On 16th May 1918, German ace Otto Kissenberth claimed an SE5A as his 20th victory. What made this unusual was that he was flying a Sopwith Camel!

As far as I know this was the only case of a Camel being used against its former owners - unless you know different.

I've never been able to discover its identity, nor who was flying it when it was captured. However, there are a number of clues in surviving photographs, shown here courtesy of Stuart Leslie.

The style of RNAS eagle marking has only been seen on Camels flown by 3 Sqn RNAS / 203 Sqn RAF, in photos (such as that shown below) taken Spring 1918.

The cowl looks to have been blue - which was the flight marking of "B" Flight, led at the time by Tich Rochford, author of the autobiographical "I Chose the Sky".

So far so good, but the problem is that 3 Sqn RNAS / 203 Sqn RAF had no loss which fits the bill!

It has been claimed by some that Kissenberth's Camel was B7230, captured when Lt KD Campbell of 3 Sqn RNAS was shot down by Vzfw Scholz and taken prisoner 10th March 1918.

This photograph, taken of B7230 shortly after capture, clearly displays the markings of 8 Sqn RNAS. The explantion is that 3 and 8 Sqns swapped aircraft 1st March 1918 - and it writes Campbell out of our story. However, this opens a new line of thinking! Was the Camel flying with another squadron, but still bearing the markings of its previous owners?

One candidate is B6417 of 208 Sqn RAF. This Camel was shot down by Paul Billik of Jasta 52, near Loos, while being flown by 2/Lt DC Hopewell. The date was 7th April 1918 - two days before all 208 Sqn machines were burned at La Gorgue to avoid capture. I don't know of a surviving photo of this machine, but from its place in the Sopwith production run it should have had the right style of factory finish. Also, it was part of the equipment swap between 3 Sqn and 8 Sqn RNAS that took place 1st March 1918.

BUT - would it still have been wearing 3 Sqn RNAS markings, five weeks after the transfer? I have no hard evidence in favour of B6417, only conjecture.

Another possibility is that the Camel was captured on the ground, as several squadrons had to move at short notice during the German Spring Offensive, including 203 and 208 Sqns. However, I can find no evidence of this in the 203 Sqn records at the National Archives.

So, whos machine was it?

Was it B6417? Was it captured on an abandoned airfield?

Does someone out there have some evidence to back me up, or a different theory?