Bloody April and Voss: What if haters need not apply!

Following on from the Boelcke thread i just wondered what peoples views are on how many Voss would have bagged in April 1917 if he hadn't been on leave?

Or would he have been killed even earlier due to the fact that he hadn't had leave. Well i leave it to you to decide...

Mark

The answer to this one depends at least somewhat on where his Jasta was located at the time, i.e., how many enemy targets were available? I must admit that I dont even recall what unit Voss was with at this time. If it was Jasta B, he no doubt would have had ample targets, as this unit, like MvR's, always seemed to be in the thick of things.
Couple this to the observation that the typical RFC plane was not yet up to the level of the Alb D3, its easy to see why many German flyers racked up such big numbers at this time. Wolff, MvR, LvR, Schaefer, Gontermann (J15?-to show it wasnt only J11), etc....

I recall that Barrett raised the issue that Voss was out of service for so long during this period. If I remember correctly, Voss received his Blue Max at this time, and was probably making the usual 'hero around Berlin' rounds at this time. Too bad for his total score it happened at this time. I dont think that 20 would have been out of the question for Voss at this time.

Voss would've outscored any other German ace including MvR hands down!

Mark

Yes he was on the hero tour, it was tradition to give a pilot one month's leave once they got the Blue max. I think he scored on the 30th of April though.

Tom

I have little doubt he would have scored well, but i wonder of the strain of things may have got to him?

Voss had victories on 01 APR and again on 06 APR. He also had his only unconfirmed victory on 06 APR . His next Victory came on 07 MAY He received the PlM on 08 APR.

As was customary he was given 30 days leave when he was awarded the PlM. He used the time to celebrate his birthday, among other things. He was closing fast on the top score before going on leave and I suspect he could've caught up or passed the Baron, barring getting shot down.

Yet one must remember, that in the first week of April, I beleive the Baron got four or five planes to Voss's two.

Tobias Gibson
48 Kills, The Werner Voß Page

I don't think he would have surpassed the Baron. I believe Voss' ultimate confidence in his ability would simply have led him to another mismatched fight and he would have been killed anyway. Not many Lone Wolf's survived...

Tobias

Yeah i was going to post the corrections to my earlier post, my mind is on other things at the moment...

I was looking at the figures earlier and i was surprised to see Kurt Wolff was top scorer in April with one more than MvR. The problem for Voss in trying to keep up was that he was out of the main battlefield. I think (i really should check these things!) that J11 claimed 81 confirms in April while JB only claimed 21, even accounting for the differnce in the personnel of each, it still shows that Voss may have struggled to keep up.

Also he may not have had such a good May as he seems to have come back from leave all fired up!

Mark, (this is looking more like a serious thread!!!!)

[leo]

I have always considered Voss to have been very much like Frank Luke in that the way they operared would cause their deaths.

From what I gather, a lot of the "lone wolves" were more myth than reality. From looking at the Voss victory records, it seems that he had a tendency to fly with others quite often and rarely truly alone. He may have had a lot of one on one dogfights but he had back up nearby on most occasions. Even in his last fight, other German fighters were in the area, but for one reason or antoher were unable to get in on the fight. Remember 56 squadron was ready to attack a German squadron until they saw Voss shooting the crap out of two planes of 60 squadron.

Some people also fail to realize that, By the end of Bloody April, Wolff had topped Voss's score and was catching up fast to the Baron himself. All of these guys flew with Jasta B. at one time or another and I think all of them knew the Boelcke Dicta and took it as gospel. You don't rack 48 kills or 33 for that matter being a hotdog.

As for his confidence getting the better of him, we must understand that he did not choose to attack 7 planes at once. He ambushed two planes that were separated from the rest of a flight (60 sqdn). In doing so, he put one out of commission immediately and then came back for the second. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the engagement was joined by 56 squadron which was watching the attack from approximately 1 mile away. By then Voss had pretty much put the other plane to rest as well.

Finally the air war in April 1917 was dramatically different from that of September 1917. [center] <table> <tr> <td> </td> <td> Tobias Gibson, OTFM
blindkat@hotmail.com[/email]
48 Kills
</td> </tr> </table>

Tobias

I have to say that you are spot on about Voss not being a lone wolf in the Bishop sense of the term anyway. He did seem to follow the Boelcke dicta about only one plane attacking at a time (if a single target) in order to prevent the planes hitting each other (physically or with their fire) as flight leader he would get first pop, just as MvR would.

I also agree about the difference between April and September, lets face it if he had faced 7 planes in April then the chances are he could have escaped, but by september the tide had turned. I have often wondered what would have happened if he had faced the same number of aircraft flown by greener pilots, but i think that is one for another thread...

Mark