YOUNG SOLDIER TURNED PILOT
Kurt Robert Wilhelm Wolff was born on February 6, 1895 in Greifswald, Pomerania. He was orphaned as a child and was raised by relatives in Memel, East Prussia.
Wolff enlisted in the Bavarian Army in 1912 (at only seventeen years of age), joining a transport unit, Railway Regiment Number 4. He was still with this unit when the First World War began. Wolff received a commission on April 17, 1915, and he transferred to the Luftstreitkräfte (Air Force) three months later.
PILOT TURNED ACE
Wolff’s first flight was almost his last! The instructor crashed the aircraft, but he did not survive. His young pupil escaped with a dislocated shoulder.
Eventually, Wolff received his pilot’s badge in late 1915 and was assigned to a series of two-seater bomber units. He was originally assigned to Kampfstaffel 26 (Bomber Squadron 26) of Kampfgeschwader 5 (Combat Squadron 5), followed by service with Kampfgeschwader 7 (Combat Squadron 7) and Kampfgeschwader 40 (Combat Squadron 40).
On November 5, 1916, Wolff was posted to La Brayelle Airfield in northern France to join the then winless Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 11 (Hunting Team 11). For months, Wolff, like most of his comrades in the squadron, had no success in the air. That changed when command was given to the Red Baron, Rittmeister (Cavalry Captain) Manfred von Richthofen.
Under the Red Baron’s leadership, Jagdstaffel 11 began to score victories, and Wolff became an excellent scout pilot. Like his commanding officer, Wolff soon became an avid collector of souvenirs from the aircraft he shot down. Wolff’s room at his airfield soon became decorated with serial numbers, airplane parts and machine guns salvaged from his victims.
Like the rest of the Jagdstaffel 11 aircraft, Wolff’s Albatros D.III was painted in the unit’s red livery. To this, he added individual markings for inflight identification by having his plane’s elevators and tailplane painted green. On March 6, 1917, Wolff claimed his first victory: a Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2d of Number 16 Squadron RFC. Four more kills were made by month’s end, and Wolff became an air ace.
BLOODY APRIL
As April 1917 dawned, the Royal Flying Corps held a numerical edge of almost two to one over the Luftstreitkräfte. German aircraft numbered around 195, with nearly half of them suited to attack other planes. By contrast, the British were fielding about 365 planes, with a third of them single-seat fighters. But despite their superior numbers, the British planes were technologically inferior to the Germans. Nevertheless, the British pushed their air assault over the German lines to maintain superiority of the skies, despite ongoing heavy casualties among their aircrew.
The British lost almost three hundred aircraft to German action during Bloody April. Eighty-nine planes were grounded by Jagdstaffel 11… and Kurt Wolff shot down twenty-two of them!
Besides the individual victories throughout the month, Wolff would score multiple victories on five April days. Most notable was on Friday the 13th, when he shot down four British airplanes from four different squadrons on four sorties! Also notably, Wolff scored three victories on April 29th, including Major H.D. Harvey-Kelly, commander of Number 19 Squadron RFC.
Having previously earned both classes of the Prussian Iron Cross, Wolff was awarded the Prussian Knight’s Cross with Swords of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern on April 26th. He ended Bloody April with twenty-nine kills.
IN COMMAND
On May 4, 1917, Kurt Wolff was awarded Germany’s most prestigious award, the Pour le Mérite. Two days later, with his victory total still at twenty-nine, Wolff left Jagdstaffel 11 and was promoted to command Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 29. He replaced Leutnant Ludwig von Dornheim who had recently been killed in action.
During his command of Jagdstaffel 29, Wolff shot down a French SPAD on May 13th and a Number 60 Squadron Nieuport 17 on June 27th. He then returned to Jagdstaffel 11 and became its commander in July 1917. Wolff was Richthofen’s selection to replace Leutnant (second lieutenant) Karl Allmenroeder, who had fallen in combat.
Wolff’s youthful looks and frail physical stature masked his deadly skills as a combat pilot. As the adjutant of Jagdstaffel 11, Karl Bodenschatz gave his estimate of Wolff:
“Jasta 11: Leutnant Kurt Wolff. At first glance, you could only say ‘delicate little flower’. A slender, thin little figure, a very young face, whose entire manner is one of extreme shyness. He looks as if you could tip him backwards with one harsh word. But below this friendly schoolboy’s face dangles the order Pour le Mérite. And so far, these modest looking eyes have taken thirty enemy airplanes from the sky over the sights of his machine guns, set them afire, and made them smash to pieces on the ground. This slender youth is already one of the best men of the old Richthofen Staffel 11.”
During Wolff’s assignment to Jagdstaffel 29 as its commander, Jagdstaffel 11 was one of four squadrons incorporated into the first German fighter wing, Jagdgeschwader I, on June 24, 1917. Manfred von Richthofen was promoted out of squadron command to lead the new wing. Inheriting Richthofen’s Jagdstaffel 11 command and leading this squadron as part of the new wing, Kurt Wolff downed a RE-8 of Number 4 Squadron RFC and a Sopwith Triplane of Number 1 Naval Squadron in early July 1917 for his final victories, the 32nd and 33rd.
However, on July 11th, Wolff was shot in both his left hand and left shoulder by gunfire from a Sopwith Triplane flown by future ace Flight Sub-Lieutenant Herbert Rowley of Number 1 Naval Squadron. Wolff crash landed his aircraft on the Courtrai railway line. The crash ripped off the undercarriage and flipped the aircraft upside down. His head was within inches of being smashing on a metal fence!
Rescuers toted Wolff off to the hospital. It would be two full months before he returned from sick leave. The day after his return (September 12th), Wolff was promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant).
FINAL FLIGHT
The first two Fokker Triplane prototypes had been allocated to Jagdgeschwader 1. Wolff was eager to fly one of the prototypes in Richthofen’s absence. On September 15, 1917, he found his opportunity! Despite heavily overcast skies, Wolff took off in Richthofen’s prototype triplane, along with a patrol of five Albatros fighters.
Meanwhile, three new Sopwith Camels of Number 10 Squadron Royal Naval Air Service advanced from their lines on an offensive patrol. Somewhere in the vicinity of Moorslede, Belgium (at 1630 hours), the trio was the target of a diving attack by Wolff and his patrol. In the confusion of the dogfight, the British pilots mistakenly thought four triplanes were involved.
As Wolff singled out a Camel to shoot down, he was suddenly attacked from behind by Flight Sub-Lieutenant Norman MacGregor, who fired a quick burst from a range of twenty-five yards, then zoomed to avoid colliding with the Fokker. Glancing behind him and downwards, MacGregor only noted that Wolff was in a vertical dive. His combat claim was for an ‘out of control’ victory.
It was probable that Kurt Wolff was killed by MacGregor’s bullets in midair, which meant that he was already dead when the triplane crashed and burst into flames north of Wervik near Moorslede at 17.30 hours (German time). His remains were taken back to Memel for burial. Wolff’s interment in a military ceremony included display of his native Bavaria’s Military Merit Order, Fourth Class with Swords, in addition to his Prussian awards. He was just twenty-two years old.