Under the Guns of the Kaiser's Aces

Böhome, Müller, von Tutschek and Wolff, The Complete Record of Their Victories and Victims

Norman Franks, Hal Giblin

• Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781909166400
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

The Under the Guns series continues with an all-encompassing look at four highly decorated German fighter aces and their dogfights in World War I.
Following their imaginative, popular and successful approach to identifying and describing all the airmen who were claimed by Manfred von Richthofen in Under the Guns of the Red Baron, and by Immelmann, Voss, Göring and Lothar von Richthofen in Under the Guns of the German Aces, air historians Franks and Giblin have put four more equally distinguished German aces of World War One under the microscope.
In doing so, they profile not only the aces themselves, all of whom received the "Blue Max"—Germany's highest award for bravery in action—but also the Allied airmen they fought and downed. By extensive and exhaustive research into records, and carefully studying maps, timings and intelligence reports—contemporary and retrospective—as full a picture as possible is revealed with excellent photographic coverage of the many protagonists involved.
All four of the aces, Böhme, Müller, von Tutschek and Wolff were unit leaders at different times, one commanded a Jagdesgeschwader, the others commanded Jagdstaffels. All four were destined to die in actions against the Royal Flying Corps. Every one of their combats is detailed here, with color artwork. This is the last in the Under the Guns trilogy, to complete the set.

CHAPTER 1

OBERLEUTNANT
ERWIN BÖHME

Erwin Böhme was older than most Jasta pilots. Born in Holzminden, on the Weser river in north-west Germany on 29 July 1879, he was 35 years old when WW1 began. His was a large family – Erwin being the second of five boys and a sister. A qualified engineer, he had studied at the technical college in Dortmund and had worked in both Germany and in Switzerland before taking up a six-year contract in German East Africa in 1908. He had, therefore, sampled life to a fuller extent than most of his contemporaries by the time war came. Even before hostilities began he had returned to his native Germany. Upon mobilisation, he went back to his former Jäger Regiment having served with the Garde-Jäger Regiment during his national service in 1899. Soon afterwards and despite his age, he volunteered for flying duties.

Training at Leipzig-Lindenthal, he received his licence in December 1914. No doubt because of his maturity and exceptional ability, Unteroffizier Böhme was retained for over a year as a flight instructor before finally being able to persuade his superiors to send him to a front-line unit. He was posted to Kagohl 2 on the Saarbrücken Front in late November 1915, a unit then commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Boelcke, brother of the peerless Oswald who was making a name for himself as a single-seater Fokker pilot on the Western Front.

Erwin Böhme (right) during his twoseater days. He is pictured in front of his ‘Dragon-marked’ Albatros CIII (766/16) whilst serving with Kasta 10 of Kogohl 2 on the Russian front in the August of 1916. With him is his observer, Leutnant Lademacher, who shared his first victory against the French ace Edwards Pulpe on 2 August 1916. (Dr.- Ing, Niedermeyer)

Assigned to Kampstaffel 10 of Kagohl 2, he flew Albatros C1 aeroplanes and was promoted to the rank of Offizierstellevertreter. Operating from Mörchingen (30 miles south-east of Metz) his unit patrolled the front lines and made bombing raids to Bar-le-Duc and Ligny. In February 1916, Kagohl 2 were also involved in the opening stages of the Verdun offensive. As a matter of passing interest, his observer in Kasta 10 was even older than Böhme – a 47-year-old man by the name of Sanders. In the spring of 1916, Böhme’s unit was visited by Oswald Boelcke flying a visibly combat-damaged Fokker.

In March Böhme had an encounter with two French Farmans and a Nieuport Scout – his first recorded combats. They would be the first of several occurring over the next few weeks. In May 1916, Böhme received his commission. He was, by this time, flying the LFG Roland C-types as well as the Albatros. In June 1916, his unit was transferred to the Eastern Front, operating from a base at Kovel, Russia, around 270 kilometres south-east of Warsaw. One of his fellow pilots was none other than Manfred von Richthofen – still then, of course, a noviciate. On the Russian Front Böhme flew Albatros two-seaters, and had one (C766/16) decorated with a dragon motif running along the fuselage – his observer at this time was Leutnant Lademacher. Böhme met Oswald Boelcke yet again, this time on the distinguished flyer’s visit to front-line units in the early summer of 1916. Impressed with Böhme’s obvious abilities, Boelcke invited him to join a new fighting unit he was about to form for service on the Western Front. Flattered, Böhme readily agreed.

