Boelcke, Oswald

     
Příjmení:
Surname:
Boelcke Boelcke
Jméno:
Given Name:
Oswald Oswald
Jméno v originále:
Original Name:
Oswald Boelcke
Fotografie či obrázek:
Photograph or Picture:
Hodnost:
Rank:
kapitán Captain
Akademický či vědecký titul:
Academic or Scientific Title:
- -
Šlechtický titul:
Hereditary Title:
- -
Datum, místo narození:
Date and Place of Birth:
19.05.1891 Giebichenstein /
19.05.1891 Giebichenstein /
Datum, místo úmrtí:
Date and Place of Decease:
28.10.1916 Douai /
28.10.1916 Douai /
Nejvýznamnější funkce:
(maximálně tři)
Most Important Appointments:
(up to three)
velitel: Jasta 2 commander of the Jasta 2
Jiné významné skutečnosti:
(maximálně tři)
Other Notable Facts:
(up to three)
stíhací eso (40 sestřelů) Fighter Ace (40 Claims)
Související články:
Related Articles:

Zdroje:
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Boelcke
www.sportflug-noervenich.de
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Boelcke-Oswald-t9104#577517 Version : 0
     
Příjmení:
Surname:
Boelcke Boelcke
Jméno:
Given Name:
Oswald Oswald
Jméno v originále:
Original Name:
Oswald Boelcke
Všeobecné vzdělání:
General Education:
DD.MM.RRRR-DD.MM.RRRR
DD.MM.RRRR-DD.MM.RRRR
Vojenské vzdělání:
Military Education:
DD.MM.RRRR-DD.MM.RRRR
DD.MM.RRRR-DD.MM.RRRR
Důstojnické hodnosti:
Officer Ranks:
DD.06.1916 kapitán
DD.06.1916 Hauptmann
Průběh vojenské služby:
Military Career:
DD.MM.RRRR-DD.MM.RRRR
DD.MM.RRRR-DD.MM.RRRR
Vyznamenání:
Awards:
Poznámka:
Note:
- -
Zdroje:
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Boelcke
www.sportflug-noervenich.de
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Boelcke-Oswald-t9104#577519 Version : 0
Hauptmann Oswald Boelcke


* 19. 5. 1891
+ 28. 10. 1916

At the time of his death the leading ace of the German Air Force with 40 kills. Only 9 other German pilots would surpass him until the end of the war, which would last another 2 years after his death...

In the entire history of air pursuit, there is probably no man who influenced it so much. It is no exaggeration to say that the basic principles and tenets of air combat that Boelcke laid down are still in use today.

He was born, along with his five siblings, on May 19, 1891 in the Saxon town of Giebichenstein bei Halle to a university professor.

From his youth he showed considerable intelligence and technical talent, excelling in mathematics and physics at school, and was also an accomplished athlete, taking up swimming, rowing, tennis and gymnastics. He wanted to become either an engineer or an architect.

However, his father, a strong German nationalist, decided to enroll the 14-year-old Oswald in the Imperial Cadet School. Here he underwent the usual army training, and was discharged in 1912 with the rank of lieutenant. Because of his technical knowledge he was assigned to the 3rd Telegraph Regiment in Koblenz.

The same year, however, Boelcke saw a "flying apparatus" on one of the military exercises. The sight of the aircraft flying over his head so thrilled him that he immediately applied for a transfer to the air force.

The request was granted and Oswald began his flight training at the Hlaberstadt Flight School. After only 7 hours of instruction (!) his instructor allowed him to go on his first solo flight. He received his pilot's license on August 15, 1914.

The war broke out and Boelcke was immediately sent to the front. Boelcke's first combat unit was the Field Flieger Abteilung (Feld Flieger Abteilung)FFA 13 stationed in Montmédy, where he flew the Albatros B.I. Here, in September 1914, he made a number of observation flights, many of them with his older brother Wilhelm. In October of that year, he was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class for his actions.


In April 1915, he was transferred to FFA 62 in Douai at the insistence of his colleagues in FFA 13, who did not like the fact that he was serving in the same unit as his brother. Here he quickly proved his piloting qualities, and so was one of the first pilots of the unit to be entrusted with the new Albatros C.I equipped with the circumference ring, the new powerful weapon of the German Air Force at this stage of the war.

However, he was soon to encounter a weapon even more effective. Although Boelcke did not know it at the time, the Germans managed to capture French pilot Roland Garrosse and his deflector-equipped aircraft.

The landing of this machine resulted in the development of an improved system, which was submitted to German officers for approval by the aircraft designer Anthony Fokker. However, the order for Fokker fighters E.I equipped with synchronization equipment was contingent on successful frontline tests of the new aircraft.

In June 1915, Boelcke met Fokker when the designer was looking for suitable pilots to whom he could entrust his aircraft for testing. For FFA 62, he chose Boelcke and Max Immelmann.

It was Boelcke, as the first FFA 62 pilot, who was given the opportunity to battle test the new Fokker E.I. Already on 30 June, 1915 attacked a French two-seater during an escort flight. He opened fire on it, but the Frenchman managed to break away and Boelcke was unable to track him due to poor visibility. He was therefore not credited with the victory.

Boelcke's first verified success came on 4 July 1915 when he shot down, as one of the first airmen in his unit, a French observation Morane over the Argonne.

This was not done in a Fokker E.I, however, but in cooperation with his observer, Lt. Wühlisch, when the aircraft they flew was an Aviatik C.I and the observer's weapon was a machine gun on the orbiter. This victory was achieved thanks to Boelcke, who, making skilful use of the cloud cover, manoeuvred tactically very cleverly and thus provided Wühlisch with an excellent firing position. For this feat, Boelcke was awarded the Iron Cross First Class.


In the end, Boelcke was overtaken in the fighter Fokker victory by Immelmann, who shot down a British observation aircraft on August 1, 1915. Boelcke did not achieve his first success on an Eindecker until 18 Aug.

Max Immelmann became famous as the first of the aviators to achieve victory on the new Fokker and also became the first German ace on a fighter aircraft - he shot down his fifth aircraft on Fokker 26. October 1915; although Boelcke scored his fifth victory on 16 October, these five kills include the first victory achieved by a Boelcke gunner on a two-seater. Boelcke did not achieve his fifth kill in a Fokker until four days after Immelmann, on 30 October 1915.

The two friends began to pursue aerial combat as an exact military science. While Immelmann dealt with the technical side of air combat, Boelcke in turn tried to refine the principles of tactics and strategy of air encounters.

He also created the so-called Dicta Boelcke - the first generally formulated principles of air combat. Today, these findings seem obvious, but at the time they revolutionized air combat tactics.

1. Before attacking, try to gain the advantage and, if possible, keep the sun at your back.
2. Always finish the attack you have started
3. Shoot only at short range and only if you have the opponent correctly in your sights.
4. Never let your opponent out of your sight and never be deceived by any ruse or evasive maneuver.
5. It is essential to approach the enemy from behind in any attack.
6. If an enemy is coming at you, do not try to dodge his attack, but fly to meet him.
7. If you fly behind enemy lines, never forget your own retreat route.
8. In principle, it is better to attack in groups of four or six. If the fight breaks up into a series of individual fights, try to avoid a situation where several of you are attacking the same opponent.

As we shall see later, Boelcke was to tragically miss the last point of his Dicta...

The air battles began to pick up in intensity. For example, the British RFC in July 1915 recorded 46 aerial engagements; in December of that year the same number of engagements were fought in a single day. The number of air battles began to skyrocket, and the number of kills grew proportionately.

By mid-January 1916, Boelcke's score had reached 8 victories and he was awarded the Pour le Mérite. With the coming spring also comes problems.

Boelcke points out that Fokker's monoplanes are hopelessly outdated, putting the A's in decline. Fokker into disfavour. Fokker relies only on "his horse" Immelmann from now on.

Meanwhile, the Allies throw new types of aircraft onto the battlefield (DH 2, FE 8) and reclaim their lost air supremacy.

Boelcke continues to fight despite all difficulties and on 27 June 1916 achieves his 19th confirmed kill.

But for a long time it is the last victory. The high command therefore decided to keep Boelcke alive as long as possible. He was therefore withdrawn from the front and sent on a long inspection tour to the eastern front, Bulgaria and Turkey, where he was to lecture on tactics and techniques of air combat.

In June Boelcke is also promoted to the rank of Hauptmann, a truly unprecedented thing in the German army at the age of 25.

In August 1916, Boelcke is withdrawn from duty to form his own pure fighter unit on the Western Front. Boelcke agrees, and on 11 August 1916 he is ordered to form Jagdstaffel 2 (a fighter squadron).

The core of Jasta 2 began to form on the Somme front at Bertimcourt. Its armament consisted of the new Albatrosses D.I and D.II, which were first deployed on the front at Verdun in the spring of 1916. Aerodynamically admirably clean and very fast, the Albatros biplanes were heavily armed with two synchronized machine guns. Their armament and speed exceeded anything the Allies could put up against them.

From various units came Jasta 2 pilots to fly these superb aircraft. Boelcke put all his efforts into training them in modern combat tactics.

While still flying the Eindecker in FFA 62, he found that a lone single-seater was very easy to surprise. So he convinced Max Immelmann to try flying together for a while. Each of them kept an eye on the other's blind spots and was able to warn him in time of a possible attack. As far as is known, Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann together formed the world's first flying duo. The pair then became the cornerstone of all formations. Boelcke was a true pioneer of tactical combat in large formations. It is no exaggeration to say that all of his knowledge is still used today (although of course with modifications taking into account the parameters of modern aircraft).


Before the training was over, Boelcke, for fear of unnecessary losses, preferred to fly alone over the front. Already on September 2, 1916 he achieved his 20th kill. Between 8-15 September he scores 6 more victories.

HPM 1/93 also states that at dawn on 16 Sep, Oswald Boelcke engaged Captain George Cruikshank, commander of 70 Squadron RFC, over Havrincourt Woods. Cruikshank, with his five kills, was one of the air aces and was Oswald's equal opponent. Throughout the half hour, the two opponents maneuvered around each other, trying to get their opponent in the crosshairs. The fatal mistake was finally made by the Englishman at 5.45 and after a short burst from Boelck's machine guns he crashed to the ground where he was killed after hitting a line of trees.

In fact, this account contains a number of inaccuracies. Firstly, Capt. Cruikshank's name was not George, but Guy Lindsay. Secondly, he was not shot down at 5.45 but at 08.00 and just 15 minutes later Boelcke shot down another aircraft of 70 Squadron, which does not support the assumption of a long dogfight but an attack on an enemy formation. Thirdly, Cruikshank was not an aerial ace and I have been unable to establish whether he achieved any kills at all. Fourthly Cruikshank flew a two-seater Sopwith Strutter, and although it was a good machine, yet with this two-seater it could hardly have resisted the fighter Albatross for so long.

What then actually happened? What is certain is that on the morning of 15 September (not 16 September) Boelcke shot down two Sopwith Strutters of 70 Squadron (thus gaining his 25th and 26th victories), and in one of them (v.no. A895) Capt. G. L. Cruikshank, DSO, MC with his observer Lt. R. A. Preston, MC. We will return to this history later.

On the morning of 17 Sep 1916, Hauptmann Boelcke led 5 aircraft Jasta 2 into combat for the first time. On that day, Boelcke scored his 27th kill when (according to HPM 1/93; however, his official roster lists an FE 2) he shot down an English BE 2. He hit an observer with fire, who collapsed into the cockpit. The plane's engine began to cut out and smoke billowed from it. The aircraft was badly damaged, but was still controlled by its pilot. Boelcke refrained from striking a blow out of mercy. He instructed the English pilot to head over German-occupied territory and land there. The Englishman, however, was undoubtedly a brave man. He scorned this chance of survival and headed with his smoking machine for a nearby German observation balloon and tried to set it on fire. However, he was already flying too low and slow, and so became the target of anti-aircraft artillery, which shot the aircraft down. Then the out-of-control machine caught on the balloon's mooring line and crashed in flames to the ground.

The rest of Boelck's pilots were not idle either. Each of the Germans scored one victory, and they returned to the airfield with no losses of their own.

This action seemed to foreshadow all the future activities of the unit, which became famous on both sides of the front. By the end of September its pilots had destroyed 25 enemy aircraft. In October, another 32. Of this total of 57 victories, fully 21 went to Boelcke's account. German air supremacy was restored. During September and October the Allies lost 211 aircraft and shot down only 39 German ones themselves.

On October 16 Boelcke also shot down (his 34th kill) a DH 2 (v.no. A2542) piloted by the then leading British ace with 10 kills Lt. P. A. Langan-Byrne, DSO. He was shot down at 17.45. We find here remarkable parallels with the above-mentioned Cruikshank dogfight. This duel actually took place on the 16th, although a month later; in Anglo-Saxon countries it is also not customary to use 24-hour time notation, but 5.45 a.m. or p.m. is used, depending on whether it was morning or afternoon. Langan-Byrne was indeed an ace, and could have successfully waged an equal battle with Boelcke's Albatross on DH 2.

According to the testimony of one of Boelcke's subordinates, Boelcke is also said to have said a few days before his death, "I found an opponent who was my equal..."

Boelcke died 12 days later, so it is hard to assume that the phrase "a few days before his death" applies to the mid-September fight. That evenly matched duel, said to be one of the most exciting of the entire war, therefore seems to have been between Boelcke and Langan-Byrne, not Cruikshank.

The successes of Jasta 2 boosted the morale of German troops in both the air and ground ranks. Among civilians, they became legendary. They did not even put the British to sleep, who launched two air raids on the airfield at Lagnicourt (where Jasta 2 moved on 22 September 1916), whose sole purpose was to kill Boelcke.

At the time, Boelcke was suffering from a severe asthmatic illness with high temperatures, complicated by general exhaustion of the body from combat. One of his subordinates wrote at the time: "My captain is losing weight and becoming more serious. The superhuman burden of seven combat flights a day and worrying about his Staffel weighs on him like a burden..."

Still, Boelcke continued to fly. On October 26, 1916, Boelcke achieved his 40th anniversary kill. Two days later, he takes off for the last time...

On that day, 28 October 1916, a very strong wind was blowing, making it almost impossible to keep the plane in a straight course. Boelcke nevertheless leads five of his pilots on patrol. Shortly after takeoff, they meet up with a group of British DH 2. Boelcke attacks and picks a victim. On this DH 2, with Maj. L.G. Hawker, VC, DSO, however, another Albatros piloted by Erwin Böhm is already attacking (24 kills in total). The two German aircraft come in close proximity to each other. Perhaps a sudden gust of wind, perhaps the inattention of one of the pilots, causes the undercarriage of Böhme's Albatross to hit the upper nose of Boelcke's aircraft. The out-of-control machine and its pilot crash almost perpendicular to the ground...

Erwin Böhme escapes the collision unharmed. He soon left the unit at his own understandable request. A year later he rejoined the unit as its 4th commander. Almost a year, a month and a day after Boelck's death, he dies after being shot down by anti-aircraft artillery.

Boelck's funeral was held at the Catholic Cathedral in Cambrai on 3 November 1916. His coffin was laid in the small parlour, which was strewn with flowers from his grief-stricken compatriots. Not all the mourning wreaths were German, however - many bore British inscriptions.


From the prison camp at Osnabrück came four British officers who had come in person to pay their respects to the great adversary. Several British aircraft, risking their own being shot down, flew over the front to drop a laurel wreath on the airfield at Lagnicourt. On its ribbons were inscribed these words:

"In honour of Captain Boelcke, our brave and chivalrous enemy. From the British RFC."

Remarks:
HPM 1/93
To E. and J. Lawson: The First Air War, ed. Jota, Brno 1997, ISBN 80-7217-035-X
www.theaerodrome.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Boelcke
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Boelcke-Oswald-t9104#25897 Version : 0

This post has not been translated to English yet. Please use the TRANSLATE button above to see machine translation of this post.

esa WWI - Oswald Boelcke
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Boelcke-Oswald-t9104#51100 Version : 0

This post has not been translated to English yet. Please use the TRANSLATE button above to see machine translation of this post.

S portrétními fotografiemi O. Boelckeho mě předstihl Melkor, pouze k nim tedy doplním, že bývá často zdůrazňován rozdílný výraz v Beolckeho tváři, kde na mladším snímku je patrné již jeho značné vyčerpání - jakoby náhle zestárl.

Dodám dvě fota, na prvním je O. Boelcke v kokpitu Fokkeru D.III. Na druhém zachycen s Erwinem Böhmem - s mužem, jenž byl účastníkem osudové srážky, která zapříčinla smrt dosud největšího z německých letců.
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Boelcke-Oswald-t9104#62840 Version : 0
Discussion post Fact post
Attachments

Join us

We believe that there are people with different interests and experiences who could contribute their knowledge and ideas. If you love military history and have experience in historical research, writing articles, editing text, moderating, creating images, graphics or videos, or simply have a desire to contribute to our unique system, you can join us and help us create content that will be interesting and beneficial to other readers.

Find out more