Doxa and Tissot - Witnesses of the Great War

bubba48 · Dec 20, 2020

I think that everyone knows the intrepid Snoopy and his epic aerial duels versus Manfred Von Richthofen known as the Red Baron; this aboard a Fokker Dr.I ...

...and Snoopy with his Sopwith Camel.

The fame of the comic later extended also to the plane...

...but the plane was already very famous in the United Kingdom because during the First World War it determined the supremacy in the skies at the expense of the Austro-Prussian air force; a bit like what, a quarter of a century later, happened with the Spitfire.

Designed by the Sopwith Aviation Company, it went into production in 1916 and was adopted by the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the RAF) going alongside and gradually replacing the S.E.5a which, first, counteracted the Zeppelins and German bombers.

This is a squadron of S.E.5a

One of the novelties of the Sopwith Camel was armament: it used two Vickers machine guns mounted in front of the cockpit and which, for the first time, were synchronized mening that they fired through the propeller blades.

65th Squadron posing in front of a Sopwith Camel - 1917

Compared to the cockpit of modern fighters, the Sopwith Camel one could be defined as “Neanderthal”.

Noticed anything?

In details

The two portrayed are the “30 HOURS NON LUMINOUS MARK V”, watches produced by various companies and issued to the aeronautical departments.

The dials don’t bear the manufacturer's logo but an identifier acronym followed by the serial number of the watch. These are some of the acronyms:
A.A. - Smith and Son (?)
B.C. - H. Williamson
B.D. - Invicta
B.E. - Doxa
B.G. - Octava (Octavia)
B.H. - Record
B.K. - Electa
C.B. - Zenith

The caseback shows the usual broad arrow surmounted by an A

And now I’d like to introduce my more than centenary Doxa 30 Hours

Still in excellent condition despite the age

View attachment 1125042

The "heart"

The dial, if not for the small lack at 4, is almost perfect

While harsh but still "chivalrous" duels were fought in the skies ...

... on the battlefields of the plains, on the mountains, in the trenches, there were those who brought relief to the thousands of wounded. It was the Red Cross with its personnel and its vehicles, and the Austro-Hungarian posters illustrated the humanitarian interventions of Rothen Kreuze in those years.

Here the Kaiser himself meeting nurses

Red Cross at work

At the beginning of the conflict the first ambulances were horse-drawn.

However, the rapid motorization of war vehicles also involved emergency vehicles; the Krankenwagen (KKW).

1914

1915

1916

1917

Aboard of one of those ambulances and exactly on the Krankenwagen 278, the supplied watch was this Tissot.

That's all.

ConElPueblo · Dec 20, 2020

Superb post!

arturo7 · Dec 20, 2020

Very cool!

JimInOz · Dec 21, 2020

I'm sorry to be pedantic, but while the Sopwith Camel indeed came with two .303 synchronised machine guns, the photograph below the caption:

"One of the novelties of the Sopwith Camel was armament: it used two Vickers machine guns mounted in front of the cockpit and which, for the first time, were synchronized mening that they fired through the propeller blades."

Is in fact, a Sopwith Pup which, as an aircraft recognition expert, I immediately recognised as a single gun Pup, and not a twin gun Camel .

(Or just maybe I saw the title on the photograph 😁).

::stirthepot::

Once again, a thoroughly informative and interesting post.

👍

bubba48 · Dec 21, 2020

Oh, really sorry Jim. I know little about watches but absolutely nothing about planes. 🙁

😁 👍

alefar · Dec 21, 2020

Thanks for the informative post, really enjoyed it 😁

Professor · Dec 21, 2020

A seldom mentioned fact was that Sopwith also built Triplanes. They were used by a squadron of Royal Navy aviators. They racked up an impressive numbers of kills. Paint schemes were black with skull and crossbones IIRC.

When the film "Flyboys" came out many thought they had spotted inaccuracies in the German squadron flying only the Fokker triplanes. In fact the triplane was intended to become the standard fighter and some squadrons were at first equipped with only the triplane, but after a number of fatal accidents due to the top wing failing (a problem with wood glues used in mass production) the fighter was withdrawn from service with only a few of the top aces demanding they keep their tried and true early production tripes.

The Sopwith Pup was a fine aircraft, and noted as very safe to fly compared to contemporaries, but its single gun and early version interrupter gear gave it a very slow rate of fire.
The Pup was a scaled down development of the two seater "one and a half strutter".

MRC · Dec 21, 2020

Professor
A seldom mentioned fact was that Sopwith also built Triplanes. They were used by a squadron of Royal Navy aviators. They racked up an impressive numbers of kills. Paint schemes were black with skull and crossbones IIRC.

This is a flyable replica belonging to the Shuttleworth Collection in England.

https://www.shuttleworth.org/collection/sopwithtriplane/

JimInOz · Dec 21, 2020

Professor
"The Sopwith Pup was a fine aircraft, and noted as very safe to fly ".

As long as the pilot very (very) quickly grasped the idea that he was in a flimsy lightweight structure behind a huge gyroscope that had a mind of its own not directly related to the actual flight control commands.

