Wilhelm Reinhard (fighter pilot)

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Wilhelm (Willi) Reinhard (born March 12, 1891 in Düsseldorf ; † July 3, 1918 in Berlin-Adlershof ) was a German fighter pilot in World War I and, as the successor to Manfred von Richthofen, squadron leader of Jagdgeschwader 1 .

Life

When the war broke out, Reinhard initially served as an officer in a Prussian artillery regiment , was wounded in Belgium and joined the air force in 1915 . Initially deployed as an observer in the Artillery Aviation Department 205 over Verdun , he came in 1916 for aeronautical training at FEA 9 in Darmstadt . He fought on the front in the Balkans , then on the Eastern Front, from March 1917 in Italy and finally returned to the Western Front. In May 1917 briefly assigned to Darmstadt as a flight instructor, he joined Jagdstaffel 11 on June 24, 1917.

He scored several aerial victories until he was seriously wounded in the hip in a fight with nine Sopwith Camels over Houthulst and had to make an emergency landing. After his recovery, Reinhard took over Jagdstaffel 6 as a squadron leader in November 1917 . Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the Commodore of Jagdgeschwader 1 who fell on April 21, 1918 , had decreed that in the event of his death Reinhard should take over the Jagdgeschwader as his successor.

Reinhard scored more aerial victories, but the squadron's losses also increased. In June 1918, after a battle with Spad two-seater, his Fokker three-decker was badly damaged, so that Reinhard was only lucky enough to be able to make an emergency landing with a shot-up chassis. At the end of June he and his comrade Hans Kirschstein took part in the comparison flight for new fighter planes in Berlin . On July 3, he started with a Zeppelin-Lindau DI - Double Decker . During the flight, the upper wing came off and Wilhelm Reinhard fell fatally. His successor as a squadron commodore was Hermann Göring . Reinhard achieved 20 aerial victories and high awards.

Trivia

The film Der Blaue Max makes indirect allusions to the life of Wilhelm Reinhard.

See also

literature

  • Arch Whitehouse: Flieger-Ase 1914-1918 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 412–415, (here: "Reinhardt")
  • Walter Zuerl (Ed.): Pour le mérite-Flieger. Heroic deeds and experiences of our war pilots . Pechstein, Munich 1938

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reinhard, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reinhard, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH July 3, 1918
Place of death Berlin-Adlershof