Leutnant Willi Rosenstein

[ottoman]

Hello,

On 27 Oct 1918, Leutnant Willi Rosenstein from Jasta 40 shot a Sopwith Camel down at Wynghene. Can anyone tell who was the pilot of the Sopwith camel or give me more information about this event.

Best regards

Lieven

[Regulus]

Hi

Probably a 204 Sqdn plane, hard to say who, as several of them got lost that day in combat with in between 30 and 40 Fokker DVII's, in which the Marine Feldjasta's were involved as well as Jasta 40.
Some say this may have been E4387 with 2nd Lt PF Cormack but there were 4 planes lost by the unit that day and one pilot wounded.

Best regards,

Johan

[ottoman]

Thank you very much Johan.

Do you know of anymore planes that crashed in Wingene?

Best regards

Lieven

[Lawrence Milner]

Originally Posted by ottoman

Hello,

On 27 Oct 1918, Leutnant Willi Rosenstein from Jasta 40 shot a Sopwith Camel down at Wynghene. Can anyone tell who was the pilot of the Sopwith camel or give me more information about this event.

Best regards

Lieven

Hi,

The only information regarding this engagement on the 27th Oct., 1918 that I can supply is this was confirmed by Kogluft Nr. 137400 as the 49th victory of Jasta 40, dated 6th January.

By the way the correct spelling is 'Willy' - Willi is an abbreviation of Wilhelm but Willy was the name given to him by his parents and his son was Ernst Willy Rosenstein. Degelow his C.O. also miss-spelled it in his first biography but not in his second (Peter Kilduff).

Best regards,

Lawrence

[ottoman]

Thank you for the information Lawrence.

I'm a theacher from Wingene. Together with my students, we are building a German Albatros Dva airplane on scale 1/3.

This is to commemorate the german airfield that was based in Wynghene during WW1.The airplane is a replica of N° 11 from Jasta 37. This was flown by Feldwebel Walter Horn.

It will be placed at the market place of Wingene on 11 Novembre 2014.

It's probably the only monument dedicated to the German airforce of WW1 in Belgium.

Any information about pilots, units that where in wynghene are very welcome.

Regards Lieven

[R Gannon]

Hi Ottoman

Just some extra visibility. As I have it a 16 strong 204 Sqn patrol tangled with a reported 30 to 40 EA south of Ghent at 0910BT. As stated by Johan, they lost four pilots, and indeed there were four claims by Js 40 and MFJ 2, but I don't see drawing upon the available data, how one could say who actually got who. In addition to 2Lt PF Cormac, the other losses were Lt AJ Ross and 2Lt HG Murray (all three mia & kia) along with 2Lt N Smith pow. But I do not believe it was completely one sided, as 204 Sqn pilots claimed six of the Fokkers; one in flames, three crashed and two OOC.

Cheers Russ

[Lawrence Milner]

Originally Posted by ottoman

Thank you for the information Lawrence.

I'm a theacher from Wingene. Together with my students, we are building a German Albatros Dva airplane on scale 1/3.

This is to commemorate the german airfield that was based in Wynghene during WW1.The airplane is a replica of N° 11 from Jasta 37. This was flown by Feldwebel Walter Horn.

It will be placed at the market place of Wingene on 11 Novembre 2014.

It's probably the only monument dedicated to the German airforce of WW1 in Belgium.

Any information about pilots, units that where in wynghene are very welcome.

Regards Lieven

Hi Lieven,

I am very impressed with you and your student's efforts in building the replica Albatros for the market place of Wingene.

Carl Degelow the O.C. of Jasta 40 is stated to have had a victory 'over front lines' Wynghene airfield 8.10.18 Sopwith Camel D.3382 1F.1 2/Lt R.W. Hopper 210 Sqn. RAF (POW). Peter Kilduff. It is not clear that this action occurred over Winghene(English spelling).

Until I came across your enquiry re Lt. Rosenstein the position of the downing of the aircraft by him on the 27th October, 1918 was always left blank - I would be obliged if you would kindly name your source of information regarding this as it is important that I am able to acknowledge this fact.

You may be interested to know that I frequently convey Col. Charles Huyghé
who fought in the 2nd WW in the Belgian Army in 1940 and was wounded and captured by the German Army and escaped in 1941 and returned to Belgium and joined the Resistance and escaped to England in 1944 and joined the RAF. He was invested with the decoration of Knight of the Order of Leopold by the Belgian Ambassador to South Africa on behalf of King Albert 11 of Belgium on 22nd November 2004.

Best regards,

Lawrence

[ottoman]

Hi Lawrence.

My source about Willy Rosenstein is: Guttman-J-2012-Naval Aces of WorldWar1 and the site: Jewish knights of the air.

Is it Possible that Col. Charles Huyghé was detached to the minister of defense in Katanga (Congo)?

Best regards Lieven

And also thank you Russ for the extra information.

[R Gannon]

Guys

Just for the record, I would not subscribe to 210 Sqn's 2Lt Hopper pow as being downed by Js 40's SF Ltn Degelow. I feel claim loss data shows that Hopper along with fellow 210 Sqn pilot Lt CF Pineau (also pow) were almost certainly downed by Js 51's Ltn Berr & Lt Plauth, an action in which Berr had to bale out.

The Degelow claim was over Ypres, then well over the British side, with no matching loss.

I feel the Wynghene angle is that Js 40 and very likely Js 7, Js 20 & Js 51 were all flying out of Wynghene airfield in the early part of Oct 18, after having been forced to vacate their earlier aerodrome, which would have become untenable following British Second Army offensive 28 Sep - 3 Oct. I write this because the Jasta airfield listing (I believe compiled by the venerable Dr Bock) in Jasta Pilots has the latter three JdGp 6 units based at Menin until the end of hostilities, which is clearly in error, as the British front line pm on 3 Oct 18 was only 3 km shy of Menin (it was occupied on 16 Oct on the third day of the next push). Js 40 is listed as moving back to Wyngene 10 Oct and staying there until 22 Oct 18, and I would suspect much the same for the other three. Indeed official data pertaining to Josef Jacobs the SF of Js 7 states they were flying out of Wynghene on 19 Oct. See C&C Int Vol 25 #3 p131.

Cheers Russ

And just as an aside I believe the said Jacobs' data has been misdated, and should read 14 Oct not 19 Oct. Happy to explain if anyone is interested.

['14-'18aviationcollector]

Hi Russ,

I am very interested to hear why you believe the data has been misdated.

Regards,

David.