Heinrich Claudius Kroll was born in the village of Flatzby (near Flensburg) on November 3, 1894. Kroll wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and become a teacher. He passed his examinations at Kiel and was being credentialed as a teacher when the First World War started.
Still in his teens, Kroll volunteered for service in the Queen Augusta Victoria Infantry Regiment, Fusilier Regiment Number 86, on August 6, 1914 in Flensburg. From there, he transferred to the Reserve Regiment Number 92. Kroll eventually earned the Iron Cross, Second Class and became a commissioned officer in May 1915. Eight months later, he applied for a transfer to the air service.
THE OFFICER PILOT
Kroll trained with Replacement Division 3 at Gotha. He then went to Flieger-Abteilung 17 (based at Rethel, France) to fly the Rumpler C.I. Kroll held the distinction of being the only officer pilot in Flieger-Abteilung 17. In the early days of aviation reconnaissance, the observer was an officer; the pilot a non-commissioned “chauffeur”. Following this practice, Kroll’s observer was one Lieutenant Holzhausen.
In October 1916, two new Albatros fighters were assigned to the unit, and Kroll occasionally flew one of the machines. The unit was reorganized into Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 9, which began operating Fokker E.IIIs.
On February 12, 1917, Kroll was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. It was around this time that Kroll wrote about the difficulty of confirming victories:
“It is difficult to get confirmation of a victory–especially the first one! It must be confirmed by our own ground troops … this is even more difficult if hazy conditions prevail.”
After being shot down and forced to land by a Caudron in November 1916, Kroll promptly returned to the skies. He earned his first victory on the first of May 1917, grounding a Spad. Kroll downed four more Spads that same month, with his fifth victory being one of the most significant.
On May 25th, Kroll shot down and killed the man who was (at that time) the second highest scoring ace in the French Air Force, René Dorme. As Kroll stated in his diary, the two pilots had locked in a circling dogfight beginning at 5,300 meters (about 17,400 feet), soon diving down to 800 meters (about 2600 feet). Spad suddenly nosed over and barreled straight into the ground, bursting into flames upon impact. Dorme’s body was so disfigured, it could only be identified by his watch!
THE COMMANDER
The victory over Dorme was influential… in that Kroll was appointed commanding officer of the Royal Saxon Jasta 24 on the first of July 1917. He would command this unit (with brief respites) until three months before the end of the war.
Kroll would score one victory that same month (July 20th). Exactly one week later, he was shot down in flames by Captain Clive W. Warman of Number 23 Squadron. Warman’s machine gun blast set Kroll’s carburetor on fire. However, Kroll killed the engine to starve the flames, tore off his oily goggles so he could still see, and landed dead stick, trailing telephone wires. He escaped from the wreck without injury!
On September 12, 1917 (with his score at twelve), Kroll received the first Pfalz D.III assigned to his Jasta. Compared to his Albatros D.V (marked with a taijitu on a tan background), he considered the Pfalz to be an inferior performer. It was slower in speed and climbing ability, but the Pfalz was faster in a dive. Nevertheless, Kroll ended the year by scoring his fifteenth victory on December 4, 1917.
However, this new plane nearly ended his life!
After Kroll shot down a Bristol F.2b fighter for victory number seventeen on January 25, 1918, the rear spar of his Pfalz broke, badly tearing the left aileron… which almost separated from the craft! It took all of his skill to land the plane safely. Kroll then took his complaint to higher authorities, which gained him a promise of three Fokker Dr.Is for his Jasta (but nothing else). For the next four months, Kroll and his Jasta suffered with the troublesome Pfalzes until the new Fokker D.VII arrived.
Kroll earned victory number twenty on February 18th. That landmark achievement earned him the Knight’s Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern. It also made Kroll eligible for Germany’s highest military honor, the coveted Pour le Merite. His “Blue Max” duly arrived on March 29, 1918.
On May 25th, the Royal Saxon Jasta 24 finally received the new Fokker D.VIIs. Around the same time, Kroll also became the commander of Jagdgruppe 12… which consisted of his Jasta 24 and Jastas 44 and 79b. He continued as the leading ace of Jasta 24, steadily racking up scores (mostly against enemy fighters). On August 9, 1918, Kroll downed an SE-5a for his 33rd and final victory. Five days later, he was seriously wounded in the left shoulder… so much so that he never again flew in action.
The twenty-eight victories Kroll scored with Jasta 24 made up almost a third of its ninety claims; he and Friedrich Altemeier combined for over half the squadron wins. Despite being handicapped by the poorly-built Pfalz, the Jasta under Kroll’s leadership had suffered only fifteen casualties. Most remarkable was that only four of his victims were two-seater reconnaissance aircraft. Kroll shot down about as many enemy fighters as his more famous compatriot, the “Red Baron” Manfred von Richthofen!
POSTBELLUM
Kroll held the rank of Oberleutnant by war’s end. He then joined the Hamburg Polizei as a captain. In that capacity, Kroll witnessed the failed Kapp Putsch of 1920 against the Weimar government. In its aftermath, he recovered the body of fellow fighter ace Rudolf Berthold, who had been murdered by German Communists.
After a relatively quiet period, Kroll joined the Hamburg Flying Club in 1928 and reclaimed his pilot’s license. He flew pioneer commercial aviation routes to Berlin and to the northern islands. Kroll operated a Junkers F 13, which was the first all-metal civil aviation aircraft. It was used primarily for sightseeing flights over the city of Hamburg.
Unfortunately, Heinrich Kroll died of pneumonia on February 21, 1930 at the age of only thirty-five. He was buried in Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg.
Lufthansa later honored the great ace by naming one of its Junkers 52/3m transports Heinrich Kroll (D-AHUS, W.Nr.4049).