Josef Carl Peter Jacobs was born in Kreuzkapelle, Rhineland, on 15 May 1894. Learning to fly in 1912, he served in the Luftstreitskräfte from the outbreak of the war and scored his first two victories in the spring of 1916 while flying in Fokker Staffel West. In November Jacobs transferred to Jagdstaffel 22, commanded by his friend Oblt Erich Honemanns, and also instructed at Jastaschule 1 through the winter of 1916-17.

On 2 August 1917 Ltn Jacobs, with five victories, was given command of Jasta 7.

In early 1918 Jacobs received his first Dr.1, and he kept at least two on hand, even after acquiring one of the faster D.VIIs, until at least October 1918. He stated he overcame the triplane’s engine problems by replacing inoperative engines from a pool of British rotaries recovered from downed Camels, often provided by frontline troops in exchange for a case of champagne for each repairable example. This was Jacobs’ standing offer.

Jacobs’ tally has been described as 44 or 48, and more than 30 of those victories, including 11 Camels, were scored in Dr.1s.

Jacobs preserved a lively log of his missions which included surviving two mid-air collisions. He was awarded the Orden Pour le Mérite on 18 July 1918.

After the war Jacobs fought communists in the Baltic Sea region, was a flight instructor for the Turkish army, was a director of the Adler Werke and owned an aircraft manufacturing plant in Erfurt. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Jacobs made no secret of his anti-Nazi sentiments, and although commissioned as a Major der Reserve, he declined service in the new Luftwaffe. Moving to the Netherlands and spending some of World War II in hiding, Jacobs returned to Bravaria after the conflict and died in Munich on 29 July 1978.

Widely known as the ‘Eagleof Lille’, Max Immelmann rose from obscure middle class in one short year instep with his advancing fame as a fighter pilot of the revolutionary Fokker El. He was serving with Feldflegeraoteilung 62 at Douai under Hauptmann Kastnerand Oswald Boelcke in 1915 when the first E.Is became available. Taught by Boelcke to fly and fight in the new aircraft, Immelmann scored a total of 15 victories, his fighter permitting the use of a climbing manoeuvre that was to bear his name.

Two early recipients of the Fokker E.I were Max Immelman and Oswald Boelcke of Feldflieger Abteilung 67. On August 1st, 1915 Lieutenant Max Immelmann achieved his first air combat victory flying a Fokker. At the end of October Immelmann and Boelcke gained their fifth and sixth victories respectively.

With Boelcke and other pilots operating in the Lille area, Immelmann did much to create the famous ‘Fokker scourge’ in 1915-6, but on 18 June 1916 he was shot down in combat with F.E.2bs and killed by Lieut G R. McCubbin of No. 25 Squadron, RFC. His plane broke up and fell near Lens.

The formal title of Max Immelmann at the time of his death was:
The Royal Saxon Reserve-Lieutenant Herr Max Immelmann, Commander of the Order of St Heinrich, Knight of the Order pour le Mérite, Knight of the Iron Cross, First and Second Class, Knight of the Military Order of St Heinrich, Knight of the Albrecht Order with Swords, Knight of the Höhenzollern House Order with Swords, Knight of the Bavarian Order of Military Merit with Swords, Holder of the Iron Cresent, Holder of the Imbian Medal in Silver, Holder of the Friedrich August Medal in Silver, and Holder of the Hamburg Hanseatic Cross.

Max Immelmann Article

Erich Alfred Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), nicknamed “Bubi” (the hypocoristic form of “young boy”) by his comrades and “The Black Devil” by his Soviet adversaries, was a German fighter pilot during World War II and is the highest-scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He claimed 352 aerial victories—that is, 352 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft—in 1,404 combat missions. He engaged in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe. During the course of his career, Hartmann was forced to crash-land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to fire from enemy aircraft.

Hartmann, a pre-war glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and completed his fighter pilot training in 1942. He was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern front and was fortunate to be placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe’s most experienced fighter pilots. Under their guidance, Hartmann steadily developed his tactics, which earned him the coveted Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub, Schwertern und Brillanten (Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds) on 25 August 1944 for claiming 301 aerial victories.

On 25 August 1944, 1st Lt. Hartmann shot down 11 Soviet aircraft (of 58 shot down that day), thereby winning his 301st aerial victory, and was decorated with the Oak-leaf cluster to the Knight’s Cross degree of the Iron Cross.

At 8.30am on Tuesday 8 May 1945 Major Hartmann, commander of the 1st Grp, 52nd FW took off from Brad, Czechosolvakis on his 1405th enemy mission. He flew his Me 109G in the direction of Brunn. Eight Soviet Yak-11 were circling the city and flying aerobatics. Harmann attacked one just as it was flop, and shot it down. This was his 353nd kill and probably was the last made by the Luftwaffe.

He scored his 352nd and last aerial victory on 8 May 1945. He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to United States Army forces and were turned over to the Red Army. In an attempt to pressure him into service with the Soviet-friendly East German Volksarmee, he was convicted of false war crimes, a conviction posthumously voided by a Russian court as a malicious prosecution. Hartmann was sentenced to 25 years of hard labour and spent 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955.

In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Air Force and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 “Richthofen”. Hartmann resigned early from the Bundeswehr in 1970, largely due to his opposition to the F-104 Starfighter deployment in the Luftwaffe and the resulting clashes with his superiors over this issue. He was later involved in flight training. He died of natural causes on 20 September 1993.

