WW2 photo postcard of German Dornier DO-18 flying boat

$20.00 CAD

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Photo of scarce Luftwaffe plane.

Printed on back of card: ‘7 Verlag Julius Simonsen. Oldenburg in Holstein.

(Verlag = Publisher)

Written on back 22.8 Dieter Bruman (?).

Postcard appears to be cut down a bit. Black paper remnants where cad was glued into album.

12.5 x 7.5 cm.

(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale).

The Dornier Do 18 was a development of the Do 16 flying boat. It was developed for the Luftwaffe, but Lufthansa received five aircraft and used these for tests between the Azores and the North American continent in 1936 and on their mail route over the South Atlantic from 1937 to 1939.

On 27–29 March 1938, a "Do 18 W" established a seaplane record flying non-stop a straight distance of 8,391 km (5,214 mi) from Start Point, Devon to Caravelas in Brazil.

In Luftwaffe service, it was obsolete by the outbreak of World War II, but – as the only military flying boat – 62 (58 serviceable) in five squadrons were in use mainly on North Sea reconnaissance missions. In 1940 some squadrons changed their base to Norway. The vulnerable and underpowered flying boat was soon relegated to training and the air/sea rescue role. In the middle of 1941, only one squadron was still operational on Do 18.

A Do 18 was the first German aircraft to be shot down by British aircraft during the war, when one of a formation of three was caught over the North Sea by nine Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua fighter-bombers of 803 Naval Air Squadron flying from HMS Ark Royal on 26 September 1939,

WIKIPEDIA