The real Willy Kahle?

[saxon lions]

There is a German ace where the information in 'Above the Lines' (despite being written over 2 decades ago still the best source of info on German WWI aces, but now with all the new information available starting to show its age) appears to be very wrong.

The ace in question is Sgt. Willy Kahle, according to ATL he was born 18/04/92 in Tarff in Sans, and initially joined KP HR Nr 5 in 1911 before joining the Air Service in 1917 doing his initial training at Grossenhain Saxony before eventually joining Jasta 27 where he scored 6 victories between 2 Sep and 4 Nov 1918.

However there appears to be 2 Problems with the information.

1. There is no such places as Tarff or Sans the closest German match I have managed to find is Tarp in Schleswig, but then he joined the 5th Hussars in W. Prussia which would imply he was living reasonably close to the recruitment area for this unit. However most pilots appear to have done their Air Service training at a base reasonably close to where they lived so why was he trained in Saxony not W. Prussia.

A second possibility is that Sans is an unintended corruption of the abbreviations Sa/SA = Saxony, Sa.m/SA.M = Saxe Meiningen or Sa.w/SA.W = Saxe Weimar. This would quite easily be possible if the original texts the authors worked from were in old German, and while this still does not explain Tarff it may explain his training in Grossenhain

2. I have recently discovered that a Sgt. Willy Kahle born 06/09/82 in Debschwitz was seriously wounded on 17/06/18 (V 1918-07-20) and subsequently died of his wounds probably that day although his death was not reported in Verlustllisten until 1919-07-04 Interestingly 'Casualties of the German Air Service lists him as being a pilot with Jasta 27 along side two other casualties that day from the Jasta killed in a British air raid. However the listing for his death (V 1919-07-04) states he was in another branch of the Air Service - Frontwetterwarte Nr 316 (Front Weather Watch No 316). It is possible that he was attached to Jasta 27 where he received his fatal wounds, although it is strange he died at Sailly sur la Lys not Mont Soissons Ferme as the others, but this may be because he died subsequently in a Field Hospital not at the time of his wounding.

The really interesting fact about Sgt Willy Kahle from Debschwitz for which I am indebted to Thorsten Pietsch for his Regiments-Kameraden list. This lists this Sgt. Kahle's original unit as strangely KP HR Nr 5 the same unit as the other Sgt Kahle from Tarff in Sans. Clearly whilst these do not appear to be the same man yet is it possible their previous records have been confusedand Willy Kahle the ace did not serve in KP HR Nr 5

Also Greg van's book 'Jagdgeschwader Nr III' states that the unit log for the latter stages of the war went missing and was rewritten later which may have added to this mystery and also presented the opportunity to write the Jewish 'ace' Fritz Beckhardt out of the units history.

I would be indebted if any of the Foum's experts could throw some light in to solving the mystery