Claim: The Sopwith Triplane was destroyed by a German reconnaissance aircraft in the East of Lens on July 4, 1917.
Evidence: The Sopwith Triplane was a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. Royal Naval Air Service During April 1917, Manfred von Richthofen, better known as The Red Baron, commented that the Triplane was the best Allied fighter at that time, a sentiment that was echoed by other German senior officers such as Ernst von Hoeppner. All but one British Triplane were dispatched to squadrons based in France; this sole aircraft was instead sent to the Aegean, although its service details and purpose there is largely unknown, only that its use was curtailed after a crash-landing in Salonika on 26 March 1917. Aside from the British, the only other major operator of the Triplane was a French naval squadron based at Dunkirk, which received 17 aircraft. Furthermore, the Imperial Russian Air Service also operated a single Triplane during the latter half of 1917, its fate being unknown. Multiple Triplanes were captured and subject to considerable evaluation and study. The Germans were so impressed by the aircraft's performance that it spawned a brief triplane craze among German aircraft manufacturers. Spare parts became difficult to obtain during the summer of 1917, resulting in the reduction of No. 1 Naval Squadron's complement from 18 to 15 aircraft.