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Old 27th Dec 2012, 16:46
  #3199 (permalink)  
Duckbutt

Jack's Granddad
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Lancashire
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Evansb has it, it's the German WW1 seaplane base on the mole at Zeebrugge.

Following the occupation of the Belgian coast, a seaplane base was established at Zeebrugge in December 1914. Aircraft were kept in the railway station hall at the end of the Mole, fully assembled on specially constructed flat railway cars which carried tools, fabric, dope, etc for minor repairs, as well as supplies of water, fuel and oil. Locomotives were kept with steam up and were always available to pull the trains out on to the Mole and up to the cranes used to lift and lower the seaplanes to the water. In this early 1915 scene no national insignia are displayed on the upper wing surfaces of these Friedrichshafen FF29 seaplanes or the Oertz flying-boat numbered 46, but wing undersurfaces were marked spanwise with the straight-sided cross, as seen on the Oertz's rudder.
The first pic shows a Bleriot landing on the mole. This machine was captured from the Belgian forces and used for a while by the Germans. It's engine was later transplanted into a Fokker aircraft.

Over to what I suspect is a slightly nippy Lethbridge!
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