The appearance of the Albatros D.I and D.I²
fighters in 1916 was a very important technical breakthrough in
the history of the development of German fighter aircraft. English
and French pilots now faced a formidable opponent which eliminated
their previous advantage in the air. However, the nations of the
Triple Entente wasted little time in producing an answer, and the
appearance of the neat little Nieuport 11 Bébé in
the sky became a real shock for Germans. The Nieuport sesquiplane
with its diminutive size and unsurpassed maneuverability compelled
the Germans to modify the design of the Albatros D.III in a radical
way.
In this fashion one of the finest German developments of the Great
War period was born. It was with this type that Germany recovered
its superiority in the air in 1917, and Allied pilots now had to
take account of a serious and very dangerous opponent.
The speed of development in military aviation was improbably fast
in those days. Having only just appeared in any quantity at the
Front, the Albatros D.III soon had to give way to its successor
from Albatros the new Albatros D.V. At the same time, the previous
order for the Albatros D.III had still not been completed, and aircraft
were required at the Front in impossibly large quantities. It was
decided to pass on the manufacture of the Albatros D.III to the
firm's OAW branch in Schneidemühl, thus the main factory in
Johannisthal would concentrate on the release of the D.V. In April
of 1917 the OAW factory received an initial order for 200 fighters,
and eventually over 800 were to be required by the end of that year.
The situation became even more pressured, when early build Albatros
D.V machines, soon after delivery to the front, were returned to
the factory for the elimination of design faults. The Albatros D.III
was the reliable 'workhorse' of the German Army, and its production
was constantly increased. In June of 1917 the first licensed machines
passed their tests. There was a number of concerns about the machine,
however they were insignificant. The final verdict was more than
positive: the plane could be passed directly to the Front. German
experts, and such as the famous Manfred von Richthofen, declared
that in comparison with the Albatros D.V its predecessor was better
in many technical respects; and constant problems with wing construction
in the D.V constantly sidelined it during the most important moments
of the military campaigns of 1917.
Visually, the machines produced by the two different factories (Albatros
and OAW) differed only in the shape of the rudder the Albatros machines
had straighter lines, as their predecessors had, while the rudder
of the OAW machines had a more rounded outline. Another slight difference
was in the form of the hood near the armament's recharge mechanism.
Some of the machines had their wing radiator shifted from the centerline.
Furthermore, an additional wing radiator was fitted to fighters
sent to the Front in Mesopotamia and Palestine.
As a whole, the OAW firm built 838 Albatros D.IIIs, in comparison
with 500 built by Albatros itself. They took part in combat on the
Western Front until the final days of WWI. Some of the machines
were used in experiments the rocket pioneer Rudolf Nebel experimented
with rocket launchers, for the intended interception of British
bombers; and there were plans for the use of the D.III as a parasite
fighter under huge Zeppelins. The Albatros D.III (OAW) was at war
on every front, from France to the Near East, and it figures large
in the history of aviation as one of the most successful early fighting
aircraft.
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