December 27, 1916
Air War:
1115 English ace John Quested, flying FE.2b 7666 with Lt H.J. Dicksee as observer, shoots down an Albatros D.I for victory number 7. German 9-kill ace Gustav Leffers is killed.
1120 Austrian pilot Augustin Novak, flying Hansa-Brandenburg C.I 27.01 with Alexander Souhrada as observer, shoots down a Farman two-seater for victory number 1.
1145 French ace Georges Guynemer, in a SPAD VII, shoots down an Albatros (single or two-seat unknown) for victory number 25.
1220 German pilot Wilhelm Cymera, in an Albatros D.II, shoots down FE.2b 7666 for victory number 1. English ace John Quested manages to land his plane safely behind his own lines. Due to the time difference in the logs, this is actually 1120 British time, or five minutes after Quested and Dicksee shot down Gustav Leffers.
1225 English Ace Selden Long, in DH.2 7930, shoots down an Albatros D.II for victory number 6.
1355 French ace Alfred Heurtaux, in a SPAD VII, shoots down a Rumpler two-seater for victory number 16.
1515 Augustin Novak flies a second mission with August Kosutic as bomber. They are attacked by two Farmans and shoot them both down. Novak now has 3 victories and Kosutic 2.
1625 German ace Manfred von Richthofen, flying Albatros D.II 491/16, claims a plane shot down for victory number 15, but there is some confusion over this claim. According to Richthofen:
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At 1615, five planes of our staffel attacked enemy squadron south of Arras. The enemy approached our lines, but was thrown back. After some fighting I managed to attack a very courageously flown Vickers two-seater. After 300 shots, enemy plane began dropping, uncontrolled. I pursued the plane up to 1,000 metres above the ground. Enemy plane crashed to ground on enemy side, one kilometre behind trenches near Ficheaux.
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The problem is that the only FE.2 confirmed to have been downed was that of Quested and Dicksee, and they were definitely brought down by Cymera. An interesting connection is the log of James McCudden, flying a DH.2:
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Going east of Arras I saw five HA (Hostile Aircraft). Lt Jennings attacked an HA and another HA was approaching from behind. I fired about 15 shots and drove him off. He turned and came towards me firing. I opened fire at 100 yards and after about eight shots my gun stopped, due to cross feed. As the hostile machine was engaging me at close range, I turned on my back and dived vertically, in a slow spin and in this way regained our lines. At 800 feet over Basseaux the HA left me. I quickly rectified the stoppage and followed the HA across the trenches at 2,000 feet. Owing to his superior speed and climb he out distanced me and rejoined his patrol at about 5,000 feet. The hostile patrol then withdrew.
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Captain Harold James Payn was part of the British patrol and reported having seen McCudden going down, apparently out of control. Payn thought McCudden was dead, and was surprised when he returned unharmed. Richthofen's "kill" was confirmed by some German AA gunners who may have mistaken another fight involving some BE.2s with Richthofen's fight with the DH.2s, both of which are pushers. Richthofen had also suffered a disappointment when he reached the magic number '8' for the Pour le Merite right after the Powers That Be had raised the requirement to 16 victories. Whatever the reason, it seems that his number 15 was not actually a "kill" at all.
Under the Guns of the Red Baron, Norman Franks, Hal Giblin and Nigel McCrery
1810 French aircrew Jean Loste, Lt P. Barbeau and Louis Martin, in a three-seat Caudron, shoot down an "Enemy Aircraft". Victory number 6 for Loste, 3 for Barbeau and 5 for Martin.
French pilot Jan Derode, in a Nieuport, shoots down an "Enemy Aircraft" for victory number 2.
German pilot Rudolf von Eschwege, in a Fokker E.III, shoots down Farman F31131 for victory number 2. Von Eschwege is the only German pilot flying on the Macedonian (Greek) front, and will become known as "The Eagle of the Aegean".
French pilots Marcel Hauss and Adj Balin, in Nieuports, team up to brong down an inidentified fighter. Victory number 1 for both.
Russian pilot Ivan Loiko, in a Nieuport 11, shoots down a Hansa-Brandenburg C.I for victory number 2.
English Channel:
Heinrich Jeß, commanding
U-79, sinks two ships at the west end of the Channel:
British freighter SS
Copsewood, 599 tons, bound from Bordeaux for Middlesbrough with a load of pit props.
Norwegian freighter SS
Ida, 1,300 tons, carrying a load of fruit from Valencia to Liverpool.
Jeß's score is now 4 ships and 7,785 tons.
Bay of Biscay:
Alfred Saalwächter, in
U-46, sinks two Allied ships off El Ferrol, Spain:
British freighter SS
Aislaby, 2,692 tons, travelling in ballast from Lisbon to Bilbao.
French trawler
Goulfar, 259 tons. Goulfar had been captured on the 24th and used as a prison boat.
Saalwächter ends his first patrol with 9 ships and 15,502 tons.
Portugal:
Robert Springer begins his career in
UC-34 with the sinking of French schooner
Maud, 176 tons, bound from La Pallice for Lisbon.
Mediterranean Sea:
Wolfgang Steinbauer, in
UB-47, torpedoes French battleship
Gaulois, 11,100 tons, bringing his score to 13 ships and 54,410 tons.