Capture of largest bombardier in WW1, details, pictures, its fate afterwards

I found on a site with a list of what's available in a public library an interesting title on Romanian army capturing the largest bombardier used in WW1. Was is used by AH army or maybe by Bela Kun's army? Maybe someone can provide details, picture and its fate. Thank you.

This is the link:
http://www.bcucluj.ro/re/oc/BistRO1999-200...PRINS/BV06f.HTM

This is the article (librarians enjoy using only first letters, a nuisance when trying to find that DI magazine!):

This post has been edited by mateias on January 17, 2008 02:52 pm

It was an Zeppelin-Staaken after war ended. It was supose to land in Ucraina but made a force landing in Moldavia (or Basarabia). It has the ucrainian emblem and abreviation DLR (Deutche Luft R.... ?) painted on fuselage.




This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on January 18, 2008 06:25 am

I think it was Zeppelin-Staaken R. XIV

This is the article of Valeriu Avram (published in Dosarele Istoriei nr.9, 2001)

this is the plane. is not the same from your picture:
http://www.earlyaviator.com/archive/a/imag...taaken_RXIV.jpg

As you noticed I put the article of Avram with the picture of the plane inside. My first picture was only quick google serch.

There is one Zeppelin Staaken propeller is in the Aviation Hall of the Military Museum in Bucharest. Is it from this aircraft?
Radu

Probably Yes

Very interesting.
There are some things unclear to me.
1. What's the connection between Germans and Nationalist Ukrainians (flight from Breslau to ...). Were they allies at that times ?
2. The article mentions London bombings. Are records of such things in British sources ?
3. What regiment captured the plane and its crew (it's mentioned only 8th Division).
4. I wonder if the event was mentioned in the press of those days (Bucharest, Bessarabia).
BTW, Cristinesti is in Hotin area (Bessarabia). It's birthplace for an important Romanian historian with Polish ancestry, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. He also wrote an useful dictionary, among others.

The Staaken was used to transport Ukrianian currency being printed in Germany to Ukraine, during the period of the Skoropadskiy regime. At that time German and Austro-Hungarian troops occupied much of Ukraine. Best regards, agblume

Notes printed in October 1918, bombardier captured in September 1919. Interesting. In October 1918, Central Powers were still fighting everywhere. I wonder if the Ukrainian Rada, freshly independent after Lenin's promise of freedom to all nations of the Russian Empire, was already in a position to place an order with Germany ! Hatman Skoropadsky was already history by OCT. 1918 when Germans abandoned the area, being replaced by Petliura. And in FEB. 1919, the "Romanian" Rakovsky, ruler of Red Ukraine, captured Kiev.

Chronology at this link:
http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi200...rrent11/mi5.htm

QUESTION: Bombardier captured in SEPT. 1919, flight from Breslau to ..... What is this all about ? Money for Rakovsky?

This post has been edited by mateias on January 19, 2008 12:08 pm

In 1919, Kamenet Podolsk, the destination of the plane, was the capital of Petilura's nationalist forces.

From the www.rodenplant.com model kit website....

R.39/16 was built by Staaken, with four Maybach Mb.IVa engines. The Maybachs were preferred for their power at altitude. The R.39 probably carried more bombs than any other R-plane, dropping 26,000kg in the course of 20 raids on targets in England and France. This included, on three occasions, the biggest bomb to be dropped by anyone during the War, of 1,000kg. The first hit the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, causing destruction over a wide area and killing five people. The R.39 was lost in 1919 on a transport flight to Ukraine.

That would appear to be the plane in the photo.

The Giants were normally known as Gothas in England, being as the public were used to being bombed by Gothas, and didn't care for the difference between Gothas, Zepplin-Staaken, or any other type of plane.

The Zepplin-Staaken (and probably this one in particular) shaped British thinking on strategic bombing, leading on to the heavy bombers of WWII.