Maximilian von Cossel

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Maximilian von Cossel, First Lieutenant in the Air Force, October 1916
Maximilian von Cossel (left) and Rudolf Windisch (right)

Maximilian Hermann Richard Paschen von Cossel (born January 7, 1893 in Jüterbog-Damm ; † May 11, 1967 in Lüneburg ) was a German observation pilot in World War I and carried out the first known airborne commando in military history.

Life

He came from the Mecklenburg noble family von Cossel and was the son of the royal Prussian secret councilor Otto von Cossel (1845–1915) from the Jersbek family and his wife Sophie, née Countess von Zeppelin-Aschhausen (1856–1945). Cossel was born in Jüterbog in 1893, where his father was district administrator at the time . His older brother was the genealogist Otto von Cossel (1883–1967).

Cossel attended the Royal State School Pforta and, at the age of 18, came to the field artillery regiment “General Feldzeugmeister” (2nd Brandenburg) No. 18 of the Prussian Army in Frankfurt on the Oder on September 19, 1911 . Here he was promoted to corporal on January 27, 1912 , to NCO on March 13, 1912 , to ensign on May 22, 1912 and to lieutenant in the air force on February 18, 1913 . With the outbreak of World War I, he was assigned to Field Aviation Department 7 on September 29, 1914 for training as an observer. There he was wounded on January 11, 1915. On March 23, 1915 he received the observer badge . After his recovery he came back to FFA 7 on April 1, 1915.

On August 4, 1915, Cossel came to the Eastern Front as a trained observation pilot at Field Aviation Department 62 and thus became a comrade in the war of Gustav Kastner-Kirdorf . On January 27, 1916, he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class. Previously, on September 20, 1914, he had received the Iron Cross, 2nd class. On March 20, 1916, he and his pilot received Vice Sergeant Müller from the commanding general of the IX. Reserve Corps , General of the Infantry Max von Boehn , a special commendation for their excellent reconnaissance work in the Artois sector . On April 12, 1916, he was awarded the Lübeck Hanseatic Cross and on May 9, 1916, Cossel and his pilot Müller received a special commendation for almost 80 successful front-line flights. On August 25, 1916, Cossel and his new pilot, the then Royal Saxon Vice Sergeant Rudolf Windisch , set a Russian tethered balloon on fire.

With Windisch as pilot, Cossel carried out the first known airborne command company in military history: Windisch flew the Roland Walfisch , which was used for this purpose, and deposited Cossel behind the Russian front in a forest. On the night of October 2 to 3, 1916, Cossel blew up the Rovno - Brody railway line , 85 kilometers behind the Eastern Front, in several places. This was mentioned appreciatively in the army report of October 4, 1916: Eastern theater of war: ... Oberleutnant v. Cossel, dropped off the plane by Vice Sergeant Windisch southwest of Rovno and picked up again after 24 hours, interrupted the Rovno-Brody railway line at several points by detonating it. ... The First Quartermaster General. Ludendorff .

For his achievement, Cossel was awarded the Princely Waldeck 's Cross of Merit III on October 5, 1916 . Excellent with swords. On October 5, 1916, he and Windisch were personally awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords by Kaiser Wilhelm II . Later on, a number of postcards with different photos of him were in circulation. On November 16, 1916 Cossel was awarded the Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class awarded with war decoration.

On November 17, 1916, Cossel was appointed leader of Kampfstaffel 12 of Kampfgeschwader 2. On December 24, 1916 he received the Austrian field pilot's badge. On January 23, 24 and 29, 1917, he made unsuccessful attacks on tethered balloons in the Nancy area . On June 5, 1917 he was appointed leader of Kampfstaffel 8 / Kampfgeschwader of the Supreme Army Command (Kagohl) 2. On June 25, 1917 von Cossel, with Vice Sergeant Grabow as pilot, was able to shoot down two tethered balloons. These were his 2nd and 3rd balloon launches. This made him the leading two-seater aviator with balloon launches.

On June 28, 1917, Cossel was shot down in an aerial battle over Pontavert and was taken prisoner by the French , from which he was only released on February 8, 1920 a good year after the end of the war. Four days later he was given leave of absence from the " Provisional Reichswehr ", but on March 31, 1920 he was awarded the Black Wound Badge for his wound on January 11, 1915 five years earlier. April 9, 1920 is considered the day of his adoption.

Cossel married her first marriage in a civil registry office in Nowawes ( Teltow district ), in church in Neubabelsberg on March 22, 1922 Dora Mylius (born September 30, 1893 in Berlin-Friedenau ; † unknown), divorced Kropp. This marriage was declared null and void on November 30, 1930 in Hamm . In his second marriage, he married civilly on June 17, 1944 in Paris , and in church on September 2, 1944 in Zehden an der Oder, the secretary Charlotte Kuhn (born August 18, 1919 in Rabaul , New Guinea ; † unknown), the daughter of the Bremen merchant Kurt Kuhn and Margarete Kießling. A daughter and three sons are from the second marriage.

Cossel spent his retirement as a Colonel a. D. the air force of the Second World War.

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the nobility , Adelige Häuser B Volume XVII, Volume 89 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1986, p. 74.
  • Cossel, Maximilian von. in: Jefferson Adams: Historical dictionary of German intelligence. 2009, p. 73. ( digitized version )
  • Maximilian von Cossel. in: Neal W. O'Connor: Aviation awards of imperial Germany in World War I and the men who earned them. with 43 biographies, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen (Pennsylvania), 2002, ISBN 0-7643-1626-5 and ISBN 978-0-7643-1626-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After the school program of 1907 he was in the UII in 1907
  2. ↑ The reason for this measure was the observation of lively rail traffic on the Russian side, which is why troop transports to reinforce the Romanians were suspected.
  3. ↑ Heinz J. Nowarra: 50 Years of the German Air Force 1910-1960 , Aero Publishers, 1964, page 43 ( excerpt )
  4. ↑ Peter Supf: The book of German flight history , Volume 2, Association for the Promotion of Air Sports (Ed.), Verlag Drei Brunnen, 1958, page 384 ( excerpt )
  5. ^ Army report of October 4, 1916
  6. ↑ Photo: Oberleutnant v. Cossel (left) and Vice Sergeant Windisch
  7. ↑ These postcards are still offered at auctions today.
personal data
SURNAME Cossel, Maximilian von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cossel, Maximilian Hermann Richard Paschen from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot officer
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Jueterbog dam
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1967
Place of death Luneburg