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Hi all<BR>
<BR>
'mings question about tropicalised Albatrosses reminded me of something.<BR>
<BR>
A coupl eof nights ago a workmate of mine SMS'ed me in the middle of the blasted night to ask if there were really aircraft involved in the fight at Beersheba. He'd been watching a movie, presumably "The Lighthorsemen"<BR>
<BR>
Even half asleep I could give him the answer to that (and a few unasked for comments on his parentage for waking me)<BR>
<BR>
We know that an aircraft bombed the Australian Light Horse after the charge, that a single bomb was dropped in the middle of a light horse ambulance unit adorned with the usuall red on white crosses, and killed three of the ambulance bearers. They and Brigadier Maygar VC are supposedly the four aircraft casualties of the 32 Australian deaths in the Beersheba assault.<BR>
<BR>
The *eyewitness* accounts of the day call the plane a "Taube", but then that was the same name given by most diggers in that theatre for every enemy aircraft<BR>
<BR>
Considering that this was 31 October 1917 it seems unlikely to me - it's just a couple of months before 1AFC were flying Bristol Fighters in the same area<BR>
<BR>
Do we know what aircraft were actually available to the Germans/Turks in that theatre in that period? Since I'm not able to check my books at the moment I might be able to guess by looking through the appropriate official history the types that OUR aircraft were encountering but I'm not all that confident that the pilots get the types right every time!<BR>
<BR>
Shane<BR><BR>.---- - --- ....- ---.. .-. ..- .-.. . ... .-.-.- <BR><BR>My Strine is a Toad in Disguise <BR><BR>Quidvis recte factum, <BR>quamvis humile, praeclarum <BR>.---- - --- ....- ---.. .-. ..- .-.. . ... .-.-.- <BR><BR><BR>
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