Kurt Wolff

[rammjaeger]

Hi Rittmeister,

I found Kilduff´s e-Mail address in a discussion group for historians:

KILDUFF@CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU

Regards

[Rittm]

Hi Hannes,

Thank you for the address!

Rittm

[Barrett]

Hannes: without seeing the document, or material based thereon, I can't offer a cogent comment about McLeod's three Tripe claims. However, I suspect that one or more of 'em were classed OOC, which (as you Forum veterans know by now) I usually ignore because so few mean anything. The "destroyeds" are bad enough!

Hannes and Barrett,

George McElroy was credited with 3 Triplanes,
2 Destroyed and 1 OOC.
Source: Shores and co. 'Above the Trenches' (no kidding this time) pp272.

Regards

MDD

oops..disregard previous transmission, wrong individual, wrong actions hehe.

JG1 doesn't show any casualties for 27 March 1918. If Mcleod destroyed any tripes, they may have come from another jasta (36?).

Regards,

MDD

[rammjaeger]

Hi Barrett!

All three were "driven down out of control"!

I researched the whole thing again and again.
I did not find fitting German losses for this day but can confirm one thing: McLeod was shoot down in flames by Hans Kirschstein (Jasta 6). 5 minutes later Kirschstein achieved his second victory on this day (his #3 of 27) but MvR gave him a reprimand because Kirschstein had hits from behind in his aircraft (MvR was saying something like: It is a crime to get hits from behind ... you are no more member of a Feldflieger-unit...you are a fighter pilot now!).

So the justification for McLeod's VC is partly wrong but I guess a reward for McLeod was justified because he was saving his observer Hammond.

[Barrett]

Hannes, et al: No argument. Any reading of McLeod's VC citation shows that he was primarily rewarded for his selfless actions in behalf of his observer. But we do need to remember that aside from the enduring Bishop controversy (I just think it EXTREMELY unlikely that the missing German documents somehow align with 72 of his claims) is the matter of Jerrod in Italy. His squadron CO submitted the report, as I recall reading, and the skipper simply got it wrong. I have some experience with such things, being intimately involved with correcting the record of a Vietnam War aviator who posthumously received a CMH, and believe me (i.e., "Trust me!") when I say that military bureaucracies are highly fallible.
To repeat: McLeod deserved his Victoria Cross, regardless of any Tripehounds diven down, out of control, or "confirmed as confounded."