Involvement in World War 1
Buddecke was sent to the Western Front in September 1914. Initially he flew as an observer but soon he would become a single-seater fighter pilot with FFA 23. Because of his previous experience on monoplanes, Buddecke's good friend, Rudolph Berthold, suggested that he should fly the first of the Fokker Eindecker aircraft delivered to the unit. Buddecke and Berhold, flying the Eindecker and a AEG G.II, respectively, formed a small Kampfstaffel within the unit, intercepting British reconnaissance aircraft. Buddecke scored his first three victories during this assignment.
Buddecke scored his and the new unit's first victory on 19 September 1915; a B.E.2c of No 8 Squadron RFC, crewed by pilot Lt WH Nixon and observer Capt JNS Stott. Opening fire from 200 meters he disabled the observer's machine gun, although Captain Stott then returned fire with a pocket pistol. It was shot out of his hands at a range of ten meters and Nixon was hit. Buddecke's gun then jammed when its cartridge belt tore in the slipstream. As Buddecke struggled with the jammed gun, Stott clambered atop the shoulders of his dying pilot, set his heels on the pilot's knees to operate the rudder and bent forward to grab the controls. Buddecke cleared his gun and aimed at the British observer's yellow leather coat. The BE.2c crash landed near Saint Quentin. Buddecke drove to the wreck after landing, where the uninjured captive Stott showed him the bullet holes in his coat. Buddecke followed this up with confirmed claims on 23 October (a B.E.2 of No. 13 Squadron RFC, with Capt CH Marks and Lt WG Lawrence-the brother of TE Lawrence,of Arabian fame-both killed) and 11 November and an unconfirmed victory on 6 December 1915.
He was then sent to Gallipoli to fly the Halberstadt D.II and Fokker E.III with Ottoman FA 6 against the Royal Naval Air Service. After a successful campaign in Turkey, with four victories confirmed and seven unconfirmed, Buddecke was recalled to the Western Front in late August 1916 as leader of the newly formed Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 4.
After three kills during September, he again left for Turkey to fly with Ottoman FA 5. By early 1918 he was back in France with Royal Prussian Jasta 30, before switching to Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 18.
Within a few days Buddecke was killed during an aerial combat above Lens, France on 10 March 1918, victim to Sopwith Camels of 3 Naval Squadron RNAS. Hans-Joachim Buddecke is buried at the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin.
Read more about this topic: Hans-Joachim Buddecke
Famous quotes containing the words involvement in, involvement, world and/or war:
“The mother whose self-image is dependent on her children places on those children the responsibility for her own identity, and her involvement in the details of their lives can put great pressure on the children. A child suffers when everything he or she does is extremely important to a parent; this kind of over-involvement can turn even a small problem into a crisis.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“Not only do our wives need support, but our children need our deep involvement in their lives. If this period [the early years] of primitive needs and primitive caretaking passes without us, it is lost forever. We can be involved in other ways, but never again on this profoundly intimate level.”
—Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)
“What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.”
—Wendell Phillips (1811–1884)
“This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)