READERS’ LETTERS
We hear from a reader who purchased at auction a selection of fascinating documents relating to an engineer closely associated to Anthony Fokker and the Fokker DR.I ‘Dreidecker’.
I must first congratulate everyone at Iron Cross magazine for a truly wonderful publication. I was especially delighted with issue #8, your ‘Red Baron Special’. What a treat!
That issue reminded me that many years ago, when in the UK, I bought at auction a box of documents, photos and correspondence relating to First World War aviation. Although it was hard to figure the origins of this treasure trove, some files and correspondence seem to have once been in the ownership of the late J M ‘Jack’ Bruce of RAF Museum fame from the museum’s early days. One letter particularly caught my attention when I purchased this lot. Written in capital letters on the envelope is: ‘Charlatan or Fantasist?’
The letter in question was addressed to Mr Bruce and it came from one Herr Reinhold Platz, the postmark is dated 10 September 1962. In it, Platz vaguely claims and hints that it was he, and not Anthony Fokker, who designed the Fokker DR.I ‘Dreidecker’. Or, at least, that he played some significant role in its design.
Understandably, this claim rather piqued my interest in Reinhold Platz and I then ventured into the minefield of the debate surrounding the role Platz played (or not) on Fokker’s design team. Certainly, Platz did join the company – initially as a welder – and it seems he may have later played at least some part in design work. However, I will not venture further down that rabbit hole in this letter but leave it to your readers to do their own research and draw their own conclusions. However, another aspect of that letter is both interesting and perhaps a little less controversial.
Platz wrote:
“During the Second World War, by which time I was Oberstingenieur, I was instructed by Göring [sic] to go to Holland to aid Fokker’s production efforts on behalf of the Luftwaffe. A few Fokker G.1 attack aircraft, originally ordered for Finland, were being completed for delivery to the Luftwaffe, together with a few Fokker T.VIII-W floatplanes. But the Fokker factory played no major part in supplying aircraft for Germany except for building Bücker Bü 181 training aircraft, Arado Ar 196-A floatplanes and, later, a few components for the Focke-wulf 190 I believe.
“During my two-month stay in Amsterdam, Hermann Göring one day turned up at
Schipol. One or two ancient and decaying Fokker D.VII aircraft were still standing there. Göring strolled over to one, patted it and said: “Ah! Der gute alte D.VII” Turning to me, he asked why I didn’t go and design a ‘new D.VII’ and give the Luftwaffe back the supremacy it had all those years ago!”
Whether the contents of Platz’s letter can be given much credibility might be open to question, but he also went on to say:
“Then there was the V.8 ‘quintuplane’. I personally designed this monstrosity on the explicit instructions of Anthony Fokker, although I had no faith in the project, and it proved a complete failure – as I knew it would be.
“I was also involved with the Fokker V.20, a single-seat midwing cantilever monoplane with a single spar. We built it from scratch in five-and-a-half-days!”
Whatever the truth of the claims by Platz, the letter is nothing short of extraordinary in terms of its fascinating content.
Dugald K Mackenzie, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (By email) Readers of the magazine who do not follow us on Facebook or Twitter will find us below:
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