Gotha G.V***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

As expected I did not finish my Gotha build in the Ukranian GB so have transferred it to the KUTA - here is a link to the previous part of the build.

 

 

I have tidied up the fuselage adding the segment of the forward gun ring which could be lifted up to provide access, together with the missing raised lip at the rear of the other gun position where the "corridor" would have been in the G.IV, and I have glazed the "Cellon" windows. I have also painted the lower wing centre section and added decal stripes for the non-slip walkway - some sources say they were black, others aluminium.

 

 

As you can see I have assembled and painted the engine pods which was a bit of a fiddle. As with the Roden Albatros and Pfalz scouts I built earlier the "engine bearers" inside the cowlings needed reducing in size, and the position of the cylinder block was a bit vague - I ended up mounting it a little too far back and had to extend the pipe that runs over the top in each case. On the blue painted planes the cowlings and struts seem to have been light grey though they were a grey green on the later camo versions apparently. Roden offer two types of exhaust - early and late and they say that the plane I am modelling had the late version which was apparently an attempt at both silencing and flame damping. The Brits tested an example from a crashed plane on a DH.9 and said that although it did reduce the noise by around 4% and stopped flames, there were still sparks emitted and after a few minutes at full throttle the exhaust glowed bright red and was plainly visible at night.

 

A bit more narrative-

 

I suppose that the “Gotha Bombers” are best known for the raids on London, though those were only carried out by the later G.IV, G.V. And G.Va/b variants which just about had enough range for the job with a reduced bombload. As with the earlier G.II/III, all versions also carried out shorter range missions over France where they were able to carry a heavier payload, and the later versions also carried out numerous raids on the South East coast of the UK either deliberately or as a result of adverse weather conditions or malfunctions preventing them reaching London. The following is based on the Osprey Campaign books on the Zeppelin and Gotha raids which are very interesting though as ever with books, I do not know how accurate they are.

 

Zeppelin raids against London had started at the end of May 1915 and continued until October 1917, though the airships were still in use for some time after that. Towards the end of 1916 the German High Command began looking at using the new Gotha G.IV and the various “R” (Riesenflugzeug) designs (often called “Giants”) to supplement the Zeppelins in the campaign against London and eventually replace them as aircraft were much cheaper, quicker to build, required far less resources and crew, and were expected to have better performance. With this in mind a new unit was created in March 1917 – Kagohl 3 (Kampfgeschwader 3 der Oberste Heeresleitung which translates to something like “Battle Squadron 3 of the Army High Command”) . Later the name would change to Bogohl 3 (Bomben Geschwader 3 der O.H.L.).

 

Using bases clustered around Ghent in Belgium, Kagohl 3 under the command of Ernst Brandenburg spent some time working up but on May 25th 1917 they set off for their first attempt at bombing London, only to find that the city was covered by dense fog so they turned back and bombed Folkestone on the coast. The second attempt on June 5th encountered similar problems and it was not until June 12th that they reached London for the first time. 20 planes took off, but 2 turned back with engine problems, and after they crossed the English coast another 4 left the formation, dropping bombs on various targets of opportunity before heading for home, leaving 14 to make the intended attack. This is it seems fairly typical as a combination of weather problems together with aircraft unreliability and maybe navigation errors (particularly at night) would mean that in the following raids only part of the original formation would reach the target – in some cases only a handful bombed London itself. The weather was not only a problem over the target, as on at least one occasion aircraft returning from a raid found their airfields covered by fog resulting in a spate of crashes. This first raid is said to have resulted in 162 killed, 426 injured and damage estimated at £125953 at the time. All aircraft returned safely to their bases.

 

To be continued........

 

Pete

 

Edited January 17 by PeterB

[81-er]

You're a brave man tackling one of these, Pete. As an aside, I grew up a short drive away from Coalhouse Fort, which served as one of the aerial defence batteries during the two World Wars. It was also used to film the scenes in the prison grounds in Batman Begins

 

James

[PeterB]

As I said near the start of my build, Roden had presumably tried to economise by including parts for the Gotha G.IV, G.V and probably the G.III in the same boxing but as a result I would have had to carry out major surgery on the fuselage to build a G.IV so I decided instead to build a G.V. However, because the G.V had increased sweepback, presumably to move the centre of lift back a bit to compensate somewhat for the dangerous tail heavyness when landing empty, I still had to carry out some minor surgery on the wings.

