Albert Ball

Albert Ball VC, DSO & Two Bars, MC (14 August 1896 – 7 May 1917) was an English First World War fighter pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British or Commonwealth armed forces. At the time of his death, he was the leading Allied ace with 44 victories, second only to Germany ace Manfred Von Richthofen. He was the United Kingdom's fourth scoring ace, behind only Edward Mannock, James McCudden, and George McElroy.


Ball grew up in Nottingham, England before joining the Sherwood Foresters at the outbreak of the First World War. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in October 1914. In February 1916, he joined No. 13 Squadron RFC at Marieux in France, flying in reconnaissance missions before being transferred in May to a fighter squadron. From May through to his return to England in October he accrued a large number of aerial victories and two of his Distinguished Service Orders; he became the first fighter ace in England to capture the public's imagination. By April 1917, Ball was anxious for a return to action and he was transferred to No. 56 Squadron RFC which was posted to France on 7 April. Ball continued his impressive record of aerial victories before his final flight on 7 May, when he crashed to his death into a field in France.


On the evening of 7 May 1917 near Douai, eleven British aircraft from No. 56 Squadron led by Ball encountered German fighters from Jasta 11. A running dogfight in deteriorating visibility resulted, and the aircraft became scattered. Albert Ball was last seen by his fellow pilots pursuing the red Albatros D.III of Lothar von Richthofen. Richthofen landed near Annoeullin with a punctured fuel tank. Ball's squadron-mate Cyril Crowe last saw Ball flying into a dark thundercloud. A German pilot officer on the ground, Lieutenant Hailer, saw Ball's plane fall inverted from the bottom of the cloud with a dead prop, at an altitude of 200 feet; early model SE-5 engines could not run inverted. Hailer and his three companions hurried to the crash site. They saw no bullet holes in the wrecked plane. Richtofen was credited by the Germans with shooting Ball down; however there is some doubt as to what happened, especially as Richthofen's claim was for a Sopwith Triplane, not an SE.5, which was a biplane. Given the amount of propaganda the German high command generated touting the younger von Richthofen, there was probably a high level decision made to credit Ball's death to him. It is probable that Ball was not shot down at all, but had become disoriented and lost control during the aerial combat, a victim of a form of temporary vertigo that has claimed other pilots since.


A young French woman had pulled Ball from the wreckage, and he died in her arms of injuries suffered in the crash. A German doctor later described a broken back and a crushed chest, along with assorted lesser injuries. It was only at the end of May that the Germans dropped messages within Allied lines announcing that Ball was dead, and had been buried with full military honors.

Ball's confirmed victories were one balloon and 28 aircraft destroyed, including five planes in flames. He was also credited with six aircraft downed 'out of control', and nine 'forced to land'.

Werner Voss

Born in Krefeld, Voss was the youngest of three sons of an industrial dyer. In 1914 he enlisted at the age of 17 in the 2nd Westphalian Hussar Regiment Nr. 11, serving on the Eastern Front.

He transferred to the Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Service), learning to fly at Egelsberg. A gifted pilot, he was immediately enrolled as an instructor upon graduating, before finally departing to the front.

Voss served with Kampfstaffel 20 of Kampfgeschwader IV as an observer before he was allowed to fly as a pilot. He then transferred to scout aircraft and was posted to Oswald Boelcke's Jasta (Jagdstaffel) 2, where he flew as Manfred von Richthofen's wingman. He scored his first victory at the age of 18 on November 27, 1916. He was credited with 38 confirmed victories in his Albatros D.III scout aircraft decorated with a swastika and heart motifs (for good luck).

Voss was subsequently promoted to temporary commands at Jastas 5, 29, and 14, before moving to a permanent command at Jasta 10 in Richthofen's Jagdgeschwader I (JG I) (or the "Flying Circus" as it became called by the Allies). Voss was known as a loner and an inspirational, rather than effective, squadron leader.

Voss was shot down in an historic dogfight on September 23, 1917 in which he single-handedly engaged as many as eight Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s of 60 and 56 Squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps over Poelcappelle. The SE5s were flown by the Royal Flying Corps' top aces: James T.B. McCudden, Richard A. Maybery, Keith K. Muspratt, Reginald T.C. Hoidge, Arthur Rhys-Davids, Gerald Bowman, and Verschoyle P. Cronyn.

Using the triplane's superior rate of climb and its ability to slip turn (using the rudder to turn quickly), Voss continually outflew his opponents. He was able to turn at high speeds and attack those behind him. After flying past McCudden in a head-on confrontation, however, Voss's Fokker was pelted with bullets on his starboardside by the guns of Hoidge. One round pierced his right side and passed through his lungs.

Nearing death, Voss did not see Rhys Davids get on his 6. Rhys Davids opened fire as McCudden watched Voss go into a steep dive from which he never recovered. Recalled McCudden, "I saw him go into a fairly steep dive and so I continued to watch, and then saw the triplane hit the ground and disappear into a thousand fragments, for it seemed to me that it literally went into powder."

Werner Voss, crashed near Plum Farm north of Frezenberg in Belgium. Only the rudder, cowling, and parts of the undercarriage were salvaged; the aircraft was the subject of a report by 2nd Lieutenant G. Barfoot-Saunt.

Voss' decorations and awards include: the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, the Knights Cross with Swords of the Hohenzollern House Order, the Prussian Pilot Badge, and the Orden Pour le Mérite (the "Blue Max"). His final total was 48 confirmed victories.

Voss is one of 44,292 German soldiers buried in the Langemark German war cemetery, some 6 km northeast of Ypres, Belgium.