Werner Voss

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Werner Voss

Werner Voss (* 13. April 1897 in Krefeld ; † 23. September 1917 north of Frezenberg, West Flanders ) was an officer of the Air Force and with 48 victories the fourth most successful German fighter pilot in the First World War .

Life

Voss' Fokker triplane
Voss' Fokker triplane (replica)

Voss was born the son of a dye works owner in his parents' house at Blumentalstrasse 75. He attended the secondary school in Krefeld with his two brothers . At the beginning of the war, Voss volunteered for military service at the age of 17 and joined the 2nd Westphalian Hussar Regiment No. 11 (Krefeld) - with the so-called “dance hussars” - which were deployed in Lorraine at the beginning of the war . Because of the obvious loss of importance of the cavalry on the Western Front , he switched to the air force in August 1915 and was promoted to NCO .

Voss completed his pilot training, and one quickly recognized his flying talent. In February 1916, after completing his training, he was transferred to Aviation Replacement Department 7 and used there as a flight instructor. In March 1916 he was promoted to Vice Sergeant and transferred to Kampfgeschwader 4. In September 1916 he was promoted to Lieutenant of the Reserve and in November he was transferred to Jagdstaffel (Jasta) 2 . Here he flew with Manfred von Richthofen, among others .

On April 8, 1917, after 24 victories in the air, he was awarded the order Pour le mérite by Wilhelm II . Previously he had already been awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords.

Voss flew mainly a biplane of the type Albatros D. III , he with a swastika , which was surrounded by a laurel wreath, and painted a red heart motif. He later flew a Fokker Dr.I with a face motif.

During his service with the Jagdstaffel 2 - the Jasta Boelcke  - he achieved 28 aerial victories. In May 1917 Voss was transferred to Jasta 5 and achieved his 34th aerial victory by the end of June. In July he was given command of Jasta 29 and was then transferred to Jasta 14, where he served as deputy squadron leader at the age of 20. At the end of July 1917, after being transferred to Jasta 10, he became a squadron leader in Jagdgeschwader 1, succeeding Ernst von Althaus .

Voss scored a total of 48 kills, 22 of them in the last three weeks of his life alone when he built a prototype ( Fokker FI 103/17 ) of the Fokker Dr. I flew. On September 22, 1917, Voss was on a 24-hour short vacation to celebrate his triple-decker success with Anthony Fokker at the Hotel Bristol in Berlin .

Death in air combat

Confident in his ability, Voss opened the air battle the next day against seven SE5a of the British 56th Squadron (No. 56 Squadron) under the leadership of Major James McCudden VC . After ten minutes of fighting, in which Voss shot down two SE5a and damaged the others, he was encircled and shot down by Lieutenant Arthur Rhys-Davids . Carl Menckhoff rushed to his aid with an Albatros D.III , but this was also shot down by Rhys-Davids, but survived the crash.

Commenting on this dogfight, McCudden said, “I saw the triplane's movements suddenly become very irregular, and then I saw it zoom down at a rather steep angle. I watched the crash, which only ended on the ground. There the machine shattered into a thousand pieces, it literally seemed to dissolve into powder dust. [...] As long as I live, I will think back with admiration to the German aviator who fought seven of us as a single man for ten minutes and scored hits on each of our planes. His flying skills were wonderful and his courage amazing. I am firmly convinced that he is the bravest German aviator I have ever had the privilege of seeing fight. "

Voss was buried makeshiftly at the crash site (British side of the battle line). In the days that followed, fighting broke out in the area, so the crash site was plowed to pieces by grenades. Voss' body could not be recovered later. An entry on the comrades ' grave at the German military cemetery in Langemarck reminds of him .

In addition to Manfred von Richthofen , Oswald Boelcke , Max Immelmann , Ernst Udet , Emil Schäfer and Josef Jacobs, Werner Voss is one of the best-known German flying breeds of the First World War.

Others

A plaque commemorated Werner Voss on the house where he was born in Krefeld. However, the house was destroyed in a devastating Allied air raid during World War II in 1943. The property became part of a company site. The owner of the company had a plaque put up again in the 1980s. After the area was leveled again, only Werner-Voss-Straße in Krefeld is reminiscent of the flying ace. Werner-Voss-Strasse and Emil-Schäfer-Strasse are located in the immediate vicinity of the former airfield. In Berlin-Tempelhof there is  a Werner-Voss-Damm in the “ Fliegerviertel ” - near the Tempelhofer Feld .

In Stuttgart-Sillenbuch, too, there is a Werner Voss trail in memory of the fighter pilot. The Heinrich-Gontermann -Weg and the Paul-Bäumer -Weg are in the immediate vicinity .

See also

swell

literature

  • Jürgen Brinkmann: The knights of the order Pour le merite 1914-1918. Th. Schäfer Druckerei GmbH, Hanover et al. 1982.
  • Walter Zuerl: Pour le mérite-Flieger. Luftfahrtverlag Axel Zuerl, Steinebach Wörthsee 1987, ISBN 3-934596-15-0 .
  • Norman Franks: Albatros Aces of World War 1 Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-85532-960-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Voss, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Krefeld
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1917
Place of death Western front