I am looking for pictures of Wench Trucks, used with the Kite Balloons, I especially am looking for German Trucks, But I need French as well, Any information would be great, on any nations.
Not terribly helpful, I'm afraid, but I had to post this link to a wonderful site called 'The Great War in a Different Light' (http://www.greatwardifferent.com/) that has bags of contemporary Great War publications either scanned or transcribed - this is a piece by an American journalist who went up in a German observation balloon in February 1916. The article's title?
The second photo, which I link to below, shows some kind of winch-car, it looks almost as if it may be merely a towed trailer:
I should imagine the Germans would have used all sorts of methods of sending up the sausages!
In fact, at the bottom of that page is a link to another page by the same journalist, in which he describes a balloon being attended by a horse-drawn winch trailer.
…is a truck labelled ‘Major Wolf’s Military Tractor’. I have no idea of its nationality, or even date. However, it looks to be from the Great War period, going by the name it may be German (and those more expert may recognise the make of truck anyway) and the mechanism on the back looks to me like a winch-type mechanism…
As that site is so unreliable (and slow), I have copied the photo, here:
I have been researching the same subject for a number of years. I have collected a lot of data, some of which I'm sure you already have, but will share with you if you find it helpful.
I will tell you this, the FAL used horse-drawn vehicles through-out the war. Only in the last year of the war have I found evidence of these units receiving the wench mounted KD.1.
Hello, I would be interested in your information, I would really like any drawings, pictures, and any rigging information you may have, I have just finnished my German observation balloon, and I need to rig it. If you can email the information, here is my email address ww1nut1918@yahoo.com
Thanks so much
If I can help you on any reasearch please let me know
I found this nice photo of German balloon handling in a German book. It shows little detail, but might help. The winch vehicle looks horse-drawn to me.