Internationale Orden & militaerhistorische Sammlungsstuecke

| 327 Lieutenant Hermann Göring – his flight book III as pilot on the FFA 25 from 20 February 1916 to 9 August 1916 Detailed description in Göring’s own hand of a total of 95 flights as pilot on the FFA 25 aircraft. Lined booklet size A5 with pre-printed pages for flight dates, weather conditions, photographs, flight routes or hit results of dropped bombs. Meticulously filled in by Göring with pencil, some entries emphasised with red or blue indelible pencil, the last page written in ink. Starting on “20./II. 1916” with a positioning flight (tr.) “Flying the A.E.G. large aircraft G49 fromMetz to the F.Fl.A. 25”, on 21 February (tr.) “Battle of Verdun! Dynamic and tactical reconnaissance in the north-eastern section of Verdun – 1st day of battle”. Further reconnais- sance flights on a G 49 followed, on 14 March 1916 (tr.) “Taking photo- graphs near Douaumont, reconnaissance” he fought an “Air combat at 11:30 a.m. against three French large aircraft (Caudron with 2 engines) and forced one of them to land in our line (south-eastern front Bois Hau- mont). [..] Acknowledged by the Chief of Staff as 2nd successful air com- bat.”. Included is a newspaper clip with the German daily report by the Supreme Army Command (tr.: “A French large aircraft crashed above Haumont after an air combat”). On 15 March (tr.) “Combat against 3 Nieuport de Chasse [..] Right engine burned out”. On 27 April (tr.) “Combat against two hostile Caudron large aircraft, fended off one of them– under heavy fire fromhostile artillery above Verdun”. On 30 April (tr.) “Trying out the G 54 [..] Tried out machine with a cargo load of 1,000 kg. Engines not good 2x220 PS Merc. engines with gear reduction. [.] At a height of 2,800 metres, the left engine caught fire during the glid- ing flight. Flames 3 to 4 metres high shot out of the exhaust pipe.”. On 1 June (tr.) “Air combat with large Nieuport above Verdun. I attacked from above [.] with heavy M.G. (worked perfectly). Nieuport swerved around in front of me, took a steep bend and went down several 100 me- tres so that I was no longer able to follow.”. On 9 July, after a further re- connaissance flight on the G 149 (tr.) “Handed over G 149 to NCOHein” and on 10 July headline (tr.) “Activity as a fighter pilot!” in blue indelible pencil. Henceforth he flew the Halberstadt single-seater fighter D115 and was commandeered to the Fokker Squadron Jametz-South. On 15 July (tr.) “8:50 a.m. air combat with Voisin. After firing off 500 shots he 4429 crashed in the clouds. That is where I lost him. [.] Not acknowledged by Chief of Staff”. On 29 July (tr.) “East of (??)wald hostile squadron (2 Nieuports 2 Breguets) attacked froma height of 4,600metres. Jammed guns after 2 shots”. On 30 July (tr.) “Combat against hostile squadron with five single-seaters – 10:35 a.m. combat against 8 Caudrons, one damaged, fended off others. – 10:45 a.m. [.] Caudron [.] crashed. (1st re- port) – 10:50 a.m. managed now to fend off entire squadron – acknowl- edged by Chief of Staff as third victorious air combat”. On the last page he explains that because the bow protection was shot to pieces on 9 Au- gust 1916 (tr.: “One shot grazed my leather jacket on the left upper arm”) and, moreover, the wrong replacement was ordered by mistake, he was unable to participate in air combat for 27 days as of 9 August: (tr.) “The enemy achieved this with one single shot”. Hard cover binding, with handwritten caption (tr.) “Lieutenant Göring – pilot F.Fl.A. 25 – A.O.K. 5” and number “III” in red indelible pencil. Pilot logbooks from World War I are very rare, and not all of them were written with such meticulous precision and love of detail. Moreover, Hermann Göring’s logbooks are of utmost historic significance, for his unemotional and matter-of-fact descriptions give an idea of his bravery and recklessness that many biographers have elaborated on. HermannGöring, lieutenant as of January 1914, started his training as an observer on 13 October 1914 in the Replacement Detachment 3, which ended on 27 October. From 28 October until 29 June 1915, he flew on the FFA 25 as observer together with Lt. Loerzer and on 30 June 1915, he started his pilot training in Freiburg, which he finished on 14 Septem- ber to return to the FFA 25. Only four days later his first flight as a pilot took place. On 16 November 1915, he achieved his first aerial victory acknowledged by the Chief of Staff after having crashed a Farman aircraft (tr.) “in the area of Beauséjour”. P rovenance : From the estate of Carin Göring, who owned numerous early documents of Hermann Göring that remained in family posses- sion after her death. C f . also the logbooks numbers “I” and “II”, Hermann Historica, 58th auction in October 2009, lots 810 and 811, respectively. 280532 II € 4.000