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Gregvan · 2 July 2009, 01:43 PM

Hi,

I'm not sure if we should apply the word "wingman" too freely in WWI aviation. I'm not sure how tactics evolved, it was probably simply a make-it-up-as-you go kind of thing.

In his account Das Letzte Mal an der Front,

Lothar von Richthofen wrote that he liked to fly with Loewenhardt simply as a matter of expedience and necessity, as most of the experienced pilots were transferred or dead: "I was flying with Loewenhardt and the best men from our two Staffeln (Jasta 10 and 11). In my Staffel (11), things were looking very shaky. There was actually only one pilot who was any good. It was the same in Loewenhardt's Staffel (10). The best had fallen; the new pilots were good for very little.

"Flying with Loewenhardt was wonderful, almost like flying with Manfred, at least the first to compare it with. In just a short time, we had become well-attuned to each other, and we could communicate splendidly with each other in the air. I was blessed, after Manfred, to have found again someone on whom I could depend. Loewenhardt expressed the same thing about me."

2 July 2009, 01:43 PM	#5 (permalink)
Gregvan Forum Ace Contributor Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: St. Charles, Iowa Posts: 2,691	Hi, I'm not sure if we should apply the word "wingman" too freely in WWI aviation. I'm not sure how tactics evolved, it was probably simply a make-it-up-as-you go kind of thing. In his account Das Letzte Mal an der Front, Lothar von Richthofen wrote that he liked to fly with Loewenhardt simply as a matter of expedience and necessity, as most of the experienced pilots were transferred or dead: "I was flying with Loewenhardt and the best men from our two Staffeln (Jasta 10 and 11). In my Staffel (11), things were looking very shaky. There was actually only one pilot who was any good. It was the same in Loewenhardt's Staffel (10). The best had fallen; the new pilots were good for very little. "Flying with Loewenhardt was wonderful, almost like flying with Manfred, at least the first to compare it with. In just a short time, we had become well-attuned to each other, and we could communicate splendidly with each other in the air. I was blessed, after Manfred, to have found again someone on whom I could depend. Loewenhardt expressed the same thing about me." __________________ Greg VanWyngarden Last edited by Gregvan; 2 July 2009 at 07:15 PM.