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"If
you reference the aerial shot of Boistrancourt in the Jagdstaffel
5 Volume One, page 11, I am standing at the top-right corner of the chateau
brick wall. Photo was taken
facing towards the sugar factory, towards where Hangar 1 used to be.
You can see that the buildings have changed over the decades, and
that the smokestack is gone. Notice
the field’s slope! In the
photo it slopes down from right to left, and
from the foreground to the background, then goes back “uphill” towards
the factory. Easy to see why Berr
wanted those stands to help stop planes with no brakes from rolling into
the hangars while taxiing. The
smaller fence that ran from the first stand, parallel to the brick wall,
is no longer there, either. Observation
tower is gone as well. Still,
the area is well recognizable."

"Here
are two more Boistrancourt photos (above and below). One
taken from near the same location as in the one I sent previously (top
picture), only it looks towards where Hangar 5 used to be.
The other shot (below) is across the field, where Hangar 5 used to
be, looking back towards the chateau wall.
The “broken looking” trees at the left, inside the wall, mark
the approx location of where the observation tower used to be.
Compare this angle to the July 1917 Albatros lineup photo in
Jagdstaffel
5
,
Volume One, page 35, picture 32.
That photo was taken atop a ladder (visible in the distance in
front of Hangar 5, photo 29), while mine was taken while standing on the
grass. I’m a little further
to the right as well. I do
have a shot taken from the exact spot (minus the elevation provided by the
ladder) but that will be going into the book and I cannot distribute it
yet. In J5V1 photo 32, you
can see the corner of the chateau wall just to the left of the observation
tower, beyond the hedged fence (that is no longer there). Trees
visible to left are now gone today as well.
When I was there it was a plowed field, although there was a patch
of corn still standing along the chateau’s rear wall. Slope
of the field is evident in both photos, although I have to admit that I
never noticed that until I was there.
I did not see any cattle around, as in photo 31, but there was an
area behind and to the left of where Hangar 1 used to be that stored loose
hay."

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