Walter von Bülow-Bothkamp

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Walter von Bülow as a Heidelberg vandal

Walter von Bülow-Bothkamp (born April 25, 1894 in Borby ; † January 6, 1918 near St. Julien / Ypernbogen ) was a German fighter pilot in the First World War .

Life

Walter von Bulow-Bothkamp came from the line Bothkamp of the noble family von Bulow . In 1912 he passed the Abitur at the Gymnasium Schloss Plön and visited Great Britain and Switzerland . He then studied law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , where he joined the Corps Vandalia Heidelberg in 1913 .

Military career

After the outbreak of World War I, Bülow-Bothkamp, ​​like his younger brother Conrad von Bülow-Bothkamp , volunteered with the Brunswick Hussar Regiment No. 17 in August 1914 and with this regiment came to the western front in Altkirch in the south of Germany in January 1915. Alsace .

At the front in Lorraine he was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class and in April 1915 was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve for bravery in the face of the enemy . Shortly afterwards, Bülow-Bothkamp switched to the air force and, together with his brother Conrad, was trained to become an aircraft pilot at Aviation Replacement Department 5 in Hanover . In September 1915 he was transferred to Feldfliegerabteilung 22 in Champagne . On October 10, 1915, as the pilot of a two-seater, he succeeded in shooting down a French Voisin aircraft, and the next day he shot down a Farman biplane from a formation of three aircraft. In December he achieved another aerial victory over a French plane.

In February 1916, Bülow-Bothkamp was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class and was transferred to Aviation Detachment 300 of the Asia Corps , which was transferred to El Arish in Palestine as part of Operation 'Pascha' in order to help the Turkish troops advance against the Support the Suez Canal from the air. Again he and his observer Leutnant von Heseler achieved two aerial victories in a battle with an English aviation association that had ascended from the aircraft mother ship “Ben McCree”. He later shot down a British BE2c two-seater with a Pfalz monoplane , but had to make an emergency landing behind the Turkish lines because of the gunshot wound to the shoulder. In the summer of 1916 he wrote from Jerusalem : “I am now halfway safe after being shot a good 14 days ago and lying here in the hospital. On the 13th I fought the first game of pp. Demand Germania c / a Britania with glasses without seconds. Had to suspend after ten minutes, I got a bloody over the hump, grazing shot through the shoulder blade, and the bandage slipped ... " a humorous allusion to the Mensurfechten his Corps in Heidelberg .

In December 1916, he was transferred to the Champagne region for Jagdstaffel 18 and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords. From May to December 1917 he led Jagdstaffel 36, which also included his brother Harry . After a new wound to the hip and further victories in the air, he received the order Pour le Mérite on October 8, 1917 . After the death of the squadron leader Erwin Böhme , he took over his Jagdstaffel 2 Boelcke , which he led on December 23, 1917 in a parade in front of the German Kaiser.

When he met four other Albatros combat single-seaters from Jasta Boelcke with SPADs of No. 23 Sqn RFC and Sopwith F.1 Camels of No. 70 Sqn RFC delivered a fierce aerial battle over St. Julien, Walter von Bülow-Bothkamp was probably fatally hit by a gun salvo fired by Captain William Mays Fry (No. 23 Sqn RFC ). His Albatros DV 2018/17 went down in the German wire entanglement eastwards Passendale and received the British hive number G 123. Posthumously on October 7, 1918, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military St. Heinrichs-Ordens awarded.

28 aerial victories were confirmed to Walter von Bülow.

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 1: A-G. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1999, ISBN 3-7648-2505-7 , pp. 224-225.
  • The members of Vandalia zu Heidelberg as of September 29, 1935. Hempel, Berlin 1936, ZDB -ID 1489890-1 , p. 297.
  • Arch Whitehouse: Flieger-Ase 1914-1918. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 382-385.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 73 , 845.
  2. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736–1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 177.
personal data
SURNAME Bülow-Bothkamp, ​​Walter von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Borby
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1918
Place of death St. Julien