Oswald Boelcke,
His way from the Flying School to the front.
Oswald Boelcke learned to fly at the Halberstadt Flying School. The
airfield was located about 5km before the city. Duty was only in the
morning and the afternoons was off. When the weather was good for
flying, the student pilots had to get up at 03.30am, training starting
at 04.00am but Boelcke often was dissatisfied about the long waiting
times before it was at his come. The afternoons he spend mostly
playing tennis, dosed in the sun or went hiking in the nearby
mountains of the Harz.
The flying school had four instructors, each having one trainer
aircraft and three student pilots assigned to him. Their trainer
aircraft was Bristol "Tauben" (doves) which was - according
to Oswald Boelcke - fitted with a 70hp engine. Other sources speak of
the "Taube" being equipped with a 75hp engine. The Taube
featured a complex four wheeled landing gear. The short, fish-like
nose held a 6-cyl. Mercedes engine, which was cooled by two Hazet-type
radiators beneath the wing on each side of the fuselage. The wing
roots were "cellon"-covered for downward visibility.
"Taubes" was also flown by the British and Italian Air
Forces prior to WW1. This aircraft was particularly suited for
training because it was very slow, but also it had its weaknesses.
When the weather was a little too warm or the engine not perfect it
barely left the ground to a height of 5-10m (15-30ft) with its two men
crew. Under such conditions the student pilots pilots could not fly
and did nothing but taxiing on the ground which was not a popular
occupation for the enthusiastic young men who wanted to fly. It also
happened to the student pilots that their instructor did not feel for
training one after he had trained another so they often hung around up
to four hours which was something that upset Oswald Boelcke very much,
according to his letters he wrote to his friend Balzer. A training
flight around the airfield to train landings from an altitude of
100-150m (300-450ft) lasted for 6 minutes. On June 16, 1914, Boelcke's
instructor took him to a longer flight of 40min. from Quedlinburg
to Blankenburg in a 100hp "Taube". They climbed to an
altitude of 1400m (4242ft).
The "Taube" was build by the "Deutsche Bristol-Werke
Flugzeug GmbH". This Company was founded on April 9, 1912 in Halberstadt,
in order to manufacture Bristol designs in Germany. Owners were the
Behrens brothers, Kurt Stockhausen and Eduard Schnebel. Bristol was
only concerned in so far that there was a license agreement. In May
1912 a flying school was started. It was a usual procedure at that
time, to have a flying school attached to the aircraft manufacturing
company. After building Boxkites and Coandas in license, manufacture
switched to "Taubes". These were designed by Hans Burkhard,
an engineer who joined in 1912, having worked for Rumpler before -
hence he designed the "Taubes". First "Taube"
prototypes were build in 1913, some small series of the
"Taube" III and IV designs following in 1914. The
"Taube" III was powered by a 100 hp Daimler D I engine, the
"Taube" IV by the 75 hp Daimler. That should be the aircraft
Oswald trained at. Actually there is no picture of a Halberstadt
(or Bristol) "Taube" available yet but will be posted as
soon as one will be found.
In September 1914 the "Bristol" name was considered
inappropriate, therefore the company switched it´s name to
"Halberstaedter Flugzeugwerke GmbH". Obviously,
they then started design and manufacture of the successful D series
fighters as well as the Cl, II, IV and C V aircraft.
To obtain his pilots badge, Oswald Boelcke had to pass three check
flights:
His first flight was made on July 13, 1914 to the
"incredible" altitude of 300m (ca 990ft), after he had
made only four solo flights. The task demanded was a "high
altitude flight". Oswald Boelcke was very proud to have reached
the altitude of 300m on his flight. After his report, he needed about
15min to reach this altitude. After reaching 300m, Boelcke flew five
eights before he happily landed, but his witnesses told him that was
just "Pretzels". He only then realized that he had to turn
the eights around specified points so he started again to prove that
he was able to do so. A "Bretzel" was the pilots designation
for an eight that was not correctly flown around the specified turning
points.
The second check flight was made on July 31, 1914 - one day before the
general mobilization of the troops. Duration: 68min. Altitude: 1200m
(ca. 3636ft). Route: Halberstadt-Werningerode. Aerial distance:
ca. 20km (12.5miles). The aerial distance was measured on the road map
below, between the two town centers. In fact, the airfield of the
Flying School was located out of town so the true distance that
Boelcke flew was different. The map below is provided only to give you
an idea about the region where he learned to fly.
Third check flight was on
August 15. Cross country flight to Mainz with a stopover at the "Grosser
Sand" airfield ("The Great Sand"). After
successfully passing this last check flight, Oswald Boelcke finally
received his pilot badge! The place called "Grosser Sand"
is located just southwest of the city of Mainz. The first
airfield was build there in 1909, and the "Goedecker
Flugzeugwerke" were situated there. This early aircraft company
deserves it´s place in history for training and later employing a
Dutchman called A.H.G Fokker, still unknown at that time. Anthony
Fokker build his first aircraft design at their workshops. The "Grosser
Sand" airfield was quite popular for cross country flights
due to the usually good weather in the area and the ease of
navigation. It was easily findable because it was situated
beside the landmark of the Rhine river and maybe was also popular
because of the excellent wine produced nearby.
