Nieuport 11/16 Bebe vs Fokker Eindecker: Western Front 1916

Collana della Osprey Publishing dedicata ai modellisti, giocatori di wargames e agli appassionati di storia militare di ogni età. Ogni volume mette a confronto 2 aerei, o 2 mezzi corazzati, 2 navi, 2 armi, 2 tipi di armamento, ecc. protagonisti del 20° secolo. Ne segue l’origine e lo sviluppo con ampia trattazione delle innovazioni tecnologiche e tattiche introdotte, fornisce tutti i dati tecnici, le caratteristiche e particolari vari. L’iconografia comprende accurati artwork digitali a colori anche degli interni, disegni al tratto e vari  “gun sight views” dei mezzi in azione sui campi di battaglia.

The appearance in July 1915 of Germany’s Fokker E I, armed with interrupter gear that allowed its machine gun to fire forward without striking the propeller, heralded a reign of terror over the Western Front that the Allies called the ‘Fokker Scourge’. Among several alternative means for countering the Fokkers – until the Allies introduced practical synchronisation mechanisms of their own – was the French Nieuport 11, a single-seat version of the Nieuport 10 sesquiplane (‘one-and-a-half wing’) mounting a Lewis machine gun above the upper wing, firing over the airscrew. Nicknamed the Bébé because of its comparatively small size, the Nieuport 11 was, though less robust than true biplanes, superior in structure and overall performance to the German monoplane. During 1916 the Nieuport 11, and its more powerful but more difficult to control stablemate, the Nieuport 16, battled a succession of improved Fokkers, the E II, E III and E IV, until the Germans abandoned the monoplane in favour of a new and deadly generation of biplane fighters.