It’s foggy this morning so I slept in before going to the office to fill out my combat report.
Bubi is missing. No surprises there . Berthold questions me thoroughly but I haven’t a clue as to where, or in what condition Voss went down.
I have to tell the story a dozen times to my brothers. There are plenty of rumors flying around.
He was wounded and captured, he burned to death, he was killed by the Tommies after he landed.
Notes have been dropped on the British side requesting information.
We have one Patrouillenflüg, (patrol flight) at 1400. Vater leads.
Berthold is busy fighting the paperwork war and I’m allowed to recuperate.
I mostly sleep but I visit Max. He’s coming along very well.
The only air activity at the front is a few scout patrols at high altitudes.
Tonight I make a long, detailed diary entry about the fight. I feel that, for some reason, this is very important. I just don’t know exactly why.
As with the photographs and the collection of all these documents, I know that this is in some way important to me in the future, I just don’t know in what way.
Perhaps I will actually write the book I lied to der Eiserne about. I could always use a pseudonym.
There were a number of bombing attacks on the railway sidings and billets in the area. We were not attacked this time, nor were any of the other airfields in our general area.
It’s been misty and warm all day but now we have an almost cloudless sky. Quite a bit of haze below, however. Air activity over the front was moderate during our first two Patrouillenflüge, but, judging from the number of Flak bursts as we approach Gheluvelt it must be picking up.
I’m back in Beomia. I was surprised to find her ready to go when I returned yesterday. I brought some bottles around to Hermann and his Schwarzer Mann in thanks for their efforts.
It’s 1630 when Berthold, despite the haze, spots a single SPAD flying at about 1,000 meters along the road from Ypres to Menen. Probably he is spying out our troops massing for another counter-attack.
Der Meister dives on him with Beomia and I in support while the others stay above.
The Tommy breaks up in the air.*
*Berthold’s 24th Luftsieg, 19 year old Bernard Alexander Powers, flying SPAD VII B.3520 of Number 19 Squadron RFC. He was trying to obtain information about reported German troops massing for an attack along the Menin/Ypres road.
Upon landing, we get some solid information on Bubi Voss. A message was dropped containing the information that his machine crashed northwest of a British entrenched position at Frezenberg and he was buried in the field.*
* Voss’ triplane crashed at Plum Farm ¾ mile NW of Frezenberg close by a British entrenched position. His body was slipped into the nearest shell hole and buried by gunners of 174th Brigade RFA 58th Div.
The body was never recovered, lost with so many in the churned up mud of Flanders.
The Associated Press reported 1 Oct saying messages were already dropped.
It read, “Vosse killed 23 Sep while engaged in a spectacular combat with a British airman. He died fighting determinedly. And magnificently.”
We toast him in the Kasino tonight, sing Ich hatt eine kameraden, and tell our stories about Bubi.
As I watch my young, still living, Komeraden, it causes me to reflect on what a fraud I am.
These young men risk everything every time they go up.
For example, look at Berthold there, his body a wreck at the age of twenty-six.
Though I suffer the same pain and hardships as they do, I actually risk nothing at all.
I will not lose my life, neither will I lose a limb or any faculty, at least not permanently. I have no wife, no sweetheart, no family, no children…no country.
WOFF has Voss flying an Albatros DV for a period of time in Jasta 14 but no skin was provided. I made this one in imitation of his Albatros DIII livery. It is conjectural. It can be found in Pack 4 of More Skins by jerbear.
And of course, last but not least, the famous mustachioed Voss Dreidecker.
ENDE
ADDENDUM – In my posting number 40 for 31 August 1917, I stated that the Voss Dr1 skin never flies in WOFF. This is incorrect.
All the Jasta 10 aces fly the triplane starting on 21 September and this skin shows up at that time.
In reality, Voss was flying this Dreidecker for around a couple of weeks and no one else got one for some time. But at least it is used. Nothing’s perfect.
Our morning patrol was hampered by rain and mist and there was almost no air activity from our fellow sportsmen.
At 1100 we still have thick low clouds, but the rain has abated for now.
Berthold is leading us at less than 1,000 meters because of the cloud layer.
Alter Herr Dingel is better now and has joined us for this patrol. Vater took him up in the Staffel hack to see if he could tolerate the change in altitude.
The misty air below us is filled with machines of all types, from both sides, strafing, dropping flares, grenades and bombs, directing artillery.
Caption – this is a skin from the Two-Seater Skins by jerbear. This skin was made for Ernst Wiessner, one of the few aces WOFF provided for FAA 250s, which operated in this Army Group at this time.
I based this skin on the color profile of a captured DFW from FA 7 in Jack Herris’ “DFW Aircraft of WWI” page 131.
Caption – this is a skin from the Two-Seater Skins by jerbear Mod. This skin was made for Otto ‘Piple’Wieprich , one of the few aces WOFF put on the roster of FAA 250s, which operated in this Army Group at this time.
I have Wieprich flying a Halberstadt made DFW from the 3rd production batch. He will fly it from around April to 1 November 1917 when he gets a Hawa for a few months.
Berthold fires his Spandaus and waggles his wings twice, the pre-arranged signal that we are to split up into Ketten to hunt.*
*This signal is my own invention. It is based on the only signal used by Berthold that I have found documented. He would fire three rounds from his MGs to signal an attack. There must have been other variations on this theme for other orders. He appears not to have cared for the use of flares and I find no pictures of any of his or the other Jasta 18 aircraft of this time with racks for them.
Caption – The weather used in this scenario is from BuckeyeBob’s cloud Mod: BB Overcast and Rain.
Der Meister leads Klein and myself, taking us down to 500 meters. We attack several enemy working machines but they escape us in the clouds and mist after their Observers have given us a good peppering with their flexible mounted MGs.