The last flight of Ltn. Kurt Wolff

The last flight of Lt. Kurt Wolff

After leaving a railroad regiment in 1915, Ltn. Wolff enlisted to the airservice and passed his pilot license in Döberitz (Ger). He came to the Western Front in November of the same year. From the beginning of 1917 he belonged to Jasta 11. On March 6th he scored his first kill. Within only a few weeks he scored 29 kills. On April 28th he was defeating 5 enemies on one day. On May 4th, only 8 weeks after his first aerial victory, he awarded the Pour-le-Mérite. After Manfred von Richthofen became the leader of Jagdgeschwader 1, Ltn. Wolff became the leader of Jasta 11 on July 17th. On August 20th the squadron scored its 200st victory and Ltn. Wolff was promoted to Oberleutnant. Ltn. Wolff appeared to be a physically weak person. Karl Bodenschatz, who was the Adjutant of Manfred v. Richthofen once described him as "a slim, thin figure, a very young face, timid in all of his behavior. He's looking like somebody one can topp backwards over his heels by using only a hard word". But as a pilot Wolff was a feared daredevil!

His "Katschmarek" (wingman), Lt. Carl-August von Schoenebeck was one of the last survivors of Jasta11 until his death in 1989. He eyewitnessed the last fight of Lt.Wolff on September 15th 1917, after 33 aerial victories:

"One day we flew both to the front. That was done often because a flight of 2 is harder to spot than a whole squadron. If one was smart enough to use the sun in ones back the enemy could be easily surprised. Wolff was a smart leader and from the sun we attacked an enemy flight. Wolff was shooting brilliantly but got caught in a dogfight. I flew behind him as suddenly another Englishman appeared behind me. I only was able to get rid of him with great difficulty. While I was busy shaking off the Englishman another machine attacked Wolff from behind and before I could help I saw how Wolff was going down into a spin and hit the ground. So was Lt.Wolff, whom had me for covering him and who had to protect myself, falling in front of my very eyes. I was deeply shocked. On his funeral I had to carry his cushion of decorations."

Before Ltn.Wolff was killed in action, flying one of the two Triplanes build for frontline evaluation, Manfred von Richthofen scored two of his kills (60th+61st) flying the same plane (FI 102 / 17; w/n 1729; see below). Note the curved leading edge to tailplane on the FI type.

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