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Lt. Wolff killed

Event ID: 429

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Jan Hayzlett Hunting With Richthofen: the Bodenschatz diaries

15 September 1917

50.84890767354939, 16.476310886960174
Władysława Sikorskiego 19, 58-105 Świdnica, Polen
Swidnica
Schweidnitz

Source ID: 16

Jan Hayzlett Hunting With Richthofen: the Bodenschatz diaries p.   

“Three days later, on 15 September, Rittmeister von Richthofen receives a telegram in Schweidnitz, his Silesian home town. It was from his fighter squadron and read:

‘First Lieutenant Wolff killed in air combat north of Wervicq.’

After Dostler, now Wolff! How close this loss was to Richthofen’s heart can be seen from the obituary he had published in two Memel newspapers, the home of Wolff, in the Kreuzzeitung and in the Militärwochenblatt.

“On 15 September 1917, the Royal Prussian First Lieutenant Kurt Wollf, Knight of the Order Pour le mérite, died a hero’s death for his fatherland after a fierce air battle.

It is with deep sorrow that the squadron and with it the entire air force stand at the all-too-early grave of a leader who was tried and tested in chivalrous combat and who led his valiant flock from victory to victory. He sacrificed his young life not in forced defence, but in self-chosen ruthless attack.

With his friendly nature and quiet modesty, he was one of our dearest and best comrades. He will live on in the history of the squadron for all time as a model of soldierly youth, as an example that only the most capable set.”

It had affected him deeply. The ‘delicate little flower’, who was a berserker in battle, had given his life and a man full of cheerfulness, kindness and nameless modesty had been extinguished.”

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