Kurt Wolff (aviator)

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Kurt Wolff with Pour le Mérite

Kurt Wolff (born February 6, 1895 in Greifswald ; † September 15, 1917 near Wervik ) was a German fighter pilot in World War I and holder of the order Pour le Mérite .

Life

Kurt Wolff was the son of a Greifswald architect. Orphaned at an early age, he came to live with relatives in Memel and, at the age of 17, entered the 4th Railway Regiment as a cadet in 1912 , with whom he entered the First World War as a sergeant in 1914 .

After his promotion to officer in April 1915, he applied to be transferred to the air force . Wolff completed his pilot training at the Döberitz Aviation School and was then transferred to a combat squadron with which he was deployed at Verdun and then on the Somme .

In November 1915 he reached the Western Front. On November 5, 1916, he joined Jagdstaffel 11, which was led by Manfred von Richthofen from the beginning of 1917 .

Physically, Lieutenant Wolff appeared to be of a weak stature. Karl Bodenschatz , Richthofen's adjutant in Jagdgeschwader 1, called him the “tender Blümelein”, a nickname given to him by the Richthofen brothers: Wolff was slim, petite and shy, with almost childlike facial features, but showed himself to be a daredevil in aerial combat, Richthofen praised his friendly, quiet and humble nature and called him "one of the dearest and best comrades".

On March 6, 1917, Wolff won his first aerial victory over a British BE2d two-seater of the 16th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps . Then, within just a few weeks, he had 29 kills. On April 28th alone, he scored five aerial victories in one day. Among them was David Tidmarsh, an Irish was flying ace whose Bristol F.2 Fighter was shot down by Wolff on April 9. At the beginning of May Wolff became leader of Jasta 29.

On July 2, 1917, after Manfred von Richthofen had become commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, Lieutenant Wolff succeeded him as leader of Jasta 11. A short time later, Wolff was injured in a dogfight with a dozen enemy planes near Ypres . In the field hospital he met his squadron commander Manfred von Richthofen, who was also wounded.

On August 20, the squadron had just scored its 200th kill, Kurt Wolff was promoted to first lieutenant . Four weeks later, Wolff fell when his new Fokker Dr.I triplane , which he was flying for front testing, was shot down by British fighter pilots in an aerial battle over Moorslede. At that time he had won 33 victories .

His body was brought back to Memel for burial with military honors . A street was later named after him there. The city of Berlin also changed the name of the Deutscher Ring street in his honor in 1936 , which is located in the Fliegerviertel in Berlin-Tempelhof and crossed by Boelckestrasse and Manfred-von-Richthofen-Strasse .

Wolff's last flight

Fokker Dr.I

Despite heavy cloud cover, Wolff decided on September 15th to test the new Fokker FI 102/17 at the front. It was a V4 prototype of the Fokker Dr.I, which had previously been flown by Manfred von Richthofen. Wolff was only accompanied by Lieutenant Carl von Schoenebeck in his Albatros DV . Since two planes are harder to spot than a whole squadron, such scouting flights were not uncommon. The two got into a skirmish and Wolff was hit by a Naval Camel flown by Flight Sub Lieutenaut NM McGregor, B3833, while he was chasing an enemy aircraft. At around 5:30 p.m. it crashed north of Wervicq. It is believed that Wolff was hit by a bullet and immediately succumbed to the injury, as his plane - according to Carl von Schoenebeck's statements - fell vertically to the ground.

Awards

See also

literature

  • Karl Bodenschatz: Hunting in the sky of Flanders. Munich 1935.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Bodenschatz: Hunt in the sky of Flanders . Munich 1935, p. 45.
  2. ↑ Flieger-Wolff-Strasse in Memel wiki-de.genealogy.net
  3. ↑ Wolffring. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  4. ↑ Wolffring, Berlin-Tempelhof on berliner-stadtplan.com
  5. ↑ History of the Fokker FI 102/17 fokkerdr1.com
  6. ^ Curriculum vitae - Kurt Wolff luftfahrtarchiv.eu
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1917
Place of death Wervik