Still, for the moment, his business on the Eastern Front continued apace. Böhme was soon again in action and achieved some modest further success. On 11 and 13 July, he and Lademacher fought inconclusive combats with Russian machines – identified as grossflugzeug – large aeroplanes. At this stage the German designation for a large, or giant, aeroplane – riesen flugzeug – was not commonly used or defined, so it can be assumed these two aeroplanes were Russian Sikorsky types.

In a letter dated 3 August, Böhme wrote: '... yesterday I shot down a Nieuport single seater over Rozyszczt, the actual Headquarters of General Brussilov, on which we were dropping bombs.' The Nieuport was patrolling over the Styr river, its Latvian-born pilot must first have spotted five German aircraft flying over Rozyszczt, some distance below. Soon afterwards, two of the German aircraft broke formation and headed for their lines. The Nieuport closed the distance and as soon as he was directly above the remaining German trio, dived upon them. A lengthy battle ensued – some say for up to an hour – but at the end of it, the Nieuport and its gallant, if foolhardy pilot, finally went down. The pilot had been hit twice – one bullet causing serious internal injuries. The aileron control on his Nieuport had also been shot away. When ground troops reached the crashed machine, Sous-lieutenant Pulpe was still alive. He asked for a drink of water and then died.

SOUS-LIEUTENANT

EDWARDS PULPE,

ESCADRILLE MS23

Born in Riga, Latvia, on 22 June 1880, he was living in France when war came in August 1914. He already had his Civil Pilot’s Brevet (Number 1571 gained on 19 December 1913) and decided to offer his talents to the French Aviation Service. After the appropriate training, he qualified for his Military Pilot’s Brevet (Number 602) and was posted to Escadrille MS23 on 1 May 1915 with the rank of Sergent. Awarded the Medaille Militaire on 29 October 1915, ‘Voluntarily enlisted Sergent of Escadrille MS23, a pilot of exceptional courage and audacity, who has already shown this at times in bombardments and aerial combats. On 23 September 1915, a comrade had failed to execute a difficult mission, and he spontaneously offered to replace him and under particularly perilous conditions succeeded in accomplishing the mission successfully’. By the time of his fourth victory in March 1916, Pulpe had been promoted to the rank of Adjudant. Sent to Russia with a French Aviation Mission, Pulpe achieved his fifth victory on that front before being mortally wounded in his clash with Erwin Böhme on 2 August 1916.

Selected for Jasta 2 at Bertincourt, Böhme returned to France on 8 September 1916 to join the first of the new dedicated hunter/fighter units dreamt up and created by Boelcke himself. Until now, single-seat fighters had been assigned in small numbers to the two-seater Abteilung for escort and scouting duties. Now a specialist fighter force was being unleashed with deadly effect upon the Allied intelligence gathering, photo-reconnaissance and artillery spotting machines.

Boelcke had been given free rein to select his own pilots and among the tyro fighter pilots making up Jasta 2 were Manfred von Richthofen, Max Müller, Hans Imelmann, Rudolf Reimann and Otto Höhne. Once in France, and with the arrival of a number of fighter biplanes, Jasta 2’s new pilots began to score kills.

Not much is known of this action except than Jasta 2 attacked a formation of Sopwith two-seaters, and Böhme brought down A1913. The pilot was killed and Wood, the observer, was hit whilst still in the air and rendered unconscious. He remained non compos mentis for two weeks and was never subsequently able to recall anything of the action or of the consequent crash. Böhme was flying an Albatros DI.