 

The top wing was not too bad as they provide 3 different centre sections, one for each type, but they only provide 2 sets of lower wings - one for the G.III with no ailerons and one for the G.IV so as you can see I needed to saw a little wedge off the ends, which will no doubt cause alignment problems with the interplane struts later. Anyway, having done the surgery I have painted the wings and am waiting for them to dry so I started work on some more of the fuselage detail.  The large props on the pusher engines came very close to the rear fuselage gun position so guards were provided either to stop the gunner leaning into the props with fatal results or to prevent him shooting them off depending on which source you read, and as on the Frog Vimy I built a year ago, they were solid.

 

 

I decided to improve them so I drilled round the edges and cut out the "mesh".

 

 

 

I did not want to spend money on the Brengun detail set so I sourced mesh from my spares boxes. On the Vimy I used part of a cheapo nylon tea-strainer, but here I used some PE Engine grilles left over from a Tank conversion I was planning 30 years ago - I ended up buying some Millicast tanks instead once I discovered they had the ones I wanted.

 

 

It looks better from a distance!

 

I also managed to cobble together some appropriate decs for the "serial".

 

 

906/16 is one of the options given by Roden in their G.V boxing and features in one of my books, but more on that later.

 

At this stage I think a short explanation of the British defences would be appropriate. Since 1915 London had been raided by Zeppelins and so a mix of guns and aircraft had been set up to deal with them. However, the demands for men and equipment for the Western Front meant that the defences were under-resourced with nowhere near as many AA guns as required, and the aircraft were mostly older types no longer fit for service at the front. The Osprey book shows that at the time of the first London raid by Gothas there were only 65 guns in position around London, and that between the coast and the Capital there were only 33 RNAS planes and 55 RFC ones available including a few at various depots set up to take delivery of planes from the factory, and prepare and test them before entering squadron service, and also a couple of experimental centres. The majority were of the B.E. 2 and B.E.12 type, with a few Bristol Scouts, R.E.7/8, DH.5 and A-W F.K.8, thought there were a small number of Sopwith Pups, Triplanes and Strutters as well, and the test centres had a handful of the new Bristol Fighters and D.H.4 bombers. Few if any of the planes were fitted with radio, perhaps because of the size and weight of the sets, but one source mentions a veto on aircraft radios by the Admiralty who thought they would “interfere with naval communications”. As a result the normal system was for planes to take off and carry out standing patrols once they heard that Zeppelins had crossed the coast, which was barely adequate for intercepting big slow airships and almost useless against the Gothas.

 

If they were lucky enough to spot a Gotha, the defending forces had to deal with a target which was considerably smaller, faster and more manoeuvrable than the 550 ft long Zeppelins of the early period, which had a top speed in ideal conditions of just under 60mph and a ceiling of around 12000 ft, though size, ceiling and speed did increase until the 650 ft “Super Zeppelins” of 1918 were at 80 mph about as fast as the Gothas and could on paper climb to 18000-20000ft.  To make matters worse, at the suggestion of Field Marshall French, in March 1917 an order was issued that no aircraft whether or not it was identified as hostile, could be fired at by any AA guns other than those in the "restricted coastal belt" so the guns around London were not initially manned when the first Gothas arrived - apparently it saved manpower needed at the front!  There was also a concern about damage likely to be caused by shells/shrapnel falling back to earth from the guns, which was justified to some extent as it was indeed responsible for a fairly large percentage of the casualties. However, after the public outcry caused by the first couple of daylight raids the defences did slowly improve and begin to take an increasingly heavy toll on the bombers.

 

Pete

Edited January 18 by PeterB

[Toryu]

Good that you resumed the Gotha. She's not often seen here-around. The serial number turned out perfectly!

 

[PeterB]

Ok, the enamel gloss paint is now dry and hardened so I am almost ready to start trying to join them up.

 

 

Before that however, I am going to turn some of the strut locating holes into "slots" to allow some adjustment as I doubt the alignment will now be accurate after my surgery, even if Roden had got it right originally!

 

The wings should have 3.5^o dihedral apparently according to the instructions, so to help with that I have made some "jigs" using my ancient Thornton "Trig-angle".

