Albatros D.III - German Users, part three

We finish with this excellent German fighter by covering even more of its German users.

When it entered service in December 1916 it was quickly acclaimed by the German pilots thanks to its maneouvrability and climb rate, even if, just like its inmediate predecessor, the Albatros D.II, had the same fault regarding the position of the radiator. As it was placed in the center of the upper wing, it could break and scald the pilot. That's the reason why from the 290th airplane onwards, the radiator was placed in the upper wing but at the right, instead of the center while most of the already deployed ones were field-modified to solve that problem.
Some of the aircraft serving in the middle-east were equipped with two radiators to deal with the warmer climate.

Just like one of its inmediate rival, the Nieuport 17 it began experiencing some failures on the lower wing ribs and the leading edge. In fact, on 23rd January 1917 suffered a failure on the lower right wing spar and the next day, Manfred von Richtofens' airplane wing cracked. That's why the German Aviation Corps high command issued an order to keep all the D.III grounded in order to search for a solution for that serious problem. On February, Albatros introduced a reinforced lower wing and the order was called-off.
The new airplanes from then on would already be produced with the new reinforced lower wing, while the already operational D.III were withdrawn from the frontlines and the Jastas were forced to use the already obsolete Albatros D.II and the Halberstadt D.II.

Leaving those problems aside, the D.III was considered a very good airplane which was easy and pleasant to fly, even if it was somehow heavy to control and the sesquiplane arrangement of the wings offered an excellent downwards visibility, climb rate and maneouvrability.

Approximately 500 airplanes were manufactured by Albatros itself until the production was shifted to OAW which was a subsidiary of Albatros.
It's stimated that at the peak of it's service, 446 D.III served just in the western front only and, even when the better Albatros D.V was already in service, the D.III continued serving until the armistice.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_D.III
2. The complete book of fighters
3. Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 32 - Albatros Aces of World War I
4. Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 77 - Albatros Aces of World War I (2)
5. Osprey - Air Vanguard 13 - Albatros D.III