Even today one can see the former location of the airfield (which also
housed a KEST during the war) by the names of streets nearby - there´s
a Boelckestrasse, an Immelmannstrasse, a Richthofenstrasse and a
Bucklerstrasse. Julius Buckler was the only German airman decorated
with the Pour-le-Mérite who originated from Mainz.
On Boelcke's first solo flight, he put
his kite on the nose as he had to emergency land at a corn field after
the engine quit. He flew a 70hp Taube and said the bird toppled over
very slowly after he landed it softly on a 3ft high corn field.
Aviators know that the one who bents or break a prop is allowed to
keep it today - that custom was already known at Boelcke's time since
he had decorated the wall of his room with the broken prop of this
bird. That was the only damage he did to an aircraft during his
training time. Contrary to Von Richthofen he did not crash-land on his
check flight.
Boelcke was a man of great airmanship.
If one keeps in mind that aviation was still very new and many
experiences had yet to be made, Boelcke did already things that are
common practice in our days, like a preflight check of the engine for
instance. He pointed out that the engine was totally ok after a check
run as he started for his first solo, but soon after he got airborne
he constantly lost rpm, hence he had to land as soon as possible,
choosing a well grown corn field for a soft landing.
As the German troops got mobilized, the
Flying School of Halberstadt became empty as Boelcke's comrades
received their mobilization orders one by one. Sadly, Boelcke had to
wait until he had passed his last check flight but even after he had
passed it, they did not call him to the front yet. Finally, by the end
of August he received the order to report to the
"Etappen-Flugzeugpark" (air base) in Trier, which is the old
Roman town located near the border with Luxembourg and where German
troops departed from to invade Luxembourg and Belgium in the early
morning of August 2, 1914.
Oswald drove all the way from Halberstadt to Trier in an
"Opel" car that he steered himself. He made a short stop at
friends in Koblenz and fought his way through all of the
tunnels and across the many bridges of the Rhine and Mosel valley that
was heavily guarded by the German "Landwehr" (militia). The
air base of Trier Boelcke was assigned to provided the
reinforcements for the troops at the front. Using all of his wit to
get assigned to the "Feldflieger Abteilung 13" of his
brother Wilhelm he spend his time to train flying the new Albatros
biplanes because these aircraft got flown by F.A.13 while he was
waiting for the assignment. He was billet at the mansion of Mrs. Maria
Kunz, a widow with two girls who possessed important vineyards and
wineries. The girls was about 11, resp. 9 years old as Oswald came to
the family and they loved him like a brother, fondly calling him
"Uncle Ossi".
But despite the wonderful life he had at the house of Mrs. Kunze,
Oswald wanted nothing more than going to the front to help in the
fight. In his first letter from the field, written on September 4,
1914, he reported home how he managed to join the unit of his brother
Wilhelm. F.A. 13, stationed at the airfield of La Ferté, was
missing two of their aircraft so it needed replacements. Oswald
immediately volunteered to fly one of the replacing machines over to
F.A.13 but because the leader of the Trier air base was not present at
that time, his representative refused to let him go. Oswald secretly
prepared the aircraft for the flight, checking compass and altimeter,
placing armor plates under the seat etc, determined to run away
without a permission. But then the air base leader came back and gave
him permission to leave because he aircraft was ready for take-off and
the order was just given to transfer part of the air base of Trier to
Sedan anyway. It was already 06.00pm as Oswald finally took off which
was a little late for reaching Sedan before the sunset. But Oswald did
not intend to land in Sedan anyway. He wanted to join his brother in La
Ferté and to achieve this goal he prepared himself already a
story he wanted to tell when asked why he did not land in Sedan. If he
could not stay with F.A.13 and if asked why he landed at their field
rather than landing in Sedan he wanted to declare that he did so
because of the falling night, making it impossible to land in the
darkness at Sedan.
With the map fixed to the steering wheel of his aircraft to avoid his
observer leading him to Sedan, he flew over Luxemburg, passed north of
Montmédy to land in the dusk at the airfield of "La Ferté"
at 07.10pm. His brother Wilhelm was away at the Command Headquarters
together with his Captain as Oswald landed. Wilhelm's comrades gave
him a warm welcome, dragging him instantly over to the Casino. It was
already late as Wilhelm finally arrived, who was very happy to have
his "little one" with him now. On the other morning, the
Boelcke brothers got the good news that the leader of F.A.13,
Hauptmann Streccius, refused to let Oswald go, taking the full
responsibility for Oswald's landing at "La Ferté" against
the given order to land in Sedan.
With many thanks to Volker Haeusler as well as Hans Trauner and
Todd Hayes, all members of the World
War 1 Modeling Mailing List for
their valuable help with details about the Bristol Taube and the
"Grosser Sand" airfield.
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