The non-profit UK based group known as the Great War Aviation Society publishes A new magazine, Contact!, is now available in both print and digital download. The first two issues of Contact! Are available for a free digital download on their website. Their journal, Cross & Cockade International, is also published four times a year. Issues are available in English as printed [Softbound, A4 (8.27” x 11.69”), 72 pages [Including Covers] as well as digital copies (or both). The Society also provides a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front. The Great War Aviation Society also hosts a lecture series available through Zoom. If interested, you will need to register early as the call is limited in attendance. The Great War Aviation Society is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatWarAviationSociety and on X [Twitter]: https://x.com/GWAS1914_1918/status/1591734868114825219

The Spring 2025 of Contact! features a color illustration by Simon Smith of Ernst Udet’s Fokker D.VII (OAW) 20xx/18 "Du Doch Nicht!!" [“Certainly Not You !!] of Jasta 4. The cover is related to Michael Terry’s book review of Ace Of the Black Cross. There are four pages of Great War advertising, including the inside front cover and the rear cover. I counted 87 color photographs / illustrations and 64 black and white photographs / illustrations. There are also four-color profile illustrations: one by Ronny Barr with three by Arvo Vercamer & Roger Tisdale.

Greg van Wyngarden’s four-page biography on Paul Wilhelm Bӓumer. Paul piloted the two-seat Rumpler C.IV with Flieger Abteilung 7 earning the Iron Cross 2^nd Class on May 15, 1917. Paul moved on to single-seat fighters with Jasta 2 [Boelcke] on June 28, 1917, where he adopted the edelweiss as his personal emblem, earning him the nickname Blumen Heinrich [Flower Henry]. 1918 saw Paul with Jasta 5 shift to the Fokker Dr.I , with Paul’s first assignment being 204/17, which can be seen at the top of Page 12. Paul also had a reserve Fokker Triplane, 209/17 that can be seen at the bottom of the page, with its early Balkenkreuz insignia. Bӓumer was credited with 43 aerial victories and received the Pour le Mérite [Blue Max] before the Armistice. Paul returned to his dental studies but could not suppress his aviation desires and founded the Bӓumer Aero G.m.b.H in Hamburg. Bӓumer was killed testing the second Rohrback Ro IX “Rofix” parasol fighter prototype for the Turkish government on July 15, 1927.

Great War modeling was a standard feature in the Journal that has now moved to Contact!, taking full advantage of color photographs. Haris Ali presents a build review of the Meng 1/32 Fokker Dr.I, part of which can be seen on Page 16. Haris focuses on building Paul Bӓumer’s 204/17 with its streaked camouflage. The six color photographs at the top of the page show off his streaking technique on the horizontal stabilizer and elevators. The bottom photograph features Wilhelm Papenmeyer and his streaked camouflage Fokker Dr.I 214/17 triplane from Jasta Boelcke.

Peter Dye presents a four-page article on German Flying Training Aircraft Markings that includes two color profile illustrations by Arvo Vercamer & Roger Tisdale. A LVG B.II trainer from Lagerlechfeld is shown on Page 33. The German flying training started at Lagerlechfeld in 1912 and remains in service as Fliegerhorst Lechfeld [Lechfeld Air Base] today. The Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft B,II was an improved variant of the B.I powered by a 120 hp Mercedes D.II engine. Primarily used as a trainer, it did see service in an unarmed reconnaissance role.

Mike Kelsey brings Visiting the Macedonian Front as part of the Salonika Campaign Society’s 2024 battlefield tour. These annual tours cover all elements of the battlefield, but in 2024 Mike got the opportunity to join the tour as an aviation historian. Mike ended up giving seventeen talks to the tour group, with one focused on Percy Gardener Spargo. Percy Spargo’s grave market can be seen at the top of Page 50. The following page features a one-page biography of Percy Spargo who served with 47 Squadron on the Macedonian Front. Spargo’s primary aircraft was the Armstrong-Whitworth F.K. 3 that first flew in 1915. Designed by Frederick Koolhoven, the F.K. 3 was essentially an upgraded Royal Aircraft Factory B.E. 2c.

Tony Insall offers an introduction to his book on his great uncle, Gilbert Insall, in The Madness Of Courage. George Insall won the Victoria Cross with a victory in his Vickers F.B.5 “Gunbus”. It was nearly a costly victory over the German Aviatik as he was too low to avoid heavy ground fire as he flew over the front lines. A punctured petrol tank forced him down on the Allied side where he repaired his Gunbus and flew to his base the next day. The next month his Vickers was damaged again, only this time he was captured by the Germans. George Insall made several escape attempts before succeeding nearly two years later.

Topics:

• Editor’s Letter by Nicole Greenslade
• The Briefing Room
• The Signals Office
• The Story Behind the Photograph by David Méchin
• Paul Bӓumer’s War by Greg van Wyngarden
• The Meng 1:32 Fokker DR. I by Haris Ali
• In Miniature by Maurice Mallen
• Countering the Zeppelin Menace by David Méchin
• “It Could Not Be! But So It Was.” David Marks
• Burying the Enemy by Megan Kelleher
• German Flying Training Aircraft Markings by Peter Dye
• Fligerhumor Defying a Stereotype by Peter Dye
• Who Named the Red Baron by Michael Terry
• When the Richthofen Brothers and Voss Teamed Up by Bouko de Groot
• Visiting the Macedonian Front by Mike Kelsey
• Aero Engines: The Development Challenge Part 3 by Graham Mottram
• To Make Up Arms Part 3 by Paul Hare
• Is It Art? Imaging or Imagining? by Graham Mottram
• The Madness Of Courage by Tony Insall
• Ace Of the Black Cross by Michael Terry

This is my third downloaded issue of Contact!, and my first printed copy. The emphasis is on more color than is common in the Cross & Cockade International journal. The articles are also more numerous and shorter than seen in the journal, but no less enjoyable. The overall goal of adding Contact! to the Great War Aviation Society appears to be grabbing some of the younger crowd with a digital product and more color. I certainly hope this works for the younger crowd, but there is material here for all ages. If you are into early / WWI aviation, this magazine is for you!

My thanks to The Great War Aviation Society and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great issue.

Highly recommended!