[First World War Souvenir]

'Piece of German Aeroplane Brought down by a British machine beside our lines 17th October 1917, near Vlamertinge [sic]' [inscription on a piece of salvaged plywood]

An irregular piece of weathered plywood inscribed as above (maximum dimensions 45 × 102 mm), mounted on card behind glass in a modern wooden frame (external dimensions 150 × 200 mm).

As found, now preserved and displayed to advantage; overall, in excellent condition.

Supporting documentation includes a lengthy extract from 'Flying Fury' (1918) by James Thomas Byford McCudden, VC, DSO and bar, MC and bar, MM and Croix de Guerre (1895-1918), describing his attack on an LVG C.VI, a two-seater German reconnaissance and artillery-spotting aircraft, on 17 October 1917 over Vlamertinghe ... the very machine from which this relic was souvenired.

'I followed the wreckage down till the Hun crashed and then landed alongside on some good stubble in order to put a guard on the Hun.

I left my engine ticking over while I went to look at the Hun, and I found two groups of Australian infantry. I pushed my way into the middle of the first group and found that the attraction was the observer, who had fallen from the machine at about 5,000 feet. He was a huge man named Ernst Hadrich, and seeing that he was dead I went over to the other group of men, about a hundred yards away, and here found the remains of the machine and the pilot.

Everything of value in the way of souvenirs on the machine had already gone, for although I landed a very short time after the Hun came down, the Tommies had already taken what was worth taking, and the way they behaved was not very edifying from the disciplined point of view in which I had always been brought up'.

An evocative souvenir, and a sobering account.

Item #138172

Price (AUD): $750.00
other currencies