A Jagdstaffel was more than just it's aircrew and many were the unsung heros who played out their roles without troubling the historians. These few comemmorated here are just a handfull of the dozens of cooks, drivers, mechanics and others who kept Jasta 38DD in the air.

By 1918 it was not only in the trenches that conditions were spartan. Times were hard even in the rear echelons and the air service too had to tighten it's belt. In such conditions a squadron mascot would have been an unimmaginable luxury. It is not surprizing then that the men were enormously proud of the cooks award winning tapeworm, which they excersized daily.

There was however a tragic side to all of this and the affliction cut short a promising career in the international sporting arena. Before the war, at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Vzfw Schtink. had been gold medalist in the cross-country all terrain unicycling event. He was murdered in the streetfighting of 1919; Strangled by a communist revolutionary. It is thought that the instrument of Schtink's death was the ribband of his Olympic gold medal, but there have been other suggestions.

Lieutnant Gustav "Trouser" Presse was the Jasta 38DD's laundry officer but is perhaps better known as the inventor of the "Stayprest" Zeppellin envelope. It was thanks to this that he made his fortune post-war. But, like August Schtink, he met an untimely end. Of interest is that with his dying breath he revealed the true colour of Werner Voss's Fokker FI cowling, for too long a subject generating a great deal of heat amongst modelers everywhere. Unfortunately he died of a Helium overdose so his last words were heared only by his dog.

The Identity of this Jasta 38DD communications officer is regretably not known but this photograph is incuded as a rare illustration of part of the famous "Boelke's Dicta". The primitive portable voice recording device known as "Boelke's Dicta". was not at all as sophisticated as modern machines. It was quite large and was portable only in the sense that it was possible to move it, allthough it's vulnerability to air attack meant that this was only ever done at night.

Despite the great size the disc could only hold a limited amount of data. A computer enhanced examination of this illustration reveals that it contains the words:

"...and you can tell Hindenburg from me that he can....insert second disc now."