German Aces

Kirk Goolsby · 26 December 1998, 03:34 PM

I have just been given a book from the Grub Street press called "Above The Lines" which is the best reference book on World War One German aces. It gives a lot of detailed information and includes many aces without pages on the Aerodrome. It would be a good addition to anyones collection and would be a good resource for the webmaster of this sight. Are there any other detailed reference books on other national air forces from the first WW?

26 December 1998, 03:49 PM

'The Jasta Pilots' from the same publishing house is the companion volume to the one you mention.
It lists the non ace fighter pilots of the German Air Service.

Regards,

MDD

Barrett · 26 December 1998, 03:54 PM

The Grub Street Gods (as they have been dubbed) also produce the following, among many others:

Above the Trenches (British aces)
Over the Front (French & US)

Above the War Fronts (Brit 2-seat guys plus everybody else)

It's an indispensable set of volumes for serious WW I aceologists. For instance, ATT allowed me to determine that the top Camel squadron, in terms of real aces (5 or more credited destroyed or captured, forget the silly OOCs) was No. 66 with 13 followed by No. 45 with 11. The only lasting regret with the whole series is that the presumably methodical Germans did not ID their own aircraft types on combat reports, so it's impossible to know with certainly what the top D-VII scores were, for instance.

rammjaeger · 26 December 1998, 10:23 PM

Are you shure, Barrett?

Just in this moment I have the book "Jagd in Flanderns Himmel" (Bodenschatz) laying under my nose and every copy of the combat records shows the aircraft type (e.g. Udet #47 achieved with Fokk.D.7. 425)! Was JG1 an exception?

rammjaeger · 26 December 1998, 10:26 PM

Sorry, Fokk. D.7 4253.

27 December 1998, 05:38 AM

For fliers from the K u K Luftfahrtruppen (Austro Hungarian airforce try, "Air Aces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1914-1918" by Dr. Martin O'Connor. It has great articles and pictures.

Barrett · 27 December 1998, 08:28 AM

Hannes: I've not seen the JG.I history but I have the complete Grub Street set, and only the German volume lacks info on the aircraft type flown by each ace for each victory. Much Italian data is missing, but some is there. Additionally, Norman Franks told me that he saw very few German combat reports with the aircraft type flown. It's possible that JG.I had a different policy, in which case I'd be very interested to know how many victories the Circus stars obtained in Dr.Is and D.VIIs, respectively. D.VIIIs, for that matter, too!

Cheers,
Barrett

Vigilant · 27 December 1998, 01:00 PM

I just got the English translation of "Jagd in Flandern Himmel" for Christmas. It's a cracker (even with the unbelievably pompous introduction from Goering)!

Rittm · 27 December 1998, 03:42 PM

I have most of the books you have mentioned, but I have one you have not mentioned. It is called German Knights of the Air 1914-1918 by Terry C. Treadwell and Alan C. Wood. It centers it's attention mainly on the recipients of the Order of the Pour le Merite. There is a page or two of biography on each pilot along with a photo. I don't think all the pilots are listed, but I think most of them are.

Oh, and guess what I got for Christmas! Eagles of the Black Cross!

Rittm

rammjaeger · 28 December 1998, 03:11 AM

Hi Vigilant,

the Bodenschatz-book is realy interesting but sometimes Bodenschatz makes failures or is stretching the truth. So he is claiming for the 18th March 1918 "no aircraft and no man lost" but

The Jasta Pilots reports the new pilot Ihde (arrived on 14th in JG1) died on this day in air combat. My 3rd German edition reports also that now (1938!) after 20 years of research the fate of MvR beame clear: He was shoot down from ground fire and not killed by

Roy Brown (what was stated before in the first and second German edition).

Hello Barrett,

maybe the most complete combat records were used for the German publications. I have not seen too many German reports and thought until now the most were lost later. The last reports of MvR show the aircraft type and the kind of painting of the machine. The victory report for Göring's #22 is mentioning "Fokker D.VII F #294/18 (Roten Vorderrumpf mit gelben Schwanz)". The words in brackets show also Görings bad abilities in German language (wrong grammar). Udet used the same Fokker D.VII for his 47th and his 62th victory.
I send you a copy of #62 with 7 (!) eye whitnesses reports from the Udet bio. One line is for the entry of the type and special characteristica reserved but was maybe a CAN and not a MUST.

Did Norman Franks also look into the East German files? The GDR inherited the most German files about airwar but the communist officals were not so interested in this topic. Part of Kilduffs success in writing the MvR-books and recently the JG1-book was the use of the East German sources since 1985. Additional I think the West Germans transported the documents from Berlin to Freiburg in the west like other valuable sources and goods.