Hi Ginger,
Never met, but glad to make your acquaintance on line and was wondering when I would get a rise out of you concerning the "Hun Devil" Voss. To answer your question, it wasn't but according to Doolittle - it was practiced in WW2. Now back to the premise:
Voss' crash as witnessed by Lt. Bowman and as he recalled “When near the ground the triplane turned over on its back seconds before the aircraft ploughed into the ground in an inverted position. At no time was the angle of descent steeper than an ordinary glide-in to land.” and also there was a pseudo "prelim in the field post mortem" of Voss' body that indicated that he had 3 bullets in him.
(1) Bullet entered through the Right Hand Side of his Chest and exited behind the Top of his Left Shoulder. Note: I am told that this type of wound is consistent with being shot from low on the starboard flank and (2) Bullets entered the lower part of the back and exited through the stomach. Note: I am also reminded that this type of wound is consistent with being shot from almost directly behind.
Also consider that “as pointed out above” his triplane turned over on its back, prior to crashing, thus trashing the prop, cowling, engine, machine guns, upper, middle wing, frame, etc. at an entrenched position/gun emplacement known to the British as ‘Plum Farm’, half a mile north (or three quarters of a mile northwest) of Frezenberg village, Belgium.
With further reading on the flight characteristics’ of the F.I 103/17 and DR-1 were touchy. As it has been pointed out in past threads here on the Aerodrome that “complete loss of control on landing was not unusual…for young and inexperienced pilots…it required constant control input and skill to avoid hideous consequences…it could turn so fast and tight that it seemed to be trying to bite it own tail and many an Allied fighter fell out of the sky trying to follow its maneuvers…and to top it off, all controls are ineffective at low speed, the fighter will surely roll itself into a ball if left to its own devices.”
I believe that Voss was moments away from death when he came in for his landing and at the last second, when he died, he relinquished all control of the Fokker to the elements, causing his aircraft to land in the manor that it did.
And do the COMMENTS continue:
