouting that any

other mission, including their highly publicized

raids over Britain. When the German Army became

disenchanted with the cost and vulnerability of

airships, their airships were transferred to the

German Navy. In fact, long-range, long-endurance

scouting missions by Zeppelins over the North Sea

was essential to the German High Seas Fleet, which

could not risk letting itself be trapped away from its

bases by the larger British Battle Fleet.

The high construction and operating costs of

Zeppelins limited their number, and the German

Navy therefore purchased many more loatplanes

for short-range, tactical reconnaissance than it

had Zeppelins. As airplane technology advanced

and experience was gained using armed, two-seat

loatplanes against Allied ships and aircraft, the

German Navy realized it needed ighters to defend

its naval air stations. The irst generation of German

naval ighters were single-seat loatplanes and lying

boats.

The Navy soon realized that it needed ighters

with longer range capable of offensive operations,

not just air station defense. A second crewman

Meaning

Two-seat aircraft with bombing

equipment

BFT

Two-seat aircraft with bombing

equipment and wireless transmitter

U-boat aircraft ( U-Boot Flugzeug )

C2MG

Two-seat aircraft with one lexible

and one ixed machine gun

C3MG

Two-seat aircraft with one lexible

and two ixed machine guns

CHFT

Two-seat aircraft with one

lexible machine gun and wireless

transmitter and receiver

Above: A Brandenburg W29 on patrol in threatening

weather. Brandenburgs often patrolled over the North Sea

in formations of ive aircraft.

Two-seat aircraft with one lexible

cannon and one or two ixed

machine guns

could help with over-water navigation, use a lexible

machine gun for greater combat effectiveness, and

provide an additional pair of eyes for scouting for

enemies, so a two-seat ighter design was wanted.

The challenge was to design a two-seat seaplane fast

and maneuverable enough for the ighter role.

The Brandenburg W12 two-seat biplane was a

breakthrough design that was just want the Navy

wanted. Despite using the same variety of 150–160

hp engines used in the single-seat seaplane ighters,

the W12 was as fast and maneuverable as they

were, plus it had longer range and endurance and

combined these attributes with the greater combat

effectiveness of a second crewman with lexible gun.

The combat success of the W12 rendered single-seat

seaplane ighters obsolete, and many of those on

hand were relegated to training or even to storage

while the W12 shouldered the burden of combat.

The innovative structural design of the W12

was key to its success. Not only did the W12 sire

an extensive family of derivative designs from its

parent company, all subsequent German two-seat

seaplane ighters from other companies were greatly

inluenced by the W12, including the all-metal

designs of the Junkers and Dornier (Zeppelin-Lindau)

companies that were too late for combat.

Only Brandenburg was able to deliver successful

new two-seat loatplane ighters in time for combat

operations before the armistice. Once the W12

proved its worth over the North Sea, the Navy

wanted similar ighters with greater range and

endurance, and the larger W19 was developed from

the W12 to provide the enhanced capabilities. The

Navy also wanted more speed to make intercepting

British lying boats and loatplanes easier, and the

Single-seat lying boat

( Einsitzerboot )

Single-seat aircraft with twin loats

( Einsitzer mit Doppelschwimmer )

ED2MG

Single-seat aircraft with twin loats

and two machine guns

Aircraft for control of wire-guided

attack boats ( Fernienklugzeug )

Twin-engine aircraft ( Grosslugzeug )

HFT

Two-seat aircraft with bombing

equipment and wireless transmitter

Naval Aircraft Categories

The German Navy did not use the army aircraft

designations; instead the Navy had its own type

designation system. Naval aircraft were referred

to by individual Marine Number and category.

The categories listed at right could be combined to

describe the aircraft equipment in greater detail,

allowing designations such as C2MGHFT.

Aircraft with three or more engines

( Riesenlugzeug )

Training aircraft ( Schullugzeug )

Torpedo aircraft ( Torpedolugzeug )

Practice aircraft ( Uebungslugzeug

für Alleinlieger )

Test aircraft ( Versuchslugzeug zur

Erprobung von Motoren, Propellern,

Instrumente, usw .)

Naval Aircraft Procurement

Naval aircraft procurement was controlled by the

RMA ( Reichs Maritime Amt – German Admiralty).

The prototypes of all new designs were sent to

the SVK ( See-Flugzeug-Versuchs-Kommando –

Seaplane Experimental and Testing Command) at

Warnemünde for testing and evaluation. Seaplanes

were built to the standards established in the

Allgemein Baubestimmungen für Seelugzeuge der

Reichs-marine (General Construction Regulations

for Marine Aircraft of the German Navy) and

arrived at Warnemünde with current national

insignia and assigned Marine Number already

applied. Before being accepted for Naval service the

aircraft were tested for seaworthiness and lying

performance. Problems found during testing had to

be resolved before the SAK ( See-Flugzeug-Abnahme-

Kommission – Seaplane Acceptance Commission)

would approve production.

GERMAN SEAPLANE FIGHTERS OF WWI

Right: Friedrichshafen

FF33H Marine Number

744 illustrates the aircraft

from which the FF33L

was derived. The FF33H

was already smaller and

more streamlined than

earlier FF33 models and

mounted a lexible gun for

the observer. The FF33L

featured a spinner and

more streamlined nose

than the FF33H and a more

streamlined tail as well,

improving its performance.

Addition of a ixed pilot’s

gun in its C2MG version

made the FF33L the

transitional design to a real

naval ighter.

FF33L – Fighter

Forerunner

The main purpose of ighter aircraft is to attack

enemy aircraft. Some early ighters like the Vickers

Gunbus and SPAD pulpit ighters had a gunner with

lexible gun and no gun for the pilot, but the ighter

soon evolved and a ixed gun for the pilot became

essential. Thus to be included in this work, a ixed

gun for the pilot was a requirement, and the C2MG

variant of the Friedrichshafen FF33L qualiies. Of

the 145 production FF33Ls, 60 were the C2MG

category with ixed gun for the pilot; the other 85

were category CHFT with wireless transmitter and

receiver and a lexible gun for the observer, but no

gun for the pilot. An additional 40 of the C2MG

version of the FF33L were ordered but not built and

the order was cancelled in December 1918.

The FF33 series was built in greater numbers, 491,

than any other German naval aircraft and perhaps

any WWI loatplane. The early FF33A and FF33B

were unarmed reconnaissance seaplanes built in

small numbers. The main early production aircraft

was the FF33E, also an unarmed reconnaissance

loatplane. The FF33H was an armed development

of the FF33E with a lexible gun for the observer and

smaller span for better maneuverability. The FF33J

was a replacement for the FF33E and the FF33S was

a trainer.

The FF33L, the inal version of the large FF33

family, was designed for use as an escort and

FF33L Production Orders

Marine

Numbers

Qty

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