Voss as a leader

The most fortunate pilots were probably those who had the luck to have learned air combat from an experience, combat-proven leader. Those who flew with Boelcke, McCudden, Mannock and MvR were probably the most fortunate of all.

Although it has been stated that Voss was not much of an administrator or planner, he obviously knew how to fly and shoot. A couple of future stars who served under Voss during Fall 1917 in J10 were Löwenhardt and Freidrichs. I've never seen it described the sort of influence Voss may have had on their careers. Does anyone know something about this?

Voss was in position as a Jasta Commander for a very short time before his death He bounced around for some time between three units before actually taking command of Jasta 10. There is no evidence that he had received any formal training to be a flight commander.

It has always been asumed that he was not a good commander yet he seemed to have risen quickly in the 11th Hussars, assuming more and more responsibility. He also was a crack pilot who did remarkably well a flight instructor, by most accounts.

I would like to find the original sources concerning Voss's command performance but I doubt it exists. I would contend that he was not IN command long enough to establish if he was in fact any good as a commander. Perhaps if he had lived another six months, then we would have a basis for an opinion of is command ability.

[center] <table> <tr> <td> </td> <td> Tobias Gibson, OTFM
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48 Kills
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