PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE XXVIII
Fritz Rumey
He was a German air ace of the First World War, credited with forty-five victories. Born in Königsberg, East Prussia on March 3, 1