 

 

Before I started Uni in 1967 I received a list of equipment I was told to buy for my Engineering Drawing classes, including this, a set of Thornton screw actuated compasses and a "boxwood scale rule", non of which were cheap, though the slide rule was by far the most expensive item I had to buy at around £25 I seem to remember. The above piece of kit is graduated in half degrees and should be a lot more accurate than my basic small plastic protractor! I still have the compasses though the small one is broken, and the medium sized one is still used for measuring rigging lengths - the scale rule vanished years ago!

 

Pete

Edited January 24 by PeterB

[81-er]

£25 for the scale rule? Ouch!

 

James

[PeterB]

5 hours ago, 81-er said:

£25 for the scale rule? Ouch!

 

James

The scale rule was quite expensive for what was essentially a more detailed and accurate wood rule with bevelled edges, but it was the slide rule that cost £25 I believe, though more basic versions were cheaper. 

 

 

It is a double sided long version made by Faber Castell - the length stretches the scales for greater accuracy and being double sided it has a lot more functions than the cheaper single sided ones, the most basic of which were only half as long - I went for the best in the shop and it served me well, though you need good eyesight and an element of judgement comes into it when you get to the second or third decimal point.😄 

 

Not long after the time I sat my finals in 1970  the new fangled pocket calculators made an appearance, but I had by then got to be pretty proficient with my slide rule, though they never could add and subtract!  I would not have a clue how to use it now. 

 

Pete

Edited January 25 by PeterB

[81-er]

Slide rules have always impressed me because of the work that went into making them and the things they were capable of, but I've never learnt to use one. When I started my A-levels in 1997 the college had a deal on for a fancy Casio graphical calculator for £50 rather than the £75 it was in the shops, so naturally everyone on a maths or physics course bought one. Very handy for all those "sketch the graph of this equation" questions, which is probably why they're banned in the exams now  One of the guys I knew who was also doing a computing course programmed his to play space invaders.

 

James

[PeterB]

6 hours ago, 81-er said:

Slide rules have always impressed me because of the work that went into making them and the things they were capable of, but I've never learnt to use one. When I started my A-levels in 1997 the college had a deal on for a fancy Casio graphical calculator for £50 rather than the £75 it was in the shops, so naturally everyone on a maths or physics course bought one. Very handy for all those "sketch the graph of this equation" questions, which is probably why they're banned in the exams now  One of the guys I knew who was also doing a computing course programmed his to play space invaders.

 

James

Since posting this I have looked up slide rules on Wiki and found that they have been around in one form or another for a lot longer than I realised - since around 1630 reputedly, and that you could get them with a variety of different scales to cover a multitude of applications. I guess pretty much everything that needed calculations, including most aircraft built until the last 60 or so years involved the use of one, and apparently they are still carried as back-ups in case of power failure in some applications. Nevil Shute's choice of "Slide Rule" for the title of his autobiography was indeed appropriate.

 

Pete

Edited January 26 by PeterB

[PeterB]

I have made a bit more progress on the Gotha. I glued the top wing sections together, first with Contacta and then reinforcing the joint with thin CA and it seems to have worked reasonably well, though it is far from robust. 

 

 

Whilst waiting for that to set hard I also added the engines which, given the usual problem with the early Roden kits I have built, was not made any easier by the lack of really positive locating holes for the struts, but I got there in the end. Next up I will attempt to get the lower wing sections on which could be fun. When Ray built his G.III a little over a year ago, the wings kept falling off so he drilled and pinned them - I will try to do that as a last resort, but as the wing section is no more than 1.5mm thick at most I doubt my hands would be up to it. Hopefully the same combination as on the top wing will get them on, and if the joint lasts long enough for the top wing/struts/rigging to be added the wing modules may then be quite strong.🤞

 

Unless we get an extension I can't see me finishing this before the deadline but if the wings hold together I could be quite close. If I had not been using gloss enamel with its extended drying time I would probably have been further advanced by now.

 

Pete

[JOCKNEY]

Looks terrific Pete

[PeterB]

I managed to glue the outer sections of the lower wing in place and whilst not perfect it has worked quite well.

