Hello Stig, nice to talk to you, I see your name all over since I browse old photos for
AirHistory.
First, the supposed Dutch serial is indeed F.227, my bad.
This archive is a municipal archive and they have no clue about aircraft (which makes it possible to find undiscovered gems). There happened to live a good photographer in Vlissingen (Flushing), Mr. Dert, and it seems he was hired to photograph the aircraft that came down in the area.
I suspect the information with the photos comes from the Netherlands Instititute for Military History (NIMH) which has some of the Dert photos in their own database, but not all. The information about crews seems to be quite reliable in other cases.
One Baum was interned in Holland according to Clint, so he came from somewhere.
I'm by no means an expert on WWI aircraft as my question about Idflieg serials proves. If D.5288/18 was not a valid D.VII (Alb) serial we would have a different case, but it is. I thought that 5288 was maybe the construction number, but if that is not possible, then this is D.5288/18 in my opinion.
It's sure a sloppy way of painting a serial on, but still. Maybe temporary if the aircraft was in the process of being painted, for example? That the Dutch applied this there in the mud of IJzendijke seems wildly unlikely to me. I would bet that nobody in the salvaging party knew that this plane was a Fokker D.VII.
If D.5584/18 is certain to have ended up in Holland, I would agree with Clint that this is probably simply another case. Why couldn't there be one?
I'll try to contact a Dutch expert on the interned aircraft and see what he says.
Regards,
Peter