Luftmensch

Six weeks later he was shot down. Reinhard dug up this fantastic report by Loibl of his capture:

Report by Lt.d.R. Loibl on his capture:

On 31 August 1916 I made a long-distance flight with Unteroffizier Busse as my pilot from bayer. Feldfliegerabteilung 4 b from Kowel to Kowno. The aircraft took a shot above Kowno and we had to make an emergency landing, as the cooling water was draining out of the tank and the motor was overheating.

We landed next to a single farm with the intention to repair the damage. Threatening the owner with a pistol, we gathered what we needed.

After we had been working for about an hour, we suddenly started receiving strong and effective fire in the right flank from a wood at a distance of about 300 m. We received several more rounds in the machine. Since fire from such a short distance would have quickly dispatched us, I had little time to react and quickly decided to take the machine gun and placed the wood under strong and continuous fire.

Russian soldiers in the wood had already formed up and approached us under cover and had occupied the edge of the wood. My strong machine gun fire silenced the Russian fire, which meant that nothing more was undertaken against us during the further 1 ? hours that we needed for the repair. When the motor was finally repaired, we taxied off and had to pass the dairy as the terrain left us no other choice. This is where the accident happened when a cow from a grazing herd took fright and ran onto the runway and just clipped the propeller and undercarriage, as we weren?t any higher. We crashed right next to the farm, and the soldiers and farmhands gathered there leapt on us and took us prisoner. This was at about 12 o?clock midday.

We were transported to Kowno in the evening.

I declare that this statement is made to the best of my knowledge and conscience.

Hans Loibl

Ltn.d.Res. a.D.

Personally I would have given Loibl a Plm for his coolness under fire but, then, I'm not the Kaiser and am probably a little biased. Reinhard, what was your source on this?

Loibl has a few photos of Russian troops in the field:

Included was a souvenir officer's board, probably from his counterpart in a Russian Artillery regiment.

Some close-ups:

Poellath etc. is stamped on the pin.

One week later he is awarded his Oberserver's badge, on June 15, 1916:

Loibl is awarded his EK II on October 28, 1914, with the Feldartillerie Reg't. No. 5:

His Bavarian Service Order 4, Cl. came a year later, after he passed the prelim. Artillery Observer course while on the rolls of the Feldartillerie Reg't. No. 9, and had just begun specialised Observer training with Flieger-Ersatz-Abteling No. 1:

This certificate attests to his fully fledged status as flying Observer, dated June 7, 1916, from the Bavarian Militar-Luft-und-Kraftfahr-Wesens, by which time he had already been months at the Front with Feldflieger Abt. 4.

Here is the Loibl group--minus the Litewka which is well-packed away against voracious moths, but it's your basic officer's type with Bavarian dicing and Flieger boards.

I only have three small photos of Loibl:

His service record, from a 1935 document:

Here is his Leutnant's patent:

John,

More importantly (at least to me), have you been able to discover Berger's first name? R.

Good question, Rick. I haven't done the research yet as I picked it up recently...

Outstanding work! you two. This is indeed my man. I will dig out everything I have this weekend and post it for you.

Best rgds

John, aka Aerowallah

P.S. I am amazed that after such a spirited defence the Russians took them prisoners at all.

Wow, I never considered that whole backstory AFTER Nov. 11, Dan. I'm going to dig out those camp newspapers and other tchotckes from Loibl. By the way, I misspoke to Stogie. I think I DO have some photos. (It'a a bad sign when you start confusing groups.) I recall now a photo from the POW camp of Russian officers in charge, one an air force officer wearing a Russian wing! I will start posting more items to flesh this out so check back...

Rgds

John

See what I can do Dan. I have to steal the camera back from my girlfriend...

Hi John, now that's a nice little group! Any photo of your man?

Thanks, all, for the compliments. I have everything, Stogie, BUT a photo. I have his Litewka, cased observers badge...everything including a complete set of POW camp newspapers, which are a bitch to read in Gothic script. Know any translators who do it for love...and not very much money?

Rgds

John

P.S. His camp mates gave him a nice chunk of quartz to commemorate their time together!

Then when he was released in 1920, he purchased his own EK 1 (the one the right).

Rgds

John

Here's a pair of crosses that tells a story.

Hans Loibl flew on the Eastern Front and was shot down and taken prisoner in 1916. A year later he got word in camp that he had been awarded the EK 1, so his fellow officers rigged up an EK 2 (the one on the left), added a little engraving, and presented it to him in a nice ceremony

Rgds

John

Chris and Chris, what's a "57er award"? Do you have a picture?

Rgds

P.S. The inside is interesting, too. There Berger stored little tchotchkes he took off his worthy friends and foes!

Stogie mentioned in an earlier thread something about custom, hand-made pilots badges. I've always wondered about this badge, which is full scale, but has a lot of extra detailing, especially stippling to the leaves.

Unfortunately I can't flip it over because it's attached to this Christmas present given to Lt. Berger in 1916.

If dies exist for this extra-detailed version, I wonder of any officers actually wore examples this finished.

Rgds

John

It is a funky pin/hinge. That's one reason why I thought it might be non-German manufacture. But if it's later, pre-1945 manufacture, then it's still original in my book. I'm amazed no one has a Turkish Turkish pilot out there to compare !

Helmut Weitze has a new Turkish flying badge in stock. Could it be a fabled Turkish-made piece? Looks a little ragged in construction but the enamel painting seems pretty meticulous...

Of course, that was his prerogative, too. But it wasn't really open season on German generals until 1944. I think Hitler, if he did order Bormann to back off Moelders, realized what an asset he would be in Russia--especially after Goering proved so worthless in the Battle of Britain. And whether he was assassinated or a victim of weather, I tend to subscribe to cock-ups over conspiracies in interpreting history!

Rgds

Purely on John's logical point, it makes NO sense for a presentation TO a dead man.

Yes, Don, these are the standard hallmarks on the silver pokal.

Vince, what do you mean by "one of the Moelders" examples? Can you be more specific? As for a posthumous presentation requiring good feelings on Hitler's part, look what he did publicly for Rommel. It's all for effect--JG 51 pilots sporting Moelders' cufftitles was good for morale.

I'll try to post my private purchase pilot by Monday...the veining on the leaves are in gold!

Rgds

Here's a nice selection of 100% textbook marks, all attributed to Juncker. Note how the crescent, the 800, etc are consistent across the board.........

As they say in Screenplay 101, "SHOW don't tell." Very eloquent, Stogie. Great demonstration.

Rgds

John

P.S. I think I have one of those custom made private purchase Junckers to show you. Will post when my camera guy gets his butt over--or I get my butt to the camera store...

Ouch...this is hard. Which of Jacques' are incused? The top middle one?

Here's mine again...