Jagdstaffel 2 ‘Boelcke’

Debut over the Somme

It is likely that everyone with an interest in aviation history has heard of Rittmeister Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen - known as the 'Red Baron', and the top-scoring fighter ace of World War 1 with 80 victories. Almost as famous is Jagdstaffel 11, the fighter squadron he commanded, usually abbreviated as Jasta 11. Von Richthofen would not have become as successful without the training he received while serving under the man he regarded as his mentor and the Father of German Fighter Aviation - Hptm Oswald Boelcke. Von Richthofen began his career as a fighter pilot in Boelcke's Jasta 2, and it was under Boelcke's careful and demanding tutelage that he honed his skills.

After Boelcke's death, the unit that he had commanded was officially re-named Jasta 'Boelcke' in his honour. The Staffel continued to serve through frustrating periods of failure and mediocrity as well as great success, and finished the conflict with a record of accomplishment and prestige second to none.

The story of Jasta 2 is intertwined with that of its first commander. On 19 May 1891, Oswald Boelcke was born in Giebichenstein, a suburb of Halle an der Saale in Prussia. He was the fourth son of a professor who was rector at the German Lutheran school at the time Oswald was born. When the boy was four the family moved to Dessau, capital city of the duchy of Anhalt. Boelcke contracted whooping cough as a youth, but built up his strength and stamina through strenuous participation in such sports as rowing, swimming and gymnastics. Nonetheless, he suffered from asthma for the rest of his life. Boelcke's interest in mechanics influenced his entrance as a fahnenjunker, or officer cadet, in Telegraphen-Bataillon Nr 3 in Koblenz during March 1911.

By June 1914, as war loomed on the horizon, Oswald had followed his elder brother Wilhelm into the aviation service and started his pilot training. Wilhelm duly became an observer in two-seater reconnaissance formation Feldflieger Abteilung (F Fl Abt) 13 after the war broke out. He managed to have Oswald sent to his unit, and the two formed a highly successful team. In April 1915 Ltn Oswald Boelcke was posted to the newly formed F Fl Abt 62, along with a Saxon flier named Max Immelmann. The unit was based at Pont Faverger, near Douai in France.

On 4 July 1915, Boelcke was piloting an Albatros C I two-seater equipped with a machine gun for his observer, Ltn von Wühlisch, when the pair attacked a French Morane two-seater. Boelcke carefully positioned his aircraft so as to give von Wühlisch the best possible chance of shooting their opponent down. Struck by a series of well aimed bursts, the Morane crashed behind German lines. As a direct result of this engagement, Boelcke was subsequently given a better aircraft to fly in combat.