Letter written on fabric from German aircraft : Herbert Matthews

Small piece of cream coloured German aircraft fabric, probably from a Fokker E III, on which is a written note in black ink by Herbert ('Bert') Matthews. The note reads: 'France 30.4.1916 Dear Bill This is a portion of the wing of a German aeroplane which was brought down after a very exciting fight with one of our aeros on the 29.4.16 we won by a knockout. I had a good seat. Bert'.

The fabric appears to be unbleached linen, and has a line of irregularly spaced holes where a stitched seam has been unpicked along its bottom edge. The reverse (unwritten) side is partially covered by a thin coating of varnish or dope. This coating, which may once have been clear, is now very yellow in appearance.

This piece of fabric is thought to have been taken from a Fokker 'Eindecker' (EI, EII or EIII) brought down behind Allied lines on 29 April 1916.

The Royal Flying Corps communique on this event reads: '2 Lt Lord Doune on an F.E. of 25 Sqn, observer 2 Lt R.V. Walker, when on patrol between Hulluch and La Bassee at a height of 10,000 feet sighted a Fokker 1,000 feet below him. He dived at it, and the observer opened fire at 80 yards. The Fokker attempted to get behind the F.E., and the machines circled round each other several times, the F.E. having the best of the manoeuvring. The third time the two machines approached each other while both pilot and observer were firing at the Fokker at very short range above them, one wing was seen to crumple up, and the Fokker fell in a spinning nose dive, being carried by the wind behind our lines. Five drums in all were fired at it before it fell. The pilot of the hostile machine belonged to the 18th Flieger Abteilung. He was the son of Prince Ernst von Sachsen-Meiningen.'

The 'F.E.' ('Fighting Experimental') in this case was FE2b No 5209. The La Bassee-Hulluch area is close to the Fleurbaix-Armentieres region where Australian troops were stationed on their arrival in France in early 1916. The pilot of the Fokker, Unteroffizier Georg Wilhelm von Saalfeld, (who was killed) was indeed the son of Ernst von Sachsen-Meiningen, while Lord Doune (Francis Douglas Stuart-Grey) and his observer both received the Military Cross.