James Meissner's victory of 1 August 1918

[AZ Aviator]

On James Meissner's profile shown in the Forum's "Aces" file, it shows that Meissner shot down a Fokker D.VII over Fère-en-Tardenois on 1 August 1918 while flying a Nieuport 28. This item is in error, as Meissner was flying SPAD XIII S.15030, as noted in USAF Study No. 133. Yes, the 147th Aero Sqdn. was still flying the Nie. 28 up until 13 August, but Meissner never flew a Nie. 28 after being promoted as the youngest C.O. in the U.S. Air Service on 24 July 1918. The 147th Aero had two SPAD XIIIs assigned to it at the time, and Meissner only flew one of these two ships. However, often only one was available, and sometimes neither were in service. Meissner also seemed to relish flying alert missions. This is precisely what occurred on 1 August (the 147th Aero accepted four additional SPADs on that date), as Meissner and Lt. William "Bedroll" Brotherton (flying Nie. 28 N6334), scrambling on an Alert, fired 200 and 250 rounds, respectively, at a Fokker D.VII at 2 P.M. over Fère. As such, this confirmed victory achieved a milestone as being the last Nieuport 28 victory of the war.
Some caveats to remember: 1) Meissner had already been flying SPADs while with the 94th Aero; 2) after Geoffrey Bonnell had been ousted as 147th Aero C.O. over further utilizing Nieuports instead of accepting SPADs, the 1st Pursuit Group didn't want Meissner to come in further promoting Nieuports; 3) Meissner had already had bad experiences with upper wing shredding on Nie. 28s from diving them while posted to the 94th Aero, even though there is no written record in the Gorrell's History of a 147th Aero Nie. 28 having shredded its wings; and, 4) Meissner never assigned himself as "patrol leader" on any medium to large patrol that he participated in; he was more likely to fly "tail-end Charlie." Memorable quote: “Our style was the so-called ‘dog fight’, in which we stayed till the fight was over. We never favored the game of ‘shoot and dive for home’ so popular among French Spad pilots.” ~ Gorrell’s Historical Narrative of the 147th Aero Sqdn., Part 1. Explanation: referred to as the "Canadian Circus," 147th Aero pilots didn't steeply dive their Nieuports out of formation after German aircraft.
Remedy: the reference to "Nieuport" needs to be changed to "SPAD" on James Meissner's "Aces" profile victory list for victory #5 (1 August 1918).

[Scott]

Corrected.