Frankl

RussGannon · 27 April 2008, 05:42 PM

I found this first hand account in 'Cheerful Sacrifice - The Battle of Arras 1917' by Jonathan Nicholls (Leo Cooper 1990) - a book to my liking as it shows the battle from both sides of the line. I hope it is of interest.

"The weather was clear and soon there were planes about. We saw the usual dog-fight which regularly happened in the afternoon and saw an English plane fall out of the sky, and then another one which somersaulted over and over before hitting the ground about a kilometre away....Unfortunately it was one of ours, with the well known Leutnant Frankl, with his 'Pour Le Merite' and Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd Class on his chest, lying still in front of us. Solemnly we went back to our village."

Musketier Herman Keyser Res Rgt 84.

Roadhog · 28 April 2008, 12:32 AM

Thanks buddy. This is really interesting information rgarding Frankl's last fight. I am using a German Jew, who is a pilot, as one of the heroes in my book The "Wraithes of Flanders." There were two schools of thought amongst the Jews in Germany at the start of World War I. One was the "accomodationists" (spelling), who sought to assimilate as much as possible into German society and then there were the Zionists who were constantly trying to raise funds and settlers to reclaim the Holy Land.

At the beginning of the war the Kaiser gave a speech that basicially said "Jew or Gentile; we're all in this together." But reality was something different, by 1917 the German Army conducted a survey of all its units to ascertain if the Jews were actually fighting or hiding in soft rear echelon jobs. The survey proved that the Jews were dying in ther trenches at the same rate as everybody elae, but for some reason the German Army never released the results to the public, who continued to harbor mistrust towards the Jews.

When the first Jewish inmates were marched in Dachau by the Nazis, some of the WWI veterans proudly wore their WWI medals.

In my humble opinion, Frankl represented the highest level of success for a German Jew in WWI .

BTW I am doing well following my heart attack. It was a Jim Dandy. Climbing stairs is still a challenge and I have trouble catching my breath. Also I have to limit my teasing of Stephen in the "OFF TOPIC" Section of the Forum.

Other than that, things are fine. VR, Scott

RussGannon · 28 April 2008, 05:33 PM

Roadhog

Glad to hear you liked it. It was tucked away in a book that I doubted many Forum users would read.

As my historical interests go beyond the WW1 air war, I found your comments re the German Jews in WW1 informative. I remember that Riechfurhrer Goering stated something along the lines that he would determin who was a Jew, and of course was behind getting his old Jasta mate Rosenstein out of Germany.

Good look with your book

Russ

Epee · 29 April 2008, 10:53 AM

Had it not been for his accident before the bulk of "Bloody April" Frankl might have been in a position to give MvR a run for his money at being Germany's ace-of aces.

Roadhog · 29 April 2008, 11:40 AM

Lordy Epee, wouldn't that have changed things in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s? It is a crying shame that he did not survive the war. VR, Scott

Roadhog · 29 April 2008, 11:51 AM

Dear Russ, The best book I have ever come across that speaks of the German Jews situation in World War I is Amos Elon's The Pity of It All: Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933 published in 2003 by Harpers (as I recall).

The book is available on overstock.com and amazon.com for about ten bucks. If you are interested in the subject it is money well spent. I used it as a primary source for my novel. VR, Scott

BTW, I grew up with a Gannon family in Alabama.

RussGannon · 29 April 2008, 06:06 PM

Epee

The only accident was that he got in the way of some 48 Sqn Bristol's. Far more bite than the obsolete BE's he had been used to.

Roadhog

My younger sister is tracing the family tree. My great, great grandfather on my father's side was from County Mayo in Ireland and fled the potato famine to Anglesea in north Wales - the flag you have. There the Gannon's became Welsh for a time before heading Down Under. Where this one, like yourself, spent quite a bit of time in the [Ausralian]army (20 years to be exact).

Russ

Roadhog · 30 April 2008, 02:02 AM

Dear Russ, Price is an ancient Welsh name menaing son of (ap) Rhys. My family moved to Ireland at some point in the misty past and became "Irish." So evidently, the door swung both ways. According to family legends, after the failed Revolt of 1798, one of my great, great, great (and so on) uncles fled to Prussia and joined the Prussian Army to escape Roddy McCorlely's fate.

So I took those legends and used the descendant of that man as the german hero of my novel. If you ever get desperate for reading material or buy a parakeet I'll send you the first two chapter or the bombing raid over London chapter.

On a personal note, my Dad, who was in Chesty Puller's Marine regiment in WWII had nothing but respect and admiration for the Australian soldiers he met and your civilian population who helped nurse him back to health after being wounded twice while fighting the Japanese. VR, Scott

Epee · 30 April 2008, 11:08 AM

Russ,
I thought Frankl was killed when his DIII suffered a wing failure. I assumed it was in combat and caused by hard maneuvering but I've never heard that Frankl was shot down. Can you enlighten me on the claim?
Thanks.

Graeme · 30 April 2008, 02:50 PM

Epee

Not wishing to steal Russ' thunder, but:

There's a possibility that Frankl ran foul of a patrol of 48 Sqn's Bristols which fought a formation of German scouts east of Arras and claimed to have driven down six, two out of control. The out of control claims were by

Capt D M Tidmarsh + 2nd Lt C B Holland with 2nd Lt O W Berry + 2nd Lt F B Goodison

and

2nd Lt R E Adeney + 2nd Lt L G Lovell with 2nd Lt G N Brockhurst + 2nd Lt C B Boughton and 2nd Lt A G Riley + 2nd Lt L G Hall

Both of these machines were said to have fallen out of control over Rémy, 14 Km east-south-east of Arras.

Frankl was killed in Albatros D.III 2158/16 at 14:50, north of Vitry - Sailly. Sailly-en-Ostrevent is about 5 Km north-east of Rémy, and Vitry-en-Artois a further 5 Km to the north.

Times for the RFC claims differ; both 14:00 and 15:10 have been quoted (times were then synchronised).

As I say, it's a possibility.

Graeme