Carl Bolle (aviator)

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Carl Bolle

Carl Bolle , also Karl Bolle , (born June 20, 1893 in Berlin ; † October 9, 1955 there ) was a German entrepreneur who was best known as a fighter pilot in the First World War . He was Rittmeister , last squadron leader of the Boelcke hunting squadron and knight of the order Pour le Mérite .

Life

Carl Bolle came from a wealthy entrepreneurial family. He was the grandson of Carl Andreas Julius Bolle , who founded the family fortune with the famous " Bolle milk cart", and cousin of the botanist Friedrich Franz Bolle . His wife Maria was a daughter of the banker Alexander Schoeller .

From 1912 Bolle studied economics at Oxford University . Returned when the war broke to Germany, he joined as a cadet in the Cuirassiers "von Seydlitz" (Magdeburgisches) no. 7 of the Prussian army and was on the Western Front used. In 1915 the regiment was transferred to the Eastern Front, where it was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross by the end of the year . For Lieutenant transported Bolle had to in February 1916 Air Force enable and completed his flight training in Valenciennes before July 1916 for Kampfgeschwader 4 the Supreme Command (abbreviated Kagohl 4) was added. Lothar von Richthofen  - a brother of Manfred von Richthofen  - was Bolle's observer during this time.

Wounded in October 1916, after his recovery at the beginning of 1917, Bolle was sent to the Jastaschule for fighter pilot training . Transferred to Jagdstaffel 28 in July 1917, he achieved five aerial victories before he was promoted to first lieutenant and appointed leader of Jasta 2 . By August 1918 he achieved 28 aerial victories and was awarded the Mecklenburg Military Merit Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords. On August 28, 1918, he was awarded the order Pour le Mérite by Kaiser Wilhelm II , and at the same time he was promoted to Rittmeister . He remained squadron leader of the Boelcke Jagdstaffel until the end of the war and finally achieved 36 aerial victories. After the armistice on November 11, 1918, the unit was moved back to Germany and demobilized in Braunschweig .

After the war and the lifting of the flight ban imposed by the victorious powers, he worked as a traffic pilot and flight instructor . From 1926 to 1933 he was a board member of the German Aviation School until he moved to the Reich Aviation Ministry . There he worked until 1934 and was involved in building up the air force in the area of ​​pilot training. He was a member of the board and later director of the Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken AG as well as deputy chairman of the supervisory board of the Berlin-Erfurt machine factory Henry Pels & Co. AG . During the Second World War Bolle worked as an advisor to the Air Force.

literature

  • Norman LR Franks, Frank W. Bailey, Russell Guest: Above the Lines. The Aces and Fighters Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. Grub Street, London 1993, ISBN 0-948817-73-9 .
  • Terry C. Treadwell, Alan C. Wood: German Knights of the Air, 1914-1918. The Holders of the Orden Pour le Mérite. Barnes & Noble Books, New York NY 1998, ISBN 0-7607-0790-1 .
  • Arch Whitehouse: Flieger-Ase 1914-1918. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 377-382.

See also

Web links

Commons : Karl Bolle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Supf: The book of German flight history. 3rd edition, Drei Brunnen Verlag, Stuttgart 1956, p. 405.
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from December 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Heiger Ostertag: Education, training and education of the officer corps in the German Empire. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-631-42489-2 , p. 288.
  4. ^ Lothar Freiherr von Richthofen. In: www.frontflieger.de. Retrieved July 7, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Bolle, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bolle, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1955
Place of death Berlin