Albert Ball

[Ginger.]

The Germans did'nt make a mistake viewing the wreckage.Lothesome Lother said he potted a Tripe.

Oh...say does anyone know any details about the wreakage or what the Germans did with his body?

[Ginger.]

Kory,
Ball was buried with full honours in one of their Military cemetries.I will look up the place if you would like.

[Darryl]

All,

Ball is buried at:

Cemetery: ANNOEULLIN COMMUNAL CEMETERY AND GERMAN EXTENSION, Nord, France
Grave Reference/
Panel Number: Grave 643.

Location: Annoeullin is a village in the Department of the Nord, approximately 10 kilometres east of La Bassee. The German Extension is on the south-east side of the Communal Cemetery.

He was seen by 4 German Officers on the ground to spin upside down out of a bank of cloud and disappear behind some trees. When they arrived on the scene they found that he had been removed from the wrecked aircraft by a French woman, Madame Sieppe Coulon. He died shortly thereafter.

Wilhelm Allmenroeder (Karl's brother) was with Lothar that evening and saw the fight between Lothar and his "victim". He does not say it was a triplane or otherwise, he does however say that after the last pass the enemy went into a dive and into the ground. He was above the fight and makes no mention of cloud.

It could be that Ball did not shoot down LvR. The 'Triplane' fight may have come after Lothar and Ball went into the cloud. Ball may have then come to grief before Lothar flew into clear sky again. Allmenroeder did lose sight of Lothar for a bit just after the initial attack by Ball and his wingman.

The only problem is that there are no Triplane losses that day (even though Naval Eight was fighting in that area). The only other 56 SE5 that may fit was Mentjes, but he made it home after being shot up and wounded.

The mystery remains..but the French girl story is accepted, at least by the GOGS.

regards

Darryl

[Chris_Tydlacka]

Thanks for the info Ginger and Killratio I hope to one day visit the site and grave of Albert Ball at least now I know the boy didn't die alone.

[Richard_Schrader]

Ball made
a crash landing and walked away. A pretty girl runs up to him and puts her arms around him. Unknown to him she is a German agent, and has him in the infamous Hun hug. His back is then broken in two places!

[Ginger.]

Thats what I call making a comeback right out of the sun!!!
You've flamed a sprog,look over your Gingers up sun.

[Chris_Tydlacka]

very funny good joke

[alex_revell]

On the evening of 7th May 1917 Ball chased an Albatros into a thick cloud. Behind Ball was Cyril Crowe. He did not follow Ball into the cloud because he thought it was an extremely foolish thing to do and he was low in petrol. This is at odds with his combat report but he told me this in the 60s. The next time Ball was seen was by a Ltn Hailer, a German officer. The SE emerged from the cloud, inverted, with prop stationary and only 200 feet up. It was still in this attitude when it crashed. Hailer went to the scene of the crash and found that a young french girl had got Ball out of the SE. There were no wounds on the body and later examination by a doctor showed that Ball had died of a broken back. In other words he had died as the result of the crash. Hailer and two other officers examined the wreckage of the SE and found no evidence of any damage, either from AA fire or combat. Jasta 11 phoned the next day to try to obtain confirmation of Lothar von R's victory but Hailer still insisted that Ball had not been brought down by either AA fire or in aerial combat. He later stated that a little later some German air force personnel came and fired revolver bullets into the wreckage in an attempt to prove combat damage.
The obvious conclusion is that Ball became disorientated in the thick cloud and the SE inverted. The SE could not be flown inverted, the air intake would immediately flood and stop the engine. Ball came out of the cloud with no engine, inverted and with only 200 feet to spare. No pilot, especially one with the sparse training of the day, could have recovered from this position. There never was any MG in a church tower. This was a legend that grew up, I think, in the 30s. If one stops to think about it is obviously wrong. If there was church tower it would have not have been anywhere near the front line. One, because it was unlikely to be intact and two, because it would a prime target for artillery and a MG crew would not have survived for very long. If it was further back then what would be the point of having a MG in the tower.
Hope this clears up a few questions.

Hi Chris,

I found this whole topic very interesting. Ball was always one of my favorite pilots. There is just something so haunting about his face. Several years ago in college I stumbled onto a copy of the biography written about him just after his death. It was a very sappy look at his life, but it does provide an interesting glimpse at how the British public and government was coming to grips with the growing cult of celebrity surrounding their aces.
Ball flew so long without a break, I'd venture the RFC partially responsible for what happened.
But thats just my opinion.

best,

dereck