 

 

Based on my experience with the Frog Vimy a while ago I have bolted together a wide version of my Meccano support jig and incorporated a couple of modifications. To support the lower wing I have used Copydex "rubber glue" to mount the dihedral jigs on the base plate, and I have added short adjustable legs to the rear of the jig so I can position the kit nose down to work on the wings, freeing up both hands - in theory.

 

 

Here is the kit in position.

 

 

As you can see I have added black decal lines to represent the outer anti-skid walkway. Now I have to decide how I am going to "tack" the top wing in place. Given that I have had to cut and glue the wing sections together with both dihedral and sweep, there is clearly a probability that they may not exactly line up in spite of my best efforts, so the wing geometry is unlikely to be perfect. That also means that the strut alignment may be  difficult in all probability, and the more struts I can add after the wing is tacked in place the more likely the struts will look right. Having said that there is a minimum number of struts needed to hold the wing in place - there are 12 interplane struts, 4 cabane struts, 8 struts running from the top of the engines and 2 struts joining the ailerons and trying to get them all in place at once is just not going to happen! Whilst I am thinking about that, here is a bit more on the bombing raids-

 

After his return from the first raid on London, Brandenburg flew to Berlin to brief the Kaiser on it and to receive the Pour Le Merite medal, but on his return flight the Albatros he was a passenger in crashed killing the pilot. Brandenburg survived but lost a leg and did not return to Kagohl 3 for several months. His replacement was Rudolf Klein and sources say that whilst Brandenburg was “calm and calculating” Klein was “impatient and rash at times”. Certainly he was to ignore adverse weather reports more than once with disastrous results it appears. The weather prevented any further raids on London until July 7th, though a raid was carried out on the naval town of Harwich on July 4th. For the second raid Klein had the bombload reduced for greater speed and height and 24 planes took off. 2 turned back due to malfunctions and 1 more aborted due to engine problems dropping his bombs on Margate. The remaining 21 bombed the city and turned for home. One was shot down into the sea, another so badly damaged that it crash landed on the beach at Ostend, and three crashed on landing for a variety of reasons.

 

Due to adverse weather the 2 raids made in August were against coastal towns. The first on August 18th by was a disaster as high winds forced the Gothas off course and of the 28 that took off, up to 9 were lost due to a combination of low fuel, enemy action and crash landings. Undaunted, Klein launched another attack on August 22 when he could only scrape together 15 planes. 5 including that of Klein had to turn back early with engine problems, whilst the remainder found the defences ready and waiting and bombed Ramsgate and Margate. 3 Gotha's were shot down, 2 probably by RNAS aircraft and one by AA fire, bringing Kagohl 3's losses to 12 for the month and 17 since Klein took over.

 

It had been hoped that the new G.V would have sufficiently improved performance for daylight bombing to continue, but it proved no better than the G.IV so Kagohl 3 switched to night raids from then on, so there were only 2 daylight raids that actually reached London. These were followed by 15 night raids though not all involved Gothas as the aircraft of Rfa (Reisen Flugzeug Abteilung) 501 carried out some with the Gothas and some on their own, but more on that next time.

 

Next time you see the kit the upper wing should be on - either that or it will have gone back on the shelf for a re-think

 

Pete

Edited January 30 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Well, it nearly went back on the shelf of doom but in the end I managed it.

 

 

I went for the outer and inner pair of interplane struts and the rear pair of cabane struts - the wing alignment is pretty good but the struts are a bit out as they should be vertical and have ended up leaning outwards a little. The trick I mentioned earlier of turning the locating holes in the lower wing into lateral "slots" almost worked but it seems I should have extended them outwards another mm or so. So, it is not quite right but I can live with it. Next up I will fit the remaining cabane struts, rig the incidence wires on the inner interplane struts whilst I can still get at them easily, and then have a shot at the struts running up from the top of the engines. After that I can add the remaining interplane struts and start on the rest of the rigging. In the meantime here is a brief description of the first 7 night raids on London.

 

After a period of intensive night flying training 4 Gothas bombed Sheerness, Margate and Chatham on the night of September 3rd with hits on a naval drill hall at the latter location causing 138 deaths and leaving 88 injured. At 8.30 the following evening the first of 11 Gothas took off and headed for London, the rest taking off at roughly 5 minute intervals as they had abandoned formation flying at night. 2 turned back and one was probably shot down by guns near Rochester, though no wreckage was ever found so it was presumed to have crashed into either the river Medway or the Thames estuary. Of the remainder that continued inland, 5 seem to have bombed London before returning home. With the return of night raiders the British defences were re-organised with more guns, revised fire plans, and steps to set up a balloon barrage were put in hand, including wire curtains suspended between groups of 3 balloons, though the first of these was not in place until October.

