The Mammoth Book of Fighter Pilots (60 page)

Out of the western skies would come a tinier V of Allied planes, then another and another, until the whole line of them closed with the “circus” and the blue sky was etched with streaking flight. Round and round, diving, zooming, looping, with motors roaring full out, these lethal wasps spat flaming death through the glittering propeller’s disk. Cometlike projectiles missed each other by inches in the whirlpool of sound and fury. Suddenly, out of nowhere, two planes in 125-mile-an-hour flight rushed at each other too late to loop, dive, swerve. Crash! They merged, tangling wings, clasping each other like friends long separated, before gravity pulled them reluctantly apart and they began a crazy descent to bury themselves eight feet in earth miles below. Perhaps I alone noticed them. The taut pilots in the dogfights were taking in sensations with express train speed – flying – fighting – automatons at the highest pitch of skill and nerve in a frenzy of killing.

Richthofen gained the tail of an enemy. The tracer bullets were spelling out death, when the enemy’s engine stopped, the plane went into a quick spin, and only levelled out for a landing quite close to where we were watching the whole battle. We quickly motored over. Richthofen had already gone back to the Front, after landing first, and shaking hands with the officer he had brought down. A bullet had pierced the officer’s pocket, ruined a package of cigarettes, travelled on down through his sleeve, punctured his Sam Browne belt and gone on without injury. We looked over his coat, that might so easily have been his shroud.

Asking him to ride with us, we took him back to the flying field, where we picked up Richthofen and together went to the Casino for a good breakfast and friendly chat. I took moving pictures of the officer and Richthofen. Later I acquired a patch of the fabric from Richthofen’s sixtieth victory. After a pleasant breakfast, we turned the prisoner over to headquarters, since it was against regulations to keep him for any length of time.

For several days we followed Richthofen’s fights. Many of his victories were easy, especially when he attacked the clumsy two-seaters. His usual technique was to dive in their rear, zoom under the tail, and shoot them from very close range. By this time he had become a first class pilot and handled his plane with utmost skill. Seldom did he use more than a quarter of his ammunition on an enemy. Four hundred rounds were carried for each of the two guns. When pilots went from one combat to another, they usually fought until their ammunition was exhausted before returning home.

I think one of the reasons Richthofen survived so long was his ability to keep guarding himself while he attacked. Many other aces were shot down during a fight unexpectedly, as they were training their guns on an enemy pilot. Richthofen would fight very close to his wing men, and not until it was a real dogfight, with the whole air in confusion, would he release his formation to permit every pilot to shift for himself. He was an excellent teacher, and young pilots who showed exceptional skill and courage were sent to his
staffel
to get experience. At first they were taken along to observe the fighting from a distance, and forbidden to engage in combat at all during the first three flights. For it was found that many of the new pilots were killed in their first fight, before they had learned to be all eyes in every direction.

Immediately after each battle, Richthofen would gather his officers for conference and a discussion of the tactics. Occasionally he would censure pilots too aggressive, or too willing to pull away before the battle was over. He was perhaps not so much liked as admired, but the respect other pilots had for him was unbounded.

Proud though he was, the réclame of his feats gave him no particular pleasure. He was not interested in publicity, and though he received letters by the ton from all sorts of people, he cared little for fan mail. When he was around, parties were never wild, for the other pilots felt constrained in the presence of their chief.

Richthofen knew little or nothing about the technical details of airplanes. Unlike Boelcke and Immelmann, he was not even interested, except as it was necessary for him to know for his own safety and development.

While they were alive, we did our best to show the flyers a gay time. It was an open secret that all airplane manufacturers entertained lavishly while the pilots were on leave, and when the aces came to Berlin for the periodical competitions. Because of the popularity of the Fokker plane at the Front, many of the pilots on furlough preferred to make their headquarters with us at the Hotel Bristol. I had a deep admiration for them, and counted many as close friends. Some were so young, I felt almost paternal towards them, although I was only twenty-eight when the War ended.