The final World War II rank-
Maj. Erich Hartmann (352)
Maj. Gerhard Barkhom (301)
Maj. Guenther Rall (275)
Maj. Wilhelm Batz (237)

In February 1911, Captain Walter Windham, R.N., organised the first armail service at the United Provinces Exhibition at Allahabad in India. Seven months later, having returned to Britain, he ran an airmail service as part of the celebrations for the coronation of King George V.

On September 8, 1911, letters were collected from special boxes in London and taken by postmen to Hendon. The next day, despite bad weather, Gustav Hamel flew this mail to Windsor.

From Windsor it was sent on through the ordinary postal service.

Bad weather and other difficulties brought airmail flights to an end on September 26. By then, 100,000 letters had been carried.

Robert L. Hall was born in Taunton, Massachusetts in 1905. After graduating in 1927 from the University of Michigan, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he joined the Granville Brothers Aircraft, where he was the chief engineer. He designed the Gee Bee Model Z racer, the “City of Springfield,” which swept the competition in every contest in the National Air Races of 1931. On the September 5, Hall himself flew the Gee Bee Z to victory in the General Tire and Rubber Trophy race. Lowell Bayles flew the aircraft the next day to victory in the free-for-all event.

Hall then left the Granville Brothers, to form Hall Aircraft. There he designed the Bulldog racing aircraft, which he went on to race at the 1932 National Air Races, finished sixth at a speed of 215.5 mph. Afterwards there was speculation that its experimental Hamilton Standard propeller prevented the Wasp engine from running at full power. Hall was so disappointed with its performance that he dismantled and scrapped the plane after that race. He also designed the Cicada racing plane, which was scheduled to race at the 1932 National Air Races by owner Frank Lynch but did not start the race due to engine problems.

Robert Hall later joined Grumman, where he helped design and test a series of planes that proved a major force during World War II. Serving as Chief Engineer and lead flight test pilot, he helped design and made the first flights of the F4F Wildcat, the G-21 Goose in 1937, the XP-50 in 1941, the F6F Hellcat in 1942, the F7F Tigercat in 1943 and the F8F Bearcat in 1944. On May 14, 1941 while flying the XP-50, it experienced an inflight turbocharger explosion while over Long Island Sound. Hall was forced to parachute to safety. As Grumman’s chief engineer and vice president, he was instrumental in the design of the F9F Panther, F9F Cougar, F10F Jaguar and F11F Tiger jet fighters and the Gulfstream I executive aircraft. He retired from Grumman in 1970.

Robert L. Hall died in 1991. His son Eric Hall is co-founder of Halls Spars, which manufacturers sailboat rigging.

Born in 1894, Georges Guynemer won a place in the hearts of the French public for, as a frail and delicate youth, he had twice been rejected for military service when he enlisted as a pupil-mechanic and was posted to Pau airfield in November 1914.

He graduated to flying training, and in June 1915 started flying Morane-Saulnier monoplanes with Escadrille MS 3, scoring his first victory a month later. During the next two years he destroyed a total of 54 German aircraft, the majority while flying Nieuports.

It was his youth and pale good looks that endeared him to the French people. He was himself shot down seven times, and his health was clearly failing when on 11 September 1917 he failed to return home from a flight over Poelcapelle.

No claim for his defeat in the air has ever been fully substantiated, nor has any trace of his body or aircraft ever been found.

New Zealander Colin Fralkand Gray was on 54 Sqn, RAF, when the war started. He shared in bringing down several enemy aircraft. His individual successes began with two Bf 109 s in July 1940. In August he got six Bf 109s, two of them on one sortie, and three 110s, again two on the same operation. In September he destroyed two Bf 109s, a 110 and an Hw 111. By then he has a DFC and Bar.

He became a wing commander, survived the war with a score of 27.5, a DSO and a second bar to his DFC, and retired as a Group Captain..

He was New Zealand’s top scoring ace with 27.3 victories.

The cross English Channel prize was given by the Daily Mail. It had been offered in October 1906, together with a prize of £10,000 for the first flight from London to Manchester, a distance of 183 miles. Claude Graham-White made an attempt to win the London-Manchester. Cheered by a crowd of several thousand people he took off just after dawn on 23 April 1910.

He reached Lechfield , 117 miles north of London, in two hops. Then strong winds forced him to abandon the attempt, as the flight had to be completed within 24 hours. Later his biplane was blown over on the ground and damaged. The machine was returnd to London for repairs. These were completed by the afternoon of April 27, but the weather was unfit for flying. Graham-White decided to have a sleep and set out in the evening.

At six o’clock he was awakened with the news that a French test pilot, Louis Paulhan, had taken off from Hendon for Manchester. At once, Graham-White set out in pursuit. On that first evening, Paulhan reached Lichfield. Graham-White landed at Roade, Northamptonshire, 57 miles behind. In a desperate attempt to catch up, he took off by the light of motorcar headlamps at half past two in the morning. It was the first night flight in history.

Once out of Roade, Graham-White was lost in darkness until he saw the light from the fire of a train on the railway below. He followed it to Rugby. Soon afterwards, with dawn lightening the sky, he rn into strong winds and at length he was forced down at Polesworth.

Meanwhile, Paulhan had taken off from Lichfield. His route followed the railway line. All along it were excited people, many of whom had stayed up all night in the hopes of seeing the aeroplanes. At Manchester he was greeted by a crowd of thousands, who cheered as he landed.

Paulhan completed the journey from London to Manchester in about twelve hours. His actual time in the air was 3 hr 45 min.

On the fortieth anniversary of his flight, April 27, 1950, Paulhan was flown from London Airport to Manchester Airport in a Gloster Meteor jet. The flight lasted 38 minutes.