 

The weather stopped any further raids until improvements were forecast for the start of what was to be called the “Harvest Moon Offensive” - 6 raids in 8 days staring on September 24th when 16 Gothas set out. 3 returned early and only 3 bombed London, the rest dropping bombs on Dover and other coastal targets. One bomber crashed on landing in Belgium. The next night 15 Gothas set out, 1 turning back and most of the rest again attacking coastal targets , but once more 3 attacked London, and 1 failed to return, presumably crashing in the sea. The weather then intervened and it was not until the night of September 28th when Kleine launched no less than 25 Gothas and they were joined by a couple of “Giants” from Rfa 501 for the first time. Just before take-off the weather service advised that the cloud was closing in but Klein decided to press on, but advised the crews to turn back if they could not see a target. 15 did in fact abort, and only 3 Gothas and 2 Giants claimed to have actually bombed London, though in fact no bombs were reported to have fallen there that night. The return journey turned into a nightmare for the German crews with 3 crews believed shot down by coastal AA guns and a further 5 crashing on landing in Belgium and one in Holland – a third of the aircraft in the raid having therefore been lost. In spite of that Klein sent out 7 Gothas and 3 Giants the next night, though only 2 Gothas and one Giant are believed to have bombed London. One Gotha was believed to have been shot down and another crashed in Holland. They were up again the following night, September 30th which was the night of the full moon – this time 11 Gothas took off though 1 turned back early. This time all the remaining 10 planes returned safely after bombing London. The final raid of the Harvest Moon offensive took place on October 1st when of 18 Gothas launched, 6 turned back though ground mist and heavy AA fire meant that probably only 6 reached London. Apparently all the planes returned home safely once more, but a period of 4 weeks of bad weather brought the offensive to an end.

 

Pete

 

 

 

[HarryHobbyin]

it looking good your almost there. 

 

Very interesting history. Its incredible they where able too reach london. I'm sure the engines weren't very fuel efficient. WW1 baffles me as it seems everyday was likely a suicide mission.  either on the ground , sea or in the air. 

[PeterB]

23 minutes ago, HarryHobbyin said:

it looking good your almost there. 

 

Very interesting history. Its incredible they where able too reach london. I'm sure the engines weren't very fuel efficient. WW1 baffles me as it seems everyday was likely a suicide mission.  either on the ground , sea or in the air. 

Hi Harry,

 

According to the Windsock book, the G.IV as built could not in fact do a round trip to London even by the most direct route so an extra fuel tank had to be added, reducing the potential bombload. The Gothas were always marginal in terms of fuel so adverse winds or faulty navigation probably caused quite a few of the losses.

 

Pete

[PeterB]

Yesterday was quite a good day for the Gotha, and by the time I went to bed it looked like this-

 

 

All the struts are now on though the ones between the engines and upper wing were a pain. Roden provide two pairs of struts a side, one set a little longer than the other. According to the instructions the short ones go at the front, but they were too short, either due to my not having placed the engines quite right or more likely a typo. In the end I had to use the long ones at the front and had to shorten all 4 struts to get them to align in accordance with the Windsock plan, and there was no way they would actually go in the locating holes under the wing even though I had turned them into lateral slots so the unused holes have now been filled. As usual I managed to break one and had to make a new one out of Contrail/Aeroclub stock strutting. I don't know why Roden struts seem so fragile - I guess it could be the type of plastic they use, and/or because they are so thin. Whatever, it is not perfect but it is done!

 

Now all I have to do is put on the rigging, which will no doubt take a couple of days, and then it can be carefully removed from the jig, though I will have to remove the masking tape close to the fuselage before I do the inner bay.

