Albatros D.III - Foreign Users

We come up with this new airplane that played a very important role during the World War I. In this post we are centering into the foreign users.

The Albatros D.III was a German biplane fighter that was widely used by many German aces and it was the preeminent fighter during the period of time that Germany ruled the skies which was known as the "Bloody April".

As this post is about the foreign users for this one, the nations covered in this post are:

• France: On 21st April 1917 the German pilot Lt. Friedrich Wilhelm tried to attack a French artillery observation balloon, but he was shot down by the French lieutenant Languedoc which managed somehow to capture the airplane intact. This airplane would later be sold to the United States which sent it to McCook airfield in Dayton, Ohio in order to perform aerial experiments between 1917 and 1927.
• Lithuania: The Lithuanian air force used many German leftovers in order to equip their newly created air force.
• Ottoman Empire: The Albatros D.III started to be delivered to Ottoman Empire in March 1918 and, in October 1918 a total of 29 D.III had been delivered, 10 of which had no engines at all.
• Turkey: Some of the Albatros employed by the Ottoman Empire were employed by the newly created Turkish Army which used them in their independence war. They were writen off in 1922. The colours of this one are speculative.
• Bulgaria: Some few Albatros D.III were seized from retreating German forces in late 1918. Some sources claim that it was just a pair of airplanes, however it's very hard to know considering that they never were officially  'taken on charge'. It's known, however, that they were used by some Bulgarian pilots for training after some reparations, performed at the workshop of the Bojurishte airfield, were made. As there aren't graphical evidence on these airplanes, the colours should be considered speculative.
• United Kingdom: Originally piloted by the German lieutenant Georg Simon, it was shot down by a Nieuport belonging to the Royal Flying Corps on 4th June 1917 and he was made prisoner. After that his airplane was repainted and showed as a war prize even if the radiator water pipe was missing.
• Poland: The newly created Polish government employed many German leftover airplanes, and also bought some of them, specially those manufactured by OAW and used them in the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920, mainly in ground attack duties. Some of them were used by the famous Kosciuszko Squadron which was mainly equipped with the Austro-Hungarian improved variant, the Oeffag Va.253.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_D.III
2. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/bulgaria/af/types/albatros.htm
3. http://www.traditions-air.fr/unit/avion/avions_ww1_02.htm