June 17, 1916
Air War:
1130 Three FE.2bs share a victory over an Eindecker. Horace Davey and J.B. Hinchlciffe in 5209, Lancelot Lytton Richardson and M.V. Lewes in 6337, and J.R.B. Savage and AM2 Robinson in 5201. For future aces Davey and Richardson these are kills number 2 and 1 respectively.
1825 Alan Wilkinson, flying D.H.2 5966, shoots down an Eindecker for vicory number 3.
1900 Wilkinson brings down an Albatros two-seater for number 4.
Sometime during this day a confused battle takes place over the trenches:
French ace Jean Navarre, in Nieuport 16 1130, and pilot Georges d'Oisy, in a Nieuport 11, claim an Eindecker. Victory number 12 for Navarre and number 4 for d'Oisy.
German pilot Walter Höhndorf claims a Nieuport for victory number 5. This may have been Navarre, who suffered a career-ending wound on this date, or it may have been American pilot Victor Chapman, flying a Nieuport 11 with N124 (The "Escadrille Americaine"). In a letter to Chapman's brother Paul, Kiffin Rockwell writes:
Quote:
|
He has been a little too courageous and got me into one of the mess-ups because I couldn't stand back and see him get it alone. He was attacking all the time, without paying much attention. He did the same thing this morning and wouldn't come home when the rest of us did. The result was that he attacked one German, when a Fokker which we think was Boelcke, got full on Chapman's back, shot his machine to pieces and wounded Chapman in the head.
|
Boelcke was nowhere near this action, and Höhndorf was the only German pilot claiming a Nieuport. If it was Chapman, who shot Navarre? If it was Navarre, who shot Chapman? In both cases the pilot was able to make a safe return home, so in modern scoring methods wouldn't count as a "kill" anyway.
German ace Kurt Wintgens, in a Fokker E.IV, shoots down a Farman two-seater from MF70 in flames for victory number 6. Lt. Brunel and SLt Pierre Hemand are killed.
Wintgens wrote a colorful description of the combat:
Quote:
I was a wonderful fight. It exploded marvelously. He was already behind the French lines when the pilot, who hung dead over the right side, apparently touched the rudder in some way. The machine turned and fell burning into the German lines, greeted by a thunderous hurrah from the whole of the front.
A couple of hundred meters next to me, Höhndorf fought a Nieuport. The French thereupon wrote in their announcement: "In Lorraine, four of oour machines gave battle to four Fokkers. Two of the latter fell down, one of them afire. One of our machines had to land."
The one who fell in flames was supposed to be me. I had rather slid down somewhat, but as an old hand at stunt flying, had flattened out elegantly over the French lines. The flames mentioned where those of my opponent, whose landing took place at a negative angle.
|
Wintgens also records that his 160-hp engine took a bullet and was going to the factory for repairs.
English Channel:
British ketch
Charlotte Sophia, 66 tons, is reported lost this date near the Isle of Wight.
Mediterranean Sea:
Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, commanding
U-35, has moved westward from Corsica, where he sinks Italian freighter SS
Poviga, 3,360 tons, bound from Norfolk for Genoa with a load of coal. His score is now 26 ships and 62,588 tons.
Italian vessel
Francesco Padre is reported sunk by a German submarine. There are no details from German sources as to who this mystery u-boat may have been, and none from Italian sources concerning the size, type of ship, route, or cargo.
Quotes are from Sharks Among Minnows, by Norman Franks.