 

This may be a good time to explain the so called “Giants” - the Germans actually called them Riesenflugzug (literally “cruising planes” according to my dictionary) or “R” planes and just about every major German aircraft manufacturer seems to have had their own design but most either never left the drawing board or had not entered service by the time the war ended. Only 2 manufacturers planes could be regarded as successful - SSW and Zeppelin and it was aircraft from the latter company that raided London. After 3 early models had been built at their Gotha East factory, production switched to their Staaken works starting with a single example of the 6 engined R.IV. This had three pairs of coupled engines, one in the nose driving a tractor prop, and the others between the wings driving pusher props. The R.V. had only 5 engines – one in the nose, and the others as two coupled pairs between the wings driving tractor props, and was followed by the main production version, the 4 engined R.VI, which dispensed with the fuselage engine, and reverted to uncoupled engines in pairs between the wings, driving a tractor prop with the forward engine and a pusher with the rear. 18 were built, followed by 3 R.XIV with a nose engine reinstated.

 

They were nearly twice as big as the Gothas and could carry a much larger payload in excess of 2000kg, including the 1000 kg bomb on a modified machine, although normally the payload for London was no more than 1000kg made up of smaller weapons.. Their size initially caused problems for the British defenders as they assumed they were Gothas and as a result AA guns fired too low, having misjudged the height, whilst aircraft pilots fired from too far away having misjudged the range. They also had rather more guns and crew to man them, and proved a dangerous opponent, with none actually being shot down over the UK, though one was brought down over France. There is some potential confusion regarding nomenclature as not only did the manufacturers use the R designation for the various design type numbers, but also the air force allocated an R serial number, so for example the sole Staaken R.IV was R.12/15. The R.V was R13/15 and the R.VI were R.25/16 to R39/16 and R.52/16 to R54/16. Rfa 501 had a notional complement of 6 R planes and ones believed to have been used in the bombing raids on London are the R.12. R.13, R.25, R.26, R.27, R.29, R.32, R.33, R.36 and R.39 though records are incomplete. Once airborne, far fewer R planes turned back with problems than the Gothas – 93.4% completed the mission compared with only 76.4% according to Haddow and Grosz in their book “The German Giants”.

 

Roden have released a kit of the R.VI type, but assuming I could afford around £90 to buy one, even I am not quite mad enough to try and build a 23 inch span biplane which I would then have problems finding somewhere to store  safely where it would not collect dust as previous experience shows the rigging makes cleaning very difficult!

 

Pete

 

Edited February 1 by PeterB

[81-er]

She's coming along very nice, Pete

 

James

[PeterB]

The wings are rigged!

 

 

As usual I have gone for a simplified "representative" approach with no control runs, no engine bracing wires and only single wires where there may have been double ones in real life, but after putting 44 wires on I was suffering from "rigging fatigue" - there is over 2 metres of wire on the wings! I will do a bit of touching up now, and then probably add a few bits and pieces and some decs before cutting it free from the jig.

 

So, on with the story.

 

The bombers did not return until October 31st, by which time the defences had been strengthened with more guns and ammunition, and the first of the balloon screens was in place. Newer and better fighters were also beginning to be introduced, and their crews trained to fly at night. 22 Gothas set off and for once all reached England but results were not impressive as strong crosswinds forced many to the North of London. When they returned to base fog had set in and 5 were wrecked attempting to land. The weather forced another delay, but on the night of December 5th 19 Gothas and 2 R planes set off once more. 3 Gothas turned back, 2 were shot down and another failed to return, To make matters worse 3 also crashed on landing. During the previous raid the bombload had included a small percentage of incendiary bombs, but on this raid far more were carried in the hopes of starting major fires. Presumably these were of a similar type to that carried by Zeppelins, which weighed about 10.5 kg and consisted of a core of thermite surrounded by an outer shell filled with benzene, the whole thing being then wrapped in tarred rope. The idea of starting a “firestorm” was sound enough as Bomber Command would prove in the next war, but the early bombs were not very effective. To quote from the Osprey book-

 

'Klein lost 6 of his 16 attacking aircraft, yet, in spite of dropping over 260 incendiary and 13 explosive bombs, total damage in the London area was estimated at £92303, of which about half occurred at one site. The bombs killed 2 civilians and injured 7, whilst falling AA shells killed a man in Wanstead and injured 8 others across London. Klein's great hope to set London ablaze had failed. The problem was that so many of the incendiary bombs fell in roadways or gardens where they burnt out, and those that did ignite could be extinguished by a determined person with water or sand if they could get to them early enough; others just failed to ignite.'

