Russian Zeppelin Killer

[Luftmensch]

 

Saw these postcards and they seem to be of the same action, and not just fantasy drawings.

Can anyone identify who the pilot was and what happened here?

A translation of the captions would be great.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[Egorka]

The first one is the action by French ppilot Roland Garros. 

The second is unrelated I think. 

Edited April 24, 2017 by Egorka

[Claudius]

I was aware of WWII Russian pilots that would ram other planes.  There was even a pilot that survived a successful ramming and went to fly and ram again (didn't survive that collision). 

This postcard would suggest that the idea and practice of aerial ramming started in WWI.

[Egorka]

The text on the postcards:

1. "Heroic deed by Garros. Zeppelin destruction."
2. "War in the air. Destruction of a German zeppelin by a Russian airplane."

So the first postcard refers to specific person - French pilot Roland Garros, who did NOT perform any aerial ramming attacks during his carrier. Similarly, I don't know of any aerial ramming attacks on a zepellin by a Russian aviator in WWI. There are two known Russian pilots who did Nesterov (died) and Kazakov (survived), but they both attacked another airplane.

So this brings me to the point: These postcards do NOT depict an aerial ramming attack. I have to say I am surprised myself, as that is kind of how they look like!

[Luftmensch]

Fascinating!  Thanks for the lead on Garros.

Looks like we stumbled on a great war myth.

 

The original wire service report:

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1914/08/03/LONDON-Aug-3-1914-UP-The-first-air-battle-in-world-history-has-taken-place-at-Longwy-France-A-French-aviator-circled-above-a-German-aircraft-fired-down-upon-it-and-sent-it-300-feet-to-earth-The-German-aviator-was-killed/9181863545103/

 

The rest of the story...

https://airminded.org/2013/05/15/the-first-death-of-roland-garros/

 

 

 

[Egorka]

Hello. I checked out the Russian magazine "Niva" for 1914. In the issue #32 from 9 August 1914 there is an article about emerging aerial warfare. In the article there is a photograph of Roland Garros and information that he rammed Zeppelin and died in the attack. 

Later in another August issue there is a lithograph of the attack (the one recognised from postcard). The author of the lithograph was Aleksander Andreevich CHIKIN (1865 - 1924), who was quite a fellow: travelled many wild places, was an optician working in astronomy. 

As you see from the dates, the rumours about alleged ramming by Garros spread quickly. 

Edited August 26, 2017 by Egorka

[Luftmensch]

Very interesting. 

From Wikipedia: 

Niva...was the most popular magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia; it lasted from 1870 to 1918, and defined itself on its masthead as "an illustrated weekly journal of literature, politics and modern life." Niva was the first of the "thin magazines," illustrated weeklies that "contrasted with the more serious and ideologically focused monthly 'thick journals' intended for the educated reader."^[1]  .....In his autobiography, Maxim Gorky says that his employers in the early 1880s subscribed to Niva "for the cut-out patterns and the prize offers; but they never read it"; he himself, however, was enthralled by the volumes he pulled out from under their bed and read at night...It continued to be popular after the October Revolution, especially in the provinces (in the capitals it was the object of frequent jokes by the sophisticated), but was closed by the Bolsheviks in September 1918.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Luftmensch