The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Square section of fabric taken from the wing of German aeroplane which crashed and burnt in France. The fabric is printed in a lozenge pattern, with olive green, dark mustard brown and chestnut brown colour evident. The inscription on the obverse side reads 'Dear Edie, this is off a German aeroplane, it was brought down near us. It was on fire. We followed it and this is off one of the wings. The German in it was burnt to death. This will be a good souvenir for you. I am also sending a piece to ? Love Syd 1035? S Turner. Dimensions: 12 by 12 cm
This souvenir was recovered by l/Cpl Sydney Angel Turner of the 10th Fld Coy Engineers.
On fabric is marked "29 xxx 1918" the month being illegible.
Towards the middle 1916, Germany started to adopt pre-printed colour fabric for their aircraft, making use of repeating patterns of coloured polygons. Modern researchers have termed the material 'lozenge fabric'. By April 1917 the new fabric was in general use and the Siemens Schuckert Werke was instructed in its use.
Two main schemes schemes appear to have been adopted: a daylight and a night scheme. The daylight scheme made use of a dark cloour pattern for upper surfaces and the sides of fuselages, and a light pattern, to be used on the lower surfaces of wings and the bottom of fuselages. Despite this, there were deviations. The Albatros D.Va in the AWM collection, for instance, had the lower wings covered with plain and lozenge fabric, the wings being then painted in the previous camouflage pattern for plain covered aircraft, while the under surface of the upper wing was covered in light coloured five colour lozenge fabric. The AWM’s Pfalz D.XII had the light coloured pattern fabric on both the top and bottom surfaces of the lower wings. Other captured aircraft are reported having similar use of the fabric.
Piece of pre-printed lozenge fabric from German aircraft. Lozenge fabric comprised pre-printed polygons that vary in size and are approximately 290 mm long and 150 mm wide. The polygons are irregular
Piece of lozenge fabric from German aircraft. Lozenge preprinted fabric comprised a pattern of polygons that were printed by rollers in a distinct pattern that repeated along the bolt of fabric. Most
Piece of 5 colour doped lozenge fabric from German aircraft approx. 380mm x 305 mm. The dope on the top surface is flaking off on the edges and where the piece had been folded. There remains stiching
22.5 x 20.5 cm piece of linen fabric cut from the flying surface of a German aircraft. The uppermost (external) surface is almost black in appearance, to the extent that the different lozenge colours
Piece of five colour German lozenge fabric from Albatros D.V shot down on 2 August 1918, at 12.10pm (z) two miles (3.2 kilometers) north east of Ez Duba BY AFC, No.1 Squadron aircraft piloted by Lt Mc
Fragment of linen cut from a German aircraft. One side of the piece is covered with red paint. This paint covering has cracked and is suffering many losses, but extends to the edges of the fragment.
