Göring’s Thirteenth Victory

Consequently, when the staff of his old friend Hauptmann Wilberg, the officer in charge of aviation for the 4th Army, did not confirm Göring’s 3 September victory claim in their weekly report,³⁵ he must have complained. And Wilberg must have taken action, as Göring’s victory over an Airco D.H.4 two-seater north of Lampernisse, on that date, appeared in the Luftstreitkräfte’s weekly summary. Göring’s report was convincing, as he and eight Staffel comrades attacked five D.H.4s heading east from Dixmuide and Göring reported going down after one of the two-seaters and chasing it until it crashed. His victim was probably an aircraft from 57 Squadron, RFC, which reportedly returned from a mission in this area with a wounded observer, twenty-seven-year-old Lieutenant Georges W. Guillon.³⁶ The incident was counted as Göring’s thirteenth victory.³⁷

Despite considerable effort by Göring and his men, the Jasta 27 victory score rose only slightly in September. In addition to confirmed victories by Leutnant der Reserve Ludwig Luer on the 9th and Leutnant der Reserve Fritz Berkemeyer on the 15th, there was the disappointment of a rejection of Vizefeldwebel Willi Kampe’s claim of another Sopwith during the same fight in which Berkemeyer had scored. On the following day, 16 September, the Jasta 27 war diary noted Leutnant Rudolf Klimke’s claim for a Sopwith over Ypres, but no ground confirmation supported his claim.³⁸ On Thursday, 20 September, claims by Göring and Vizefeldwebel Krauss were denied for the same reason.

Often, it was difficult to confirm aerial victory claims due to the inability of ground personnel to distinguish the colour schemes used by the different Jagdstaffeln fighter squadrons, to say nothing of the variations within the units. Consequently, a new aerial combat report form was instituted to ease the identification of pilots and units. For example, Göring’s report for his combat activity on 21 September noted he flew Albatros D.V 4424/17, which bore a ‘black fuselage, white nose and white tail’.³⁹ His first patrol of the day was successful, as he noted:

‘Shortly after 9 a.m., I sighted an enemy formation of 14 units (bomb droppers), which were returning in the direction of the frontlines from Torhout. I attacked with my companions at an altitude of 4,500 metres. I positioned myself closely below the tail of an opponent and opened fire at it. I followed it closely with one of my other aeroplanes. Near Sleyhage, west of Roulers, the aeroplane crashed. Pilot and observer were injured. The machine was completely destroyed.’⁴⁰

Göring’s victims were most likely Second-Lieutenants R.L. Curtis,⁴¹ pilot, and D.P. Fitzgerald-Uniacke, observer, in a Bristol F.2B of 48 Squadron, RFC. They reported taking off at 8:00 a.m. on a bombing mission and were ‘last seen going down overwhelmed by E.A. ten miles northeast of Roulers’.⁴² The same two-seater was also claimed by Leutnant Fritz Kieckhaefer of Jasta 29 and, once again, the office of the commanding general of the air force awarded full credit to both claimants of the Bristol Fighter: Göring’s for his action over ‘Sleyhage, west of Roulers’ and Kieckhaefer’s for combat over ‘Hooglede’, three kilometres northeast of Sleyhage.⁴³ This author has reviewed many hundreds of World War I air combat victory claims for more than forty years and is still at a loss in trying to understand – much less explain – the chaotic credit methods used by all belligerents in

The Great War. The best that can be said is that many claims were valid and others were subject to an almost whimsical interpretation that lacked consistency, reliable standards and accuracy.