Johann Hesselink

Does anyone have any information about this German pilot.

andy

Dear Andy,

He was a Lt by the end of the war, origninally served with FA 57 and joined Jasta 33 somewhere in may 1917 till 4/2/1918. In the period 18/6 till 14/7 he was also acting commander of this unit. On feb.4th 1918 till end of war het was commander of Jasta 39.
He had 1 confirmed victory on 27/5/1917 and claimed another one, unconfirmed, two days before.
Source : Jasta Pilots, Grubb Street.

Regards,

Johan

I have seen it mentioned that he was Dutch, is this the case.

andy

Dear Andy,

As far as I know he had the German nationality. However his name is very probably of Dutch origin, as there are today still Hesselinks living in the Netherlands. However as his name Johann is written with double nn it is clearly the German version of my own name. So this should mean that he was born in Germany too.

Regards,

Johan

Hello Andy,

In a thread (starting on 02-01-2000) Eric Bakker mentioned that Hesselink was born in 1894 in Haarlem (The Netherlands). Johan died in december 1918 in Oberstdorf (influenza). On 03-01-2000 Eric showed info he had got from Johan's sister Anna. She wrote on october 7 1941 in the family chronicle. Eric had also info taken from several letters from Johan. At that time Eric didn't have them all.
If you are interested I'll send you all the info Eric wrote that day.
Maybe it is possible to contact Eric for more info
on Johan.

Best regards,

Jos

I have seen a book in German which mentioned his nationality. It also covers his war service. I am trying to track it down.
Thanks for the offer of information, I will not need anything at the moment, but thankyou anyway.

andy