Two Hunnische Airmen

DESCRIPTION: "Two Hunnische airmen were Adolf and me, A pilot was I, an observer was he, And we used to spot for the artillery." But "a big Bristol came with a big Vickers gun." Adolf is killed, then the pilot himself; now they have haloes in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook)
KEYWORDS: pilot technology death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, p. 61, "Two Hunnishche Airmen" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountains of Mourne" (tune) and references there
NOTES [135 words]: The "big Bristol" was probably the Bristol F-2 fighter/reconnaissance plane, which according to Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), p. 84, first went into combat in early 1917 with limited success, but eventually did well enough that more than 3,000 were built.
The L.V.G. was presumably the German L.V.G. C-type, the first model of which went into service in 1915 (Pope/Wheal, p. 296). It was a bomber/reconnaissance plane, with a machine gun for the Observer, but vulnerable to fighters. The later models, with a forward-firing gun, could give a better account of itself, so logic says that this song probably was written in mid-1917, when the Bristol had come into its own but the early-model L.V.G.s were still flying. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL061

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