 

The Germans decided they needed a new, more effective incendiary bomb and started to urgently develop one. They came up with what was called the “B-1E Elektronbrandebombe” which was basically thermite in a magnesium alloy casing (trade name Elektron) and only weighed 1 kg. A plan was devised for all available planes to be loaded with these and simultaneously bomb both Paris and London in the hopes of forcing the Allies to surrender, but on the night of September 23rd 1918 as the first wave of the Paris raid was actually lining up for take-off orders were received cancelling it. Apparently it had been decided that with the war clearly going against Germany, such an action would have adverse effects on the terms of any armistice! The B-1E bombs did however go on to form the basis of a family of similar incendiaries used by the Luftwaffe in WW2 as shown in my book on WWII German Ordnance.

 

 

Pete

 

Edited February 3 by PeterB

[PeterB]

My Gotha is finally off the jig.

 

 

As you can see I have added the prop guards and gun rail to the rear gun position and put more of the decs on. Next up I will have a go at the undercarriage.

 

6 days after the December 5th raid, Klein led Kaghol 3 in an attack on Ypres, and was killed. Oberst Walter, senior flight commander took over on a temporary basis and on December 18th he led 15 Gothas in an attack on London, joined by the sole R.IV type R.12. 2 Gothas dropped out and it is believed 6 Gothas plus R.12 managed to actually bomb the city. One Gotha was shot down, 2 caught fire on landing and 5 others were damaged. The weather then closed in and once more the notorious London fogs proved to be an effective defence until January 28th when the weather seemed to have improved. 13 Gothas and 2 “Giants” took off and then fog enveloped the airfield grounding the rest of the formation. Running into the fog over the sea 6 Gothas turned back as did one R.type with engine trouble, but the remained pressed on, though 4 of the Gothas decided on attacking alternative targets. One returned early but the 3 that did reach London bombed it but one was shot down. Later the R.12 arrived and one of its 300 kg bombs hit Oldhams printing works in Long Acre, the cellar of which was being used as an official air raid shelter. The floors collapsed allowing the heavy printing presses to fall leaving 38 killed and 85 injured – the most casualties caused by a single bomb. Besides the one shot down, 4 more Gothas crashed on landing. The following night 4 R.types including R.25, R.26 and R.39 set off for London on their own. 1 turned back early and R.26 then turned back with engine trouble and R.25 was attacked by Sopwith Camels armed with new explosive bullets, but confusion with the gunsight which was set for the span of a Gotha meant that they fired when out of range. Even so, when R.25 landed at the Belgian base it was found to have 88 bullet holes in it. They also nearly ran into one of the new wire screens or “aprons” suspended from balloons and had to take violent evasive action. Thus ended the 11th night raid on London.

 

In February, walking with difficulty with an artificial leg, Brandenburg returned to take command of Boghol 3 as it had been renamed in December, and found the unit in a poor shape. The increasing strength of the defences plus heavy losses were beginning to hit the morale and the planes were in poor condition and in short supply, so he stood the unit down until replacement aircraft arrived. As a result, the next raid on February 16th was once more an all Rfa 501 effort with 5 Giants launching, but due to strong winds 3 switched to their secondary target of Dover. R.12 and R.39 however pressed on – R.39 was a Staaken R.VI which had been modified to carry the 1000kg bomb and was usually the personal mount of the unit commander Richard von Bentivegni. R.12 collided with one of the wire screens and although it caused little actual damage, it threw the plane out of control causing 2 of the 300 kg bombs to break free and fall near Woolwich. Regaining control the pilot turned for home after dumping the rest of his load near Shortlands railway station. R.39 dropped the first 1000kg bomb, missing their target and instead demolishing part of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, though only apparently killing 4 and wound several others. I have read that the crews preferred to use smaller and more numerous bombs rather than the one big one as not only were they quite effective but it increased their chances of at least one hitting something of value. All the planes got back safely though R.33 was by that time down to just one working engine out of four. The next day Rfa.501 could only send one plane (R.25) out but it carried out some of the most accurate bombing so far, including a tight grouping of 5 on St. Pancras station which a British analysis later described as “a fine piece of shooting”. On March 7th Rfa once more launched a raid when 6 planes took off. One aborted and only three actually bombed London – R.13, R.27 and R.39 again carrying a 1000kg bomb which hit a row of houses in Warrington Crescent killing 12 and injuring 33. R.13 limped home on 3 of its 5 engines, R.27 force landed in Belgium after water in contaminated fuel froze causing all the engines to stop, and one of the planes that had bombed alternative targets, possibly R.36 was wrecked in an emergency landing.

