Immelmann "Kill" Total

I have become interested in the air war during WWI over the last couple years-especially a handful of the aces. One of the aces that interests me is Max Immelmann. In the research I have done concerning him, different sources record different numbers of "kills" he had obtained by the time of his death. Some say 15, 16, and 17 (like this website says "17").

I was wondering why this is the case. I have always thought that the German's were big on keeping accurate records about everything. One thought that crossed my mind is that kills #16 and #17 were said to occur on June 18, 1916, the day that Immelmann died-I would assume on the same flight that he was killed. Could this be the cause of the difference found in sources-that he himself didn't report them and that they wern't certainly confirmed or somthing? Also, what is the believed accurate number of kills that he recorded before his death?

[rammjaeger]

>>One thought that crossed my mind is that kills #16 and #17 were said to occur on June 18, 1916, the day that Immelmann died-I would assume on the same flight that he was killed.<<

You are right, RichieB16!

There was always only one offical number for Max Immelman´s score existing: 15!

Nevertheless he scored two more victories in air combat on his last day.
For some unknown reason both victories were not offically attributed to Max Immelmann. One was going to Max Mulzer. Don´t know who got the other one.

So the number of 15 has obviously something to do with the fact that Max Immelmann could not report the victories himself. Otherwise his offical score would have been 17. Therefore some source books report 17 victories instead of the offical score of 15.


VBR
Rammjaeger

[MattyBoy]

Immelmann also shot down an RFC aeroplane on 21st October 1915, but the aircraft crashed on the allied side of the lines so it was not confirmed.

Could have been eighteen!