Captured LVG Image Gallery

It is known that at least four examples of the LVG were captured, a C.V (serial 6867/17), a C.II serial not known, captured by No 4 Squadron AFC at Armentieres in France in 1919; a further C.II serial not known; and a C.VI (serial 7243/18) forced down by a Sopwith Camel of No 4 Squadron near Nieppe in northern France on 9 October 1918.

It seems two examples of the LVG did come to Australia after World War I for exhibition. These aircraft included a C.VI (3163/18 – werke no 4143), also recorded as a C.V, and another C.VI (7243/18 – werke no 4548). The latter was consigned to the Exhibition Buildings in Adelaide, SA with a number of other aircraft, by truck, for display by the Motor Traders Association of South Australia. For a period in the 1930s this aircraft was stored dismantled at Stan Cheesman Motors at Prospect, SA. It was eventually scrapped. LVG 3163/18 (also noted as 3163/17) was noted in the 1920s in the AWM records as “displayed in crashed state”. The latter remained in Melbourne and was noted as “Browns victim”, and it is believed to have been forced down in Palestine by Captain A R Brown, AFC. A photograph of this aircraft is in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.

An LVG was shot down by Lieutenant Hudson Fysh (later Sir, co-founder of Qantas) in Palestine in 1918. Another was shot down in September 1916 by AFC pilot Stanley Goble, well known for later flying a Fairey III around Australia, he later becoming an Air Vice Marshall with the RAAF. An LVG was shot down by Bristol Fighters flown by Captain Alan Brown and Garfield Finlay of No 1 Squadron AFC (see above) when it flew over their aerodrome on 22 August 1918. Crashing close to the Squadron’s base, men of the unit souvenired parts of the aircraft, including the German Cross from the fuselage. Both pilots later received the DFC.