- Kurt Wintgens
Kurt Wintgens (
1 August 1894 -25 September 1916 ) was a German1st World War Flying Ace and receipient of theIron Cross and the Blue Max.Background
Wintgens was born in
Neustadt .Involvement in 1st World War
Wintgens' military service commenced when he joined the
Telegraphen-Bataillon Nr. 2 inFrankfurt /Oder as a fahnenjunker (cadet officer) in 1913. He was sent to theEastern Front as aleutnant with his unit and won theIron Cross , 2nd Class. On transferring to the German Air Service, Wintgens flew first as an observer inAugust andSeptember 1914. However, this period of service was interrupted by a period back ontelegraph duties, until Wintgens returned to the aviation wing inFebruary 1915, becoming a pilot after training at the Fokker school inSchwerin . [van Wyngarden, G. "Early German Aces of World War 1". Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2006. p.11 ISBN 1-84176-997-5]Wintgens holds a unique pioneering role in the entire history of aerial combat, being the very first fighter pilot to score an aerial victory over an opponent, on
July 1 ,1915 . Leutnant Wintgens was flying the last-produced example of the five Fokker M.5K/MG production prototypeFokker Eindecker s, with German military serial number "E.5/15", [Grosz, Peter M., "Windsock Datafile No. 91, Fokker E.I/II," Albatros Publications, Ltd. 2002. ISBN No. 1-902207-46-7.] and at 1800 that evening, he engaged a Morane Parasol two-seater. The French aircraft was most likely from Escadrille M.S.48, and flown by one Capitaine du Peuty, with Lieutenant de Boutiny as the observer. The French aviators reported that they were engaged by a "Fokker Monoplane" at 1,300 meters over the Fôret de Parroy, near the village ofLunéville . The French aircraft was armed with only a carbine rifle for protection, while the Fokker had a forward-firing, synchronizedParabellum MG14 machine gun. After a few minutes of combat with the Fokker, de Peuty was wounded in the lower right leg. The Eindecker seemed to have been hit by de Boutiny's carbine fire. De Boutiny had exhausted all of his carbine ammunition, leaving his own aircraft defenseless, which gave the Eindecker the advantage, and shortly thereafter the Eindecker likewise wounded de Boutiny in the leg. Despite their injuries, the French aircrew landed their Morane parasol safely, in friendly territory, although their own engine had been hit by E.5/15's machine gun fire, with the actual combat itself taking place in the Lorraine sector. [Sands, Jeffrey, "The Forgotten Ace, Ltn. Kurt Wintgens and his War Letters", Cross & Cockade USA, Summer 1985.]Wintgens also was one of the very few fighter pilots ever to require prescription eyewear while flying in combat, as he wore "hard-bridge" style
pince-nez glasses for vision correction, under his usual pilot's goggles. Later, on June 23, 1916, Wintgens confronted a Nieuport 16, flown by the then-woundedLafayette Escadrille American pilotVictor Chapman , and shot Chapman down while Wintgens was flying aHalberstadt D.II fighter, for his seventh aerial victory. Shortly afterwards, on1 July 1916 , Wintgens became the fourth German airman to receive the award of the 'Blue Max', after he had completed the required (at the time) eight victories over enemy aircraft. [van Wyngarden, G. p.62]After downing at least 19 aircraft (with probables and force-downs, as high as 22 aircraft) in air combat, Wintgens was fatally shot down, while flying a
Fokker E.III onSeptember 25 ,1916 , in air combat nearVillers-Carbonnel , possibly by French flying ace Alfred Huertaux, for Huertaux's eighth aerial victory. [http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/heurtaux.php] Huertaux was most likely flying one of the early examples of theSPAD S.VII fighter aircraft in the downing of Wintgens.Notes
References
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