Description
This is a newspaper from June 1916. The headline boldly announces Oswald Boelcke’s 19th victory. Boelcke had been awarded the Orden Pour le Mérite in January 1916, along with Max Immelmann. Boelcke’s 19th victory actually took place on 27 June 1916. His victim was a French Nieuport. Number 19 is important, as it was his last in FA 62. [Max Immelmann, who achieved fifteen total victories, had fallen eleven days earlier on 18 June 1916. Boelcke then became the “ace of aces.” His final score of forty victories was not surpassed until 13 April 1917 when Manfred von Richthofen, Boelcke’s pupil, achieved forty-one victories]. All nineteen of Boelcke’s victories up to 27 June 1916 had taken place in FA 62. It is historically important to note that Boelcke’s next victory took place on 2 September 1916, after he had assumed Jasta 2’s command. It was a result of changes he had instituted, using dedicated squadrons of single-seater aircraft, which we call fighter planes today. The front page deals with other war news. The four-page Berlin paper is filled with articles and maps of the action. Page four has some interesting advertisements, including the “Herzog Ernst August Constantin-Cigarette,” and an ad for a 100,000-Mark lottery. It is an interesting piece of history.
