Subject:
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Re: Would a general/pilot in WW1............
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.adventurers
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Date:
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Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:17:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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2002 times
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In lugnet.adventurers, Robbie Anderson writes:
> Would a general/pilot in WW1 or around the times the Adventurers setting have
> shoulder pad-thingys on them, like Capitan Redbeard in the Pirates? I have
> created so far a German general/pilot, but I'm not sure if a pilot of WW1
> would have those things shoulders. If anyone has an answer, please E-mail
> me at: B50twice@aol.com.
Well, I'm going to answer here, because others might like
to know the answer too! The short answer is yes and no.
Yeah, not helpful, but it's true.
The shoulder-thingies (called epaulettes or "shoulderboards")
were never used by flight crews. Baron von Barron wears them
because, well, he's a Baron. The epaulettes are fairly dressy,
and they fell out of favour (IIRC) after the Franco-Prussian
War for field soldiers. In dress uniforms they remained common
and can even be seen today in some of Europe's military cere-
mony (and South America's--man, do they ever love epaulettes!).
But a pilot--even a noble one, like Baron von Richtofen--would
not likely fly with epaulettes under any circumstances. The
dress would be closer to what Harry Cane wears, because the
cockpits were open, cold, and wet (at least on the European
fronts--Arabia is another matter).
The issue of uniforms at all for WWI pilots is also thorny;
it took a little while for real uniform standards to be created.
As many air auxiliaries were simply extensions of the armies
below at first (even the naval squadrons--a real mess, to be
sure), they often looked much the same, except with less
mud, more black soot, and a significantly longer service life.
(Incidentally, if you go to your local library, you can probably
find pictoral books on WWI German uniforms--I know they
exist in spades for WWII, but I'd be surprised if they don't exist
for the First World War.)
best,
Lindsay.nl
(a bona fide historian, no less)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Would a general/pilot in WW1.........
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| (...) Nope. The average pilots service life was _less_ than the average grunt. 2nd Lt (ground) had lowest life expectancy, I believe around 17 DAYS. But, pilots often died in the first 5 MIN of combat. The good pilots lasted much longer...but, they (...) (24 years ago, 24-Oct-00, to lugnet.adventurers)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Would a general/pilot in WW1.........
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| Would a general/pilot in WW1 or around the times the Adventurers setting have shoulder pad-thingys on them, like Capitan Redbeard in the Pirates? I have created so far a German general/pilot, but I'm not sure if a pilot of WW1 would have those (...) (24 years ago, 21-Oct-00, to lugnet.adventurers)
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