I first became aware of the fighter ace Rudolf Berthold through one of his former flying comrades, the late Oberst der Reserve a.D. [Colonel, Reserves, Retired] Paul Strähle, some forty-five years ago. At that time, a few hundred World War I aviation veterans were alive in Germany and one of them, the late Oberstleutnant der Reserve a.D. Hanns-Gerd Rabe, put me in touch with Strähle, the first German fighter pilot I came to know. Strähle and I had a lively correspondence while I was gathering material to write an article for the old Cross & Cockade Journal. Consequently, he invited my wife Judy and me to his home in Schorndorf, Germany in May 1967, just before his seventy-fourth birthday.
I was impressed that Paul Strähle had endured numerous aerial combats and shot down fifteen of his opponents over a seventeen-month period. At one point he interjected:
‘You should have met my old boss. He flew during most of the war, won the highest medals, brought down forty-four British and French aeroplanes, was shot down several times himself and went on to fly with a paralysed arm. Er war der Eiserne der deutschen Jagdflieger! [He was the Iron Man of German fighter pilots!]’
I listened carefully as he described serving under Berthold, who then commanded Jagdstaffel 18 and was preparing Strähle to move up and lead a unit of his own. He told me about Berthold’s various wounds and touched briefly on the dark side of medical treatment that drew ‘der Eiserne’ into drug abuse. We finished the evening on a cheerful note with a nice glass of Swabian wine, but I was left with many unanswered questions about Rudolf Berthold.
Sadly, little historical material about Berthold survived the World War II bombing of the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam and it was difficult to learn more about his life, struggles and achievements. However, the final years of the Cold War in the late 1980s gave me access to Berthold-related resources in a former East German archive, while I was researching other World War I flyers. That material and the subsequent discovery of Berthold’s personal war diary in the Bundesarchiv freed me from relying on the few books that had long represented his story – and not always accurately or completely. Now, with better facts at hand, I am glad to offer a new look at Rudolf Berthold’s life and am grateful to John Davies at Grub Street for providing the opportunity to do so.
Rudolf Berthold triumphed in at least forty-four aerial combats. Archival material and map study now make it possible to examine those and related combats and to suggest which air units and even individual airmen most likely fought against each other. Such encounters are a significant component of researching World War I aviation history, in which an aerial victory, luftsieg or victoire aérienne decided the fate of so many combatants. In recent years, this form of research has become more conclusive with the help of books such as The French Air Service War Chronology 1914-1918, The Jasta Pilots, The Sky Their Battlefield, and other valued standard reference texts published by Grub Street, which are included in this book’s bibliography. I am indebted to the authors of those books for their labours in compiling such works.
Photographs have been important to my research and I am grateful to friends and colleagues who have generously shared images for this book: Rainer Absmeier, Dr. Lance J. Bronnenkant, Helge K.-Werner Dittmann, Trevor Henshaw, Dr. Volker Koos, the late Heinz J. Nowarra, Colin Owers, Alex Revell, Greg VanWyngarden and Tobias Weber.
While researching and writing this book, I received help from many people and note with gratitude the kind efforts, encouragement and information provided by the following people and their institutions: Brigitte Bänsch, Alexandra Nothdurft and Renate Wünschmann, Stadt Erlangen; Karin Binder, Stadtgeschichte Wittenberg; Thomas Binder, Stadtarchiv Kamenz; Dieter Dureck, Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales, Berlin; Wesley Henry and Brett Stolle, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force; Achim Koch and Michael Weins, Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv; Dr. Eberhardt Kettlitz, praeHistoria Büro für Archäologie und Geschichte; Stephan Kühmayer, Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt); Oberstleutnant Harald Potempa, Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt; Dr. Wolfgang Mährle, Judith Bolsinger and Manfred Hennhöfer of the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg; Dr. Uwe Müller, Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt; Schulleiter Heinz Pfuhlmann, Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium Bamberg; Annemarie Renz-Sagstetter, Stadt Bamberg; Pfarrer Wolfgang Scheidel, Evangelische Gemeinde Ditterswind; Claudia Veit, Stadtarchiv Passau; Dr. Clemens Wachter, Universitätsarchivar, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg; and Dr. Robert Zink, Stadtarchiv Bamberg. Last but not least, Kimberly Farrington and Ewa Wolynska of the Elihu Burritt Library of Central Connecticut State University exemplify the valued help I have received from my alma mater.
Other valued friends and colleagues who have helped in many ways include: Rainer Absmeier, Trudy Baumann, Dr. Lance J. Bronnenkant and his exhaustive research into German wartime images, Christophe Cony, Russell Folsom, Norman Franks, Russ Gannon, Trevor Henshaw, Reinhard Kastner, Andrew Kemp, Paul S. Leaman, James F. Miller, Nicolas Philippe, Thorsten Pietsch, Julian J. Putkowski, Alex Revell, Oberleutnant Sebastian Rosenboom, Claudia Schünemann, Gunnar Söderbaum, Dr. James Streckfuss, Dr. Hannes Täger, Lothair Vanoverbeke, and Aaron Weaver.
My sincere thanks also go to this cadre of friends: Ronny Bar for his excellent colour artwork portraying aircraft flown by Rudolf Berthold, Judy and Karl Kilduff and my longtime friend and mentor David E. Smith for their helpful review of and comments on the manuscript, my cultural mentor Klaus Littwin for helping me understand German linguistic nuances and providing valuable assistance in locating important research sources, Dr. M. Geoffrey Miller for providing his medical expertise, long-time friends Oberbürgermeister i.R. Prof.Dr.(h c) Franz J. Rothenbiller and his wife Christa for their valued help in deciphering significant documentary material, the late Oberst der Reserve a.D. Paul Strähle for relating his experiences of service under Rudolf Berthold’s command, and Stewart K. Taylor for sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge of British Commonwealth flight operations in World War I.
I am very grateful for the friendship, interest and support of these very helpful people.
Peter Kilduff
Rudolf Berthold joined the ranks of nationally-known German airmen when this postcard view of him appeared in early 1916. The photo, taken over a year earlier, shows him wearing an observers’ badge, along with his 1st and 2nd Class awards of the Iron Cross. (Lance J. Bronnenkant)