The Cast of The Blue Max: Where are they now?

[Gregvan]

Hi Barrett and Tom,

Yes, there were plenty of airmen in the German air service who flew with glasses or monocles; the trio of Otto Kissenberth, Fritz Bernert and Kurt Wintgens are simply the most familiar because they were all 'Blue Max' winners! Bernert was further handicapped, as a bayonet thrust he suffered when he was in the infantry left him with very little use of his left arm, reportedly. Apparently, part of the rationale of the day was - you might be unfit for a foot-slogging infantryman, but you were just fine for riding around in an airplane....

Walther Karjus, who was flying with MvR in Jasta 11 on 21 April 1918, wore a monocle in his left eye - and had a prosthesis in place of his amputated right hand. He scored one victory as commander of Jasta 75 in late 1918, but was still suffering from 'phantom pain' from his amputated hand at that time.

Boelcke had asthma; and we all know about Rudolf Berthold's many wounds and injuries.

As far as age goes, there was German fighter pilot "Papa" Güttler, who was flying a Roland D.II in Jasta Ober Ost in late 1917 at the age of 44. However, Jakob Wolff of KEK Metz and Jasta 17 was even older, and managed to obtain four victories when he was almost fifty.

[Gregvan]

Hi,

In reference to Barrett's mention of Edwin Parsons' account of the deficiencies of the Lafayette Escadrille men when they were examined by doctos of the USAS; here are his words:

"...the board decided that not one of us, despite 100's of hours in the air...all thoroughly trained war pilots with many victories to our credit, could ever be an aviator. Their tests showed that physically, mentally and morally we were unfit to be pilots...

"Dud Hill's blind eye, Bill Thaw's bad vision and crippled arm, Lufbery's inability to walk a crack backwards, Dolan's tonsils, Hank Jones' flat feet - everything was revealed in the pitiless light of publicity. We were just a broken-down crew of crippled misfits!"