 

Pete

 

[81-er]

She's looking good with the rigging and the decals on

 

James

[PeterB]

I had another good day yesterday.

 

 

The undercarriage is on, rigged and painted and I have added the quadrants for the elevator control cables.

 

 

I also added one bomb rack with 3 P.u.W bombs - these were designed by the Prüfanstalt und Werfe der Fliegertruppe (Test Establishment and Workshop of the Aviation Troops) together with the bomb sight manufacturer Goerz-Friedenau to replace the inaccurate early bombs made by the Carbonit company. The latter were short fat "teardrop" shaped bombs which proved to wobble after release  and to be prone to drifting in the wind, so the new bombs were much longer and more streamlined , with offset fins to make them spin for stability, like the RAF Tallboy and Grand Slam in the next war.

They came in a range of sizes as shown below.

 

 

From left to right 50kg, 100kg, 300kg and 1000kg and the man is holding a 12.5kg one.

 

The kit appears to provide 12.5kg, 50kg and 100kg bombs and I have gone for a pair of 100kg ones with a 50kg one in between - quite a light load though there would probably have been some small bombs or incendiaries stored internally. The kit instructions say they were painted in the same pale blue as the rest of the plane but I have followed Wingnut Wings suggestion and painted them Humbrol Hu 65. Now all I have to do is add the underwing crosses, the two defensive mg and the props.

 

To bring the story to a conclusion -

 

A combination of weather and demands from the High Command for the bombers to attack targets on the Western Front meant that the Gothas and Giants were absent from the skies over London until May. On May 9th, both Rfa 501 and Boghol 3 were intending to launch another attack, but weather forecasters warned of heavy fog so Brandenburg cancelled the mission. However, although he received the same warning, von Bentivegni rashly decided to press ahead, resulting in the loss of 3 out of the 4 R.planes launched. Turning back early after a recall due to adverse weather they were warned that the airfield was fogged in and advised to land at alternatives, but all decided to try landing at home anyway, and only R.39 avoided crashing. On May 19th, Whitsun Bank Holiday, the weather was at last favourable and so what would be the final raid on London took off. Rfa 501 could only manage 3 planes, but Brandenburg launched all 38 of the Gothas he now had available. 10 turned back early and one was shot down over the Isle of Sheppey, whilst others, deterred by the barrage of AA shells bombed targets outside London so it is believed only 18 actually bombed the intended target. Two more were shot down by fighters on the way home, and two by coastal AA batteries, whilst yet another on suffered a malfunction and also crashed, and one crashed on landing. After 2 daylight and 15 night raids, the bombing campaign against London was at an end. The Gotha and Giant raids on London resulted in 486 deaths and 1432 injuries, which, added to casualties in other towns they bombed rose to 837 deaths and 1991 injured. The price the Germans paid for this was around 60 Gothas lost, of which 24 were shot down or missing and the rest written off in crash landings. I have found no record of the crew losses.

 

I should perhaps apologise for the length of my "lecture". My only excuse is that before starting this build my knowledge of the Gothas was pretty much limited to "they were big for the time and bombed London", and I suspect the same applies to a few other modellers out there. Also, as several of our fellow modellers on this site have connections with London, such as Pat, I thought they might find the details interesting.

 

Pete

Edited February 4 by PeterB

[81-er]

It's nice to see her so close to the finish, Pete. I find the history fascinating, as I only knew about the same as you about these before your build

 

James

[Toryu]

It's great to see your Gotha progress through the various stages, sometimes appearing as if it never came together - but it did in a wonderful way!

[Roberto]

Great work on an impressive kit 👍

[AdrianMF]

The model is looking superb and your history lessons are, as always, interesting and informative.

 

As a long-time adopted Londoner with an interest in these things, I am always noticing gaps and newer builds in rows of Victorian terraced houses.

 

Thanks,

Adrian