Artificial leg worn by German aviator

Artificial (prosthetic) right leg for an amputation below the knee, finishing in a black leather ankle boot without toecap, which fastens with a black cotton lace threaded through 5 pairs of metal reinforced eyelets and 4 pairs of black metal hooks. Fitted into the boot is a metal reinforced blocked leather 'leg' covered with a ribbed grey woollen sock and a field grey ersatz (substitute paper and recycled cloth fabric) puttee fastened with a blackened metal slide. The inner end of the puttee carries a red and black woven label, 'Teufels "Mars" Gamasche. Patentiert im In & Auslande'.

The sides of the leg are reinforced with metal strips covered with brown leather, jointed at the knee, then extended to a broad leather sleeve, padded inside with wool covered by a fine brown cotton twill. The cotton twill carries a number of inscriptions in purple indelible pencil which are mostly legible '.... artificial/german air/17' and ' FOUND BY PTE BAR.../ 46th ...../ B....F....' .The sleeve fastens around the thigh with two straps and buckles, which are riveted to the leather. The lower strap has broken away and the upper buckle is missing. A heavy black cotton shoelace is threaded around the top edge of the sleeve passing through the hole where the missing buckle was once attached by a rivet.

The top of the lower leg is lined and padded as for the thigh band. It can be adjusted for fit by leather bands sewn on the front and back of the leg, which are joined together on each side by three pairs of metal eyelets and a brown cotton shoelace.

This prosthetic leg was worn by an unknown German aviator who was shot down during an air battle at Villers-Bretonneux on the morning of 19 May 1918 in front of the Australian lines. The pilot was killed in the crash.

Witnesses reported the pilot was a "boy" who had a wooden leg. He was buried at grid reference Sheet 62d O30d 65 on the day he was killed but the next day his body was removed by members of the Australian Flying Corps and reinterred behind the lines with a proper burial. His leg had been collected before his initial burial and was passed on to the Australian War Records Section as evidence of the increasing lack of manpower available to the Germans and of their reduction in age and fitness standards to maintain the numbers needed for their war effort.