Werner Voss and chequerboard kites?

[Beardie]

Hi all, this has got me a little puzzled -

 

Some time ago I picked up a book called "Iron Men with Wooden Wings" by Lou Cameron and I have recently been reading it. It is quite entertaining  although I don't believe it is very accurate in places but one part that has really got me foxed is his account of the aircraft flown by Werner Voss and his Jasta. He states that Voss favoured chequer designs on his aircraft, including the Dr.1 and also the Hussars emblem. I have never seen any reference to a chequered scheme anywhere else.

 

There are also a number of other things I have never heard elsewhere such as the claim that Voss was flying a borrowed silver and blue aircraft (No mention of type) at the time of his last battle.

 

All in all, while the book is entertaining it doesn't seem to be very accurate. I would be interested to know if anyone knows where he got these ideas about Voss schemes.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello @Beardie .. I did a quick check of google. The only thing i came across for Werner Voss/Checkerboard aircraft was this profile. 

I don't know the Author, and WW1 admittedly is far from my strongpoint. I was wondering though if the author or his source was confusing Lozenge camouflage for checkerboard ? 

[Tony Edmundson]

while Lou Cameron's book inspired me as a 13 year old, I have come to realize it's as close to fiction as you can get.  Take everything he wrote with a grain of salt.  Except the part about there being a war on.

 

The triplane Voss was killed in was a pre-production Fokker F1, given to him from Fokker.   MvR received the other one.

 

Tony

[Pauls9cb]

I guess the reality is that back in the 1960s, the art of historical WW1 air war research was helped by virtue of the fact that some of the participants were still alive with their recollections of actual events. As those of us of advanced age already have discovered, accurate memories of detail can often be confused. Today, without the benefit of live testimony, we do have the benefit of all the research tools we could wish for thanks to the internet which has been a boon to many of us who like to get as much detail as possible right. As far as the admirable Herr Voss is concerned, I guess the degree of research and opinions frequently aired on these pages and others is pretty exhaustive. While there are still supporters of the yellow cowling theory out there, I can't see much logic for the chequerboard pattern nor the hussar emblem.

[Beardie]

Mr Cameron says that not only did Voss employ a chequerboard pattern but that many of Jasta Boelcke also used it and I would have thought that, had this been the case it would be pretty much common knowledge so I am guessing that it is fiction but it is hard to see where the idea came from as chequers were far from common as a scheme. Other things in the book are pretty dubious as well such as his claim that Richthofen and Voss were rivals and certainly not friends and yet Richthofen is recorded as having spent time at the hunting lodge of the Voss family.