The men who flew those single engine rotary powered machines (and survived) were indeed superb pilots.

pnwyankee · Dec 21, 2020

My vote for the best thread on OF ::rimshot::

bubba48 · Dec 21, 2020

pnwyankee
My vote for the best thread on OF

Thanks. So kind of you

Flatfoot · Dec 21, 2020

Great thread- I’ve enjoyed it.

One of my good friends essentially grew up at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York, and has been flying all his life. He flew a Sopwith Pup with a rotary motor at age 17, close to 50 years ago now.

The rotary motor was fundamentally different than a radial engine, in that the motor’s crankshaft was fixed to the fuselage, and the prop, crankcase and cylinders spun as a unit. The whirling mass of cylinders and prop caused quite the gyroscopic forces which pilots from both sides used to their advantage while flying. Add to that the fact that it was throttled by cutting the ignition spark to one or more of the cylinders, and as such caused a rapid on/off exhaust note, and consequent gyroscopic effect. The Sopwith Pup had much more benign handling characteristics when compared to the Camel, but it could still be a handful.

My friend soloing the Pup at age 17 was about the age of many of the pilots that flew in WW1. He is one of a relative handful of pilots today that has logged time behind a rotary motor.

A link to that very ship - following a recent restoration- is seen below.

ConElPueblo · Dec 22, 2020

Great, now I want a biplane 🤦

STANDY · Dec 22, 2020

ConElPueblo
Great, now I want a biplane 🤦

Next thing you will be hiding in a barn somewhere wearing your Bremont 😗

.
(For the newer members)
THE NAME BREMONT
In the late 1990s, Nick & Giles were flying across France in their 1930's biplane. The weather was closing in. A rough-running engine forced them to make an emergency landing. Keen to avoid the French authorities, the brothers were more than happy to accept the gracious help of the farmer whose field they had landed in. They stayed in his home, the aircraft took cover in the barn. It transpired their host had flown aircraft during the war, as well as being a gifted engineer. Half-restored wall clocks lay everywhere, together with numerous engine parts. The farmer still even wore his own father's wristwatch. The brothers promised that his warm hospitality would never be forgotten. His name? Antoine Bremont.

bardamu · Dec 22, 2020

Great post Luigi, as usual 😀

bubba48 · Dec 23, 2020

Thank you all.
Now I've also learned a lot about Sopwith. 👍

JimInOz · Dec 23, 2020

STANDY
.................................
(For the newer members)
THE NAME BREMONT
In the late 1990s, Nick & Giles were flying across France in their 1930's biplane. The weather was closing in. A rough-running engine forced them to make an emergency landing. Keen to avoid the French authorities, the brothers were more than happy to accept the gracious help of the farmer whose field they had landed in. They stayed in his home, the aircraft took cover in the barn. It transpired their host had flown aircraft during the war, as well as being a gifted engineer. Half-restored wall clocks lay everywhere, together with numerous engine parts. The farmer still even wore his own father's wristwatch. The brothers promised that his warm hospitality would never be forgotten. His name? Antoine Bremont.

Ah yes, the "Bremont" story.

Reminds me of "Once upon a time.............".

Anyway, back to the subject.

Sopwith Camels though, not watches.

As the Sopwith Camel (and also the previously noted Sopwith Pup) utilised rotary engines, there was no single "exhaust pipe" to evacuate combustion gases and unburnt fuel / lubrication oil as you find in most "stationary" engines (radials/in-lines).

The fuel and lubricating oil (castor oil) was fed into the central crankcase and then directly to each cylinder and expelled directly from each cylinder head at the exhaust stroke at whatever degree of rotation that happenned to be for any cylinder. Therefore, an engine running nicely would expell exhaust products anywhere in a 360º ring and being vented by the rear of the engine cowl, quite a lot of that was directly in front of the pilot.

A side effect of this was the pilot ingesting an exhaust gas/castor oil vapour cocktail, which lead to unwanted side effects as anyone who got a spoonful of castor oil as a "remedy" in the old days will know. The oil vapour also tended to soak the flying suit of the pilot leading to a less than favourable item of attire in case of a fiery landing.

Another notable feature of the Camel (and other rotary powered machines with engine cowls) was the removal of the lower quadrant of the cowl. This was required because the engine had no actual throttle, so to modulate engine speed, the pilot blipped the ignition on and off, but at each "off" phase, unburnt fuel and oil would gather in the cowling and when sparks and hot exhausts came back on line, a cowling fire was a definite possibility. Thererfore the bottom section was removed to allow excess fuel to drain away, especially on the ground when starting/ doing magneto checks / taxying etc.

How on earth these pilots even had time to even glance at a watch while flying I'll never know.
Maybe after they landed and shut down they looked at their cockpit watch and simply noted the time for their log book entry.

I would have enjoyed an afternoon in a pub talking with one of the pilots from that era, however even I was born too late for that to happen.

Doxa and Tissot - Witnesses of the Great War

bubba48

ConElPueblo

arturo7

JimInOz

bubba48

alefar

Professor

MRC

JimInOz

pnwyankee

bubba48

Flatfoot

ConElPueblo

STANDY

bardamu

bubba48

JimInOz

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