It was a pleasure to keep open house for the pilots. Naturally it served our interests to hear them talk, discuss one plane and another, the latest tactics of the Allied-airmen, sketch their ideal of a combat ship. But what they wanted most, and what we tried to give them was gaiety, charm, diversion, the society of pretty girls, the kind of a good time they had been dreaming about during their nightmare stay at the Front. Berlin was full of girls eager to provide this companionship, for aviators in Germany as in every other country were the heroes of the hour, and the spirit was in the air to make these men happy before they returned to face death alone.

APPENDIX II:
DICTA BOELCKE

Oswald Boelcke (1891–1916) of the German Air Service was one of the first fighter pilots to develop the theory and tactics of aerial combat. His set rules of air fighting, the
Dicta Boelcke,
became the basis of the training principles for German fighter pilots in the latter years of World War I and throughout World War II.

1. Always try to secure an advantageous position before attacking. Climb before and during the approach in order to surprise the enemy from above and dive on him swiftly from the rear when the moment to attack is at hand. 2: Try to place yourself between the sun and the enemy. This puts the glare of the sun in the enemy’s eyes and makes it difficult to see you and impossible for him to shoot with any accuracy. 3: Do not fire the machine guns until the enemy is within range and you have him squarely within your sights. 4: Attack when the enemy least expects it or when he is preoccupied with other duties such as observation, photography, or bombing. 5: Never turn your back and try to run away from an enemy fighter. If you are surprised by an attack on your tail, turn and face the enemy with your guns. 6: Keep your eye on the enemy and do not let him deceive you with tricks. If your opponent appears damaged, follow him down until he crashes to be sure he is not faking. 7: Foolish acts of bravery only bring death. The
jasta
must fight as a unit with close teamwork between all pilots. The signals of the formation leader must be obeyed.

APPENDIX III:
FIGHTER ACES OF THE WORLD

A fighter “ace” is generally taken to be the victor in 5 and more aerial combats. Since 1914 more than 5000 fighter pilots have achieved ace status. Among the greatest are:

World War I

Germany/Austria-Hungary

Manfred von Richthofen (Germany) 80

Ernst Udet (Germany) 62

Erich Loewenhardt (Germany) 53

Werner Voss (Germany) 48

Fritz Rumey (Germany) 45

A selection of others:

Oswald Boelcke (Germany) 40

Lothar von Richthofen (Germany) 40

Godwin Brumowski (Aus) 35

Herman Goering (Ger) 22

Allies-France/Belgium, Great Britain,
Italy, Russia, Canada, Australia, USA

René Fonck (Fra) 75

William A Bishop (Can) 72

Raymond Collishaw (Can) 62 [possibly 60]

Edward Mannock (GB) 61 [possibly 73]

James McCudden (GB) 57

Others:

Georges Guynemer (Fr) 54 [possibly 53]

A. Beauchamp-Proctor (SA) 54

Albert Ball (GB) 47 [possibly 44]

Francesco Baracca (Ita) 34

Willy Coppens (Bel) 37

Edward Rickenbacker (US) 26

SC Rosevear (US) 23

Alexander Kazakov (Russia) 17

Spanish Civil War

Joaquin Morato Y Castano (Spa) 40

Others:

Frank Tinker (US) 7 [possibly 8]

Stephan Suprun (USSR) 15

Werner Moelders (Ger) 15 [plus 101 WWII]

World War II

Axis Powers–Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Rumania, Italy, Japan

Erich Hartman (Ger) 352

Gerhard Barkhorn (Ger) 301

Gunther Rall (Ger) 275

Otto Kittel (Ger) 267

Walter Nowotny (Ger) 258

Others:

Johannes Steinhoff (Ger) 176

Hans-Joachim Marseille (Ger) 158

Hiroyshi Nishizawa (Jap) c110

Adolf Galland (Ger) 104

Tetsuzo Iwamoto (Jap) 80

Constantine Cantacuzine (Rum) 60

Adriano Visconti (Ita) 26

Allies–France, Great Britain & Empire, USA, USSR

Ivan Kozuhedub (USSR) 62

Aleksandr I. Pokryshkin (USSR) 59

Richard Bong (US) 40

Mato Dubovak (Yugoslavia) 40

Thomas McGuire (US) 38

Others:

James E. Johnson (GB) 38 [possibly 36]

Pierre Clostermann (Fr) 36

Adolf “Sailor” Malan (South Africa) 35

Brendan E. Finucane (GB) 32

Clive Caldwell (Aus) 28

Douglas Bader (GB) 23

Korea

United Nations

Joseph McConnell (US) 16

James Jabara (US) 16

Manuel J. Fernandez (US) 14

George Davies (US) 14

Royal N. Baker (US) 13.5

North Korea & Allies

Nicolai V. Sutyagin (USSR) 22

Yevgeny G. Pepelyaev (USSR) 19

Alexandr Smortzkow (USSR) 15

LK Schukin (USSR) 15 [possibly 14]

Others:

Chszao Bao-tun (China) 9

Kam Den Dek (North Korea) 8

Vietnam

United Nations

Randy Cunningham (US) 5

Robin Olds (US) 5 [plus 12 WWII]

North Vietnam & Allies

Nguyen Toon (North Vietnam) 13

Nguyen Van Coc (North Vietnam) 9

For further information see,
inter alia:

Above the Trenches
, CF Shores et al, 1990;
Horrido
! T J Constable & R F Toliver, 1968.

Fighter Pilot “Ace” List website:

(
www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/aces.html
), Al Bowers & David Lednicer, 1999.

Endnotes

1
Bleriot Experimental 2c,
nicknamed “The Quirk”. A two-seater aircraft, equipped with two machine guns, it was used primarily as a reconnaissance aircraft on the Western Front.

2
Aircraft numbers, flying times and other details are taken from the Pilot’s Log Book in the Author’s [D.G-M] possession.

3
Oswald Boelcke, born in 1891, one of the first pilots in the German Air Service to develop the tactics of aerial combat, and an early recipient of the coveted
Ordre Pour le Mérite
(“The Blue Max”). After 40 aerial victories he died on 28 October 1916. See
Appendix II
.

4
Max Immelmann, fighter ace, born 1890, died 18 June 1916. Recipient of
Ordre Pour le Mérite.
Mostly remembered for the “Immelmann turn”, a half loop, followed by a half roll.

5
Werner Voss, born 1897, fifth highest scoring German ace of WWI, with 48 victories. Killed in action on 23 September 1917. See
here
.

6
Captain Albert Ball, born 1896, British fighter ace, killed in action on 7 May 1917 See
here

7
Captain Albert Ball, born 1896, gained RFC “wings” on 22 January 1916

8
Later Chief of the Air Staff and Marshal of the RAF. Created a Baron in 1930.

9
The full inscription on Guynemer’s Spad read “Vieux Charles” – “Old Charlie.
”

10
i.e. Jagdgeschwader 1

11
German parliament

12
That any break in a run of victories ended one’s luck.

13
An old girlfriend of Udet; he painted her name on his successive Fokker triplanes.

14
The King of Bavaria’s palace.

15
See
here

16
See
here

17
The Fokker DVII, max speed 124 mph, armed with 2 Spandau 7.92mm machine guns.

18
Edward “Mick” Mannock, born 1887, killed in action on 26 July, not 20 July as in the diary. The highest scoring English fighter ace of WWI, with 61 aerial victories (and perhaps as high as 73, since he frequently shared “kills” or failed to claim them).

19
A memoir based on Hall’s
Atlantic Monthly
articles.

20
Willy Coppens de Houthulst, born 1892, died 1986. Flew a bright blue Hanriot HDI biplane for most of his 37 victories. Invalided 14 October 1918 after being hit by an incendiary bullet in the leg.