PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE 215
Edmund Nathanael
Edmund Nathanael was born in Dielsdorf on December 18, 1889.
Little is known if Nathanael first served in a ground unit when the Great War began. It was common practice for German aviation volunteers to do so. Nevertheless, Nathanael’s first aviation post was with Flieger Abteilung Artillerie 42 (FAA 42), which operated two-seater reconnaissance aircraft and carried out the hazardous task of directing artillery fire from its aerial station. With FAA 42, Nathanael earned the seldom-awarded Wilhelm Ernst War Cross from his native Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. He also earned the Grand Duchy’s General Honor Decoration in Gold with Swords.
The German military customarily seasoned its aviation personnel in combat. Then, the most promising of the lot were then “promoted” to fighter pilots. This system conserved the single-seater fighter pilots… for they would not easily fall victim to rookie errors when they entered combat.
Nathanael joined a fighter unit in late 1916. At the time, it was custom to reassign a pilot to one of the four national air forces that constituted the German Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte). In the case of Edmund Nathanael, his native Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach adjoined the Kingdom of Saxony. Thus in November 1916, he was reportedly a founding member of Royal Saxon Jagdstaffel 22. This unit would amass fifty-seven victories by the end of the war, but Nathanael was responsible for none of them!
In March 1917, Nathanael transferred to the prestigious Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 5. He was in the company of some very successful aces… namely Renatus Theiller, Werner Voss, Hans Karl Müller, and Hans Berr. In contrast to Jagdstaffel 22, Jagdstaffel 5 would be credited with 253 victories during the First World War.
Nathanael was assigned to fly an Albatros D.V., and he finally scored his first victory north of Guedecourt on March 6th. Exactly two months later, Nathanael’s official tally was at fifteen! The most notable was his 14th win victory on the last day of April 1917, when he became the first pilot in history to shoot down an SE-5 of Royal Flying Corps Squadron Number 56.
On May 11, 1917 (five days after scoring his 15th victory), Nathanael was killed in action over Bourlon Wood in Belgium during a fight with the SPADs of Royal Flying Corps Squadron Number 23. Shot down by Irish ace William Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick, Nathanael’s Albatros burst into flames and lost its wings before it crashed. He was only twenty-seven years old.
Deputy Officer Edmund Nathanael was one of only eighteen German fliers to receive the House Order of Hohenzollern for valor during the Great War.
