A day of glory for JG I
Event ID: 436
18 March 1918
Source ID: 58
“And then came 18 March.
A glorious day for Jagdgeschwader I. Already in the early morning, strong single-seater and two-seater squadrons were buzzing around in the spring sky far beyond the front. Fighter Wing I was ready for take-off. But at first no Englishman dared to cross the front.
Then, around half past ten, they arrived.
They made their way at high altitude, densely massed squadrons, carrying out the order by hook or by crook to fly over the German front and finally gain an insight into what was rumbling around back there. To find out what the many nocturnal noises that were being overheard meant, what was going on. All along the front in France, from the marshal down to the last little Poilu, the suspicious rumours had not stopped.
Now it was going to stop.
The strongest squadrons of the British army were marching towards the German front at an altitude of over 5000 metres.
The radio reports from the German air defence officers had arrived in Avesnes le Sec on time, and the commander took off with 3 squadrons in a closed formation. It was a marvellous and serious sight.
Far ahead at the head of his squadron was the commander, behind him, staggered 500 metres higher up on the left, were Fighter Squadron 6 and Fighter Squadron 10 on the right, thirty aircraft, manned by the most daring and famous pilots in the German army.
At an altitude of 5300 metres, the commander spotted several English squadrons that had just flown over the German lines in the direction of Le Cateau. The baron turned his squadron around and followed the English. The last aircraft of the closing squadron, a Bristol Fighter, broke up and crashed under the machine-gun fire of Richthofen and Lieutenant Sußmann, who attacked it at the same time.
The commander had thus begun to break into the English force, he gathered his 30 aircraft again and raced after the two squadrons that had already broken through to Le Cateau. The British immediately turned round to get back behind their front line as quickly as possible, but it was too late. The Jagdgeschwader I attacked.
After a few minutes, the two English squadrons were completely torn apart and disbanded, the opponents clattered around each other in numerous individual battles and within 25 minutes the decision had been made. At 11 o’clock, Lieutenant Sußmann had finished off his opponent. At 11.05 a.m., Leutnant Kirchstein picked up the first Englishman of his life from the air, a previously unknown officer who began to write a remarkable list within the squadron with this kill. At 11.10, Lieutenant Loewenhardt shot a Breguet to pieces. At the same time, Oberleutnant Reinhard destroyed a Bristol Fighter, which burst in the air and crashed with its burning parts into the devastated landscape. At 11.15, Lieutenant Wolff, a namesake of two well-known Wolffs, was involved in the first victorious battle of his life, sending the single-seater to the ground, where it burst into dust.
At the same minute, the commander swooped down on a Sopwith Camel, which failed to fire at all, despite the respectable pilot’s pennants on its wings; it went down and had to land at Moulain.
Five minutes later, Vice-Sergeant Scholz shot down a Sopwith, his 4th aerial victory. Two minutes later, exactly at 11.22, the same sergeant sat down behind the next Sopwith that came in front of his gun and saw it crash burning after a few minutes. At 11.25, another Sopwith burst under the shots of Lieutenant Friedrichs.
When the thirty fighters looked around after these hot twenty-five minutes, they discovered firstly that the English had disappeared and secondly that none of their own squadron was missing. A pack of enemy squadrons chased off in less than half an hour, nine aeroplanes shot out of the middle of this squadron and not a single man or machine lost… They had countered the dead, superior material itself, the zhalen superiority in general, with something that cannot be paid for with money, neither with English, nor with American, nor with any money in the world, nor can it be delivered: their admirable ability to pull the hottest chestnuts out of the fire with less good machines, with less good material, with less well-fed crews.
The chivalrous comradeship of the commander was once again expressed in a captivating manner on this day and in this battle. What did the English and French airmen applaud? In order to achieve the highest possible number of kills, he would add his comrades’ kills to his own list, either at his own request or on higher orders?
The Rittmeister’s report on his activities in the air battle of Le Cateau states, among other things:
“…and I shot down the last enemy, a Bristol Fighter, together with Leutnant Sußmann, Jasta 11. It lost its wings and Lieutenant Sußmann brought it down.
… the aircraft flying closest to me, apparently a Breguet or a Bristol Fighter, was shot at by me and Lieutenant Loewenhardt, whereupon the enemy’s petrol tank was shot and I saw the aircraft crash vertically. Lieutenant Loewenhardt brought it down…”
So who was credited with this shoot-down and the second shoot-down? Based on the testimony of the commander, Lieutenants Sußmann and Loewenhardt.
The mission of Jagdgeschwader I was accomplished.
The forcible reconnaissance of English squadrons had been completely prevented. The great day X could approach its fulfilment, undisturbed, unhindered, unobserved.”
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