SECOND LIEUTENANT

OSWALD NIXON,

ESSEX REGIMENT AND 70 SQUADRON,
ROYAL FLYING CORPS

Born on 3 May 1896, Oswald was the youngest of the five sons of Colonel F W Nixon, Royal Engineers and Edith Eliza Rose Malote Nixon of The Castle, Cape Town, South Africa and Commonside, Reigate, Surrey. He was educated at Dulwich Preparatory School (1907-09), at All Saints School, Bloxham (1909-10) and at Felsted School (1911-13) from where he entered Hampshire County Agricultural School, Basingstoke (1913-14). He interrupted his agricultural studies to enlist as a private soldier (Number 1900) in the Essex Regiment. Selected for officer training, he was gazetted Second Lieutenant into the 10th Battalion of his regiment on 5 October 1914 and promoted to Lieutenant two months later. By this time, all five of the Nixon boys were serving – Captain E M Nixon, Jacob’s Horse, Indian Army; Lieutenant Commander G A Nixon, Royal Navy; Sergeant R L Nixon, 88th Regiment of Canadian Infantry and Second Lieutenant J I Nixon, 10/Royal Sussex Regiment. All but Oswald survived. Because his son was originally reported as missing, Colonel Nixon wrote to his observer’s father in Headingley, Leeds, to enquire what knowledge young Wood had of their final minutes in the air. Mr Wood Senior was obliged to advise the Colonel that because his son, Ronald, had been, ‘shot unconscious in the air and did not come round for two weeks’, he could not help in any way. Oswald was originally commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing but his remains were subsequently discovered and re-interred in Serre Road Number 2 Cemetery, Puisieux, France. Age 20.

SECOND LIEUTENANT

RONALD WOOD,

7/WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT AND
70 SQUADRON, ROYAL FLYING CORPS

The son of Mr and Mrs George Wood of 14 Welburn Avenue, Headingley, Leeds. Gazetted Second Lieutenant 7th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment before transferring to the RFC in early 1916. Badly wounded and rendered unconscious for two weeks after Böhme’s attack, he was never able to recall the circumstances of their encounter with the German. Spent months in the Osnabruck POW Camp – mainly hospitalised – before being exchanged into Holland on 9 April 1918. Finally repatriated to the UK on 2 July 1918.

Six Martinsyde Elephants led by Captain O T Boyd, were flying an Offensive Patrol over Cambrai, having taken off at 0830 hours. They were attacked over the town by five Albatros Scouts led by Boelcke and two were shot down in very quick order – one by Hans Reimann, the other by Manfred von Richthofen. As the fight continued, the Martinsyde piloted by Lieutenant L F Forbes rammed the machine flown by Hans Reimann. The stricken Albatros spun down, crashing near Noreuil and killing its occupant. Forbes in the Elephant was more fortunate, managing to get his crippled machine back over the lines to crash-land near Bertangles. In the general confusion, Böhme’s victory was not confirmed as it fell just inside the foremost Allied lines near to Le Transloy.

LIEUTENANT

ERIC JAMES ROBERTS,

27 SQUADRON, ROYAL FLYING CORPS

The son of Mr and Mrs William Roberts of ‘The Maples’, Killara, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, he was born on 21 May 1895. Educated at Sydney Grammar School, at Hawkesbury Agricultural College and at Sydney University. A volunteer with the Australian Light Horse from 1913 to 1916. A qualified automotive engineer, he married Miss Margaret Smith and set up home at ‘Dunroon’, Harrison Street, Bowral, New South Wales. Left Australia to travel to England (where one of his brothers, Dr Albert Roberts, was already serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps), leaving his wife Margaret pregnant and expecting their first child – a son, also to be called Eric James – who he was destined never to see. On arrival, volunteered for service with the RFC. Dr Roberts was the first in the family to learn of Eric’s death in action on 23 September 1916. Because his remains were never recovered, he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing, France. Age 21.

There has, over the years, been some confusion over the identity of this Böhme victo...

Table of contents

• COVER
• TITLE
• COPYRIGHT
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER 1
• CHAPTER 2
• CHAPTER 3
• CHAPTER 4
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX