Georg Meyer (fighter pilot)
Georg Meyer (born January 11, 1893 in Bremen , † September 15, 1926 in Magdeburg ) was an officer in the air force and scored 23 confirmed kills in the First World War .
biography
Meyer was the son of a businessman. He graduated from the secondary school in Bremen and worked as a chief customs officer until the war.
He completed his active service as a one-year volunteer in 1911/12 .
When the First World War broke out , he was drafted into the Guard Replacement Division and took part in the fighting in Lorraine , between the Meuse and Moselle , in the Priesterwald and near Verdun on the western front .
On February 1, 1916, he switched to the air force. He completed his training in Johannisthal, Altenburg and Hanover . From August 18, 1916, he flew as a fighter pilot with Field Aviation Department 69 (FA 69) in Macedonia , then with Department 253 on the Western Front and from April 1917 with Jasta 22 on the Aisne. In August 1917 Meyer was ordered to Jasta 7. On April 14, 1918, he was given the command of the Jasta 37 deployed on the Somme .
A total of 23 kills were confirmed to Meyer, who was promoted to lieutenant (Zuerl writes of 24). After he was awarded the Iron Cross of both classes, the pilot's badge and the House Order of the Hohenzollern, he was proposed on November 5, 1918 for the Pour le Mérite . The medal could no longer be presented to him at the end of the war, although the Prussian state assembly decided on January 22, 1920 to award it to him retrospectively.
Meyer stayed with the aviation even in the post-war period. In 1926 he was director of the air shipping company pilot school in Magdeburg . He died in 1926 as a result of a motorcycle accident.
Awards
- Prussian military pilot badge
- Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
- Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords
literature
- Walter Zuerl (Ed.): Pour le mérite-Flieger. Heroic deeds and experiences of our war pilots . Luftfahrtverlag Axel Zuerl, 1987, ISBN 978-3-9345-9615-3 (reprint of the Munich 1938 edition).
- Arthur G. Whitehouse: Fliegerasse 1914-1918 ("Heroes of the sunlit sky"). Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1970.
See also
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meyer, Georg |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Air Force Officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 11, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bremen |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 15, 1926 |
| Place of death | Magdeburg |