Albatros D.III - German Users, part three

We finish with this excellent German fighter by covering even more of its German users.

When it entered service in December 1916 it was quickly acclaimed by the German pilots thanks to its maneouvrability and climb rate, even if, just like its inmediate predecessor, the Albatros D.II, had the same fault regarding the position of the radiator. As it was placed in the center of the upper wing, it could break and scald the pilot. That's the reason why from the 290th airplane onwards, the radiator was placed in the upper wing but at the right, instead of the center while most of the already deployed ones were field-modified to solve that problem.
Some of the aircraft serving in the middle-east were equipped with two radiators to deal with the warmer climate.

Just like one of its inmediate rival, the Nieuport 17 it began experiencing some failures on the lower wing ribs and the leading edge. In fact, on 23rd January 1917 suffered a failure on the lower right wing spar and the next day, Manfred von Richtofens' airplane wing cracked. That's why the German Aviation Corps high command issued an order to keep all the D.III grounded in order to search for a solution for that serious problem. On February, Albatros introduced a reinforced lower wing and the order was called-off.
The new airplanes from then on would already be produced with the new reinforced lower wing, while the already operational D.III were withdrawn from the frontlines and the Jastas were forced to use the already obsolete Albatros D.II and the Halberstadt D.II.

Leaving those problems aside, the D.III was considered a very good airplane which was easy and pleasant to fly, even if it was somehow heavy to control and the sesquiplane arrangement of the wings offered an excellent downwards visibility, climb rate and maneouvrability.

Approximately 500 airplanes were manufactured by Albatros itself until the production was shifted to OAW which was a subsidiary of Albatros.
It's stimated that at the peak of it's service, 446 D.III served just in the western front only and, even when the better Albatros D.V was already in service, the D.III continued serving until the armistice.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_D.III
2. The complete book of fighters
3. Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 32 - Albatros Aces of World War I
4. Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 77 - Albatros Aces of World War I (2)
5. Osprey - Air Vanguard 13 - Albatros D.III

Albatros D.III - German Users, part two

We keep going with this German fighter, now with more German users.

We will write about the fighter operational history in the next post, which will be the last one dedicated to the D.III.

The squadrons covered in this post are:

• Jasta 31
• Jasta 49
• Jasta 57
• Jasta 12
• Jasta 24
• Jasta 28w
• Jasta 34b
• Jasta 34

Sources: 
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_D.III
2. Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 32 - Albatros Aces of World War I

Albatros D.III - German Users, part one.

We keep going with this excellent German fighter of the First World War.

The development started back in summer 1916 when the success of the D.I and the D.II was evident. It's not known when it flew for the first time, but it's believed that it was in late August or early September 1916.

It used the same semi-monocoque plywood covered fuselage of its predecessors but with a single significant difference: Its wing arrangement was sesquiplane style, copying the configuration of the Nieuport airplanes that were so successful back then. That way, the upper wingspan was extended and the lower wing was redesigned in order to reduce its chord. The struts were replaced by new 'V'-shaped ones, that's why the British pilots nicknamed the D.III as the 'V-Strutter'.

The official tests were so successful that a contract order was signed for the production of 400 airplanes in september 1916 plus 50 more in February and March 1917, the biggest order to date.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_D.III
2. The Complete book of fighters

Albatros D.III - Foreign Users

We come up with this new airplane that played a very important role during the World War I. In this post we are centering into the foreign users.

The Albatros D.III was a German biplane fighter that was widely used by many German aces and it was the preeminent fighter during the period of time that Germany ruled the skies which was known as the "Bloody April".

As this post is about the foreign users for this one, the nations covered in this post are:

• France: On 21st April 1917 the German pilot Lt. Friedrich Wilhelm tried to attack a French artillery observation balloon, but he was shot down by the French lieutenant Languedoc which managed somehow to capture the airplane intact. This airplane would later be sold to the United States which sent it to McCook airfield in Dayton, Ohio in order to perform aerial experiments between 1917 and 1927.
• Lithuania: The Lithuanian air force used many German leftovers in order to equip their newly created air force.
• Ottoman Empire: The Albatros D.III started to be delivered to Ottoman Empire in March 1918 and, in October 1918 a total of 29 D.III had been delivered, 10 of which had no engines at all.
• Turkey: Some of the Albatros employed by the Ottoman Empire were employed by the newly created Turkish Army which used them in their independence war. They were writen off in 1922. The colours of this one are speculative.
• Bulgaria: Some few Albatros D.III were seized from retreating German forces in late 1918. Some sources claim that it was just a pair of airplanes, however it's very hard to know considering that they never were officially  'taken on charge'. It's known, however, that they were used by some Bulgarian pilots for training after some reparations, performed at the workshop of the Bojurishte airfield, were made. As there aren't graphical evidence on these airplanes, the colours should be considered speculative.
• United Kingdom: Originally piloted by the German lieutenant Georg Simon, it was shot down by a Nieuport belonging to the Royal Flying Corps on 4th June 1917 and he was made prisoner. After that his airplane was repainted and showed as a war prize even if the radiator water pipe was missing.
• Poland: The newly created Polish government employed many German leftover airplanes, and also bought some of them, specially those manufactured by OAW and used them in the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920, mainly in ground attack duties. Some of them were used by the famous Kosciuszko Squadron which was mainly equipped with the Austro-Hungarian improved variant, the Oeffag Va.253.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_D.III
2. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/bulgaria/af/types/albatros.htm
3. http://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/avion/avions_ww1_02.htm