Shot down -October 5th, 1917 -Macedonia

[Claudius]

I would ordinarily agree with Rick and duedicoppe. Even on the western front, a pilot's reports did not match up with the other sides losses. Or mistakenly accounted for someone else's kill.

However, what makes me ardently believe that the kill is actual and traceable, is due to other surrounding circumstances and evidence I have.

1) As confirmed in reading Heydemarck's book "War Flying in Macedonia", the Germans would not confirm a kill without infantry confirmation of the downed aircraft. Even the German ace in Macedonia, Eschwege was denied a kill because they could not find the enemy plane.

2) As everyone knows, during this time period, there was a real class division between officers and gentlemen and the lower classes. While an officer may convince other officers of a claim on a downed aircraft, an NCO would not be trusted from the onset. A confirmation would have to be in order to get the credit. Grasmeher was only a NCO and in a two-seater as well. In fact, if an officer would have also claimed the same aircraft as his kill, the officer would be awarded the kill and Grasmeher would not, without a question.

3) This was Grasmeher's first kill and he was awarded an Ehrenbecker for the downed aircraft. The documents I have indicate this clearly and for this action. They would not lightly award an honor goblet to a NCO, on his first claim and in a two-seater if his commander had any doubts about the truth of it.

Macedonia was a smaller front in the war, and there were far fewer air squadrons with fewer total airplanes operating there. I believe the loss is traceable; it only needs the comprehensive causality list from the right nationality. It may be Italian, but the French and Serbians also operated in this area. Or could it be one of the other allies...Greek?

Thank you for your attention.