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Oswald Boelcke PlM (German:; 19 May 1891 – 28 October 1916) was a World War I German professional soldier and pioneering flying ace credited with 40 aerial victories. Boelcke is honored as the father of the German fighter air force, and of air combat as a whole.
The Dicta Boelcke is a list of fundamental aerial maneuvers of aerial combat formulated by First World War German flying ace Oswald Boelcke. Equipped with one of the first fighter aircraft, Boelcke became Germany's foremost flying ace during 1915 and 1916.
After serving in a bomber unit, he was transferred to Germany's first fighter squadron Jagdstaffel 2. During Böhme's combat career, he was a friend and eventual subordinate to Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. He was also friend, subordinate, and wingman to Germany's leading ace of the time, Oswald Boelcke. Böhme was inadvertently ...
July 6 – The German ace Leutnant Oswald Boelcke claims his first victory, a Blériot Parasol, while flying an Albatros C.I two-seater with Leutnant von Wühlisch as the observer and gunner. July 19 – Flying a Morane-Saulnier L monoplane named Vieux Charles , the French ace Georges Guynemer scores the first of his 54 victories, shooting down ...
The successes of such German ace pilots as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, and especially Manfred von Richthofen, the most victorious fighter pilot of the First World War, were well-publicized for the benefit of civilian morale, and the Pour le Mérite, Prussia's highest award for gallantry, became part of the uniform of a leading German ace.
Boelcke was visiting the east in search of candidates for his newly formed Jasta 2, and he selected Richthofen to join this unit, one of the first German fighter squadrons. [22] Boelcke was killed during a midair collision with a friendly aircraft on 28 October 1916, and Richthofen witnessed the event. [22]
The term ace (now commonly flying ace) was first used by French newspapers during World War I, describing Adolphe Pégoud as l'as ('the ace'), after he downed five German aircraft. When aircraft began to shoot or force down other aircraft, systems to count "air victories" were subsequently developed.
The German ace Oswald Boelcke created eight essential rules of dogfighting, the Dicta Boelcke. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] Both sides also made use of aircraft for bombing , strafing , maritime reconnaissance , antisubmarine warfare , and the dropping of propaganda .