A German Fokker Eindecker flying over the front in the Meuse/Verdun sector.
No. 104. Westlichen Kriegschauplatz: Schwere Niederlage der Franzosen auif den Maashöhen bei Combres.Western theater of war: Heavy French defeat on the heights of the Meuse at Combres.Serie 63/4Towns include: Les Éparges, St. Remy, and Combres.Reverse:Kriegshilfe München N.-W. 11.Zum Gloria-Viktoria AlbumSammel. u. Nachschlagewerk des VölkerkriegesWar Fund Munich 11, N. W. 11For Gloria Viktoria AlbumCollection. and reference work of international war
"Britain's only nominal fighter at that time was the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus, which had begun full-squadron operations at about the same time as the Fokker E.I was making its combat debut. Among the first of No. 11 Squadron's pilots to directly challenge the Eindeckers was an aggressive Welsh warrior named Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees, who with his observer, Flight Sergeant J. M. Hargreaves, was credited with 'driving down' an Eindecker on July 28. On August 31, the duo destroyed an LVG C.II near Achiet le Grand . . ."
Introduced in early 1915, Dutch aircraft designer Anton Fokker's E.I (Eindecker (monoplane) I) had a single fixed-position machine gun that could fire through the revolving propeller by using an interrupter gear. (An earlier innovation by French pilot Roland Garros had no such gear, and protected the propeller with metal plates that deflected bullets.) The Allies at first struggled to match it, but responded with the French Nieuport, with a machine gun mounted on the upper wing firing over the propeller, and pusher planes, such as the Vickers F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane) Gunbus, with its rear-mounted engine and front-mounted machine gun. The L.V.G. C.II two-seat reconnaissance plane was introduced in late 1915.
The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft by Jon Gutman, page 34, copyright © 2009 Jon Gutman, publisher: Westholme Publishing, publication date: 2009
1915-08-31, 1915, August, Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus, F.B.5, Fokker E.I, Fokker Eindecker I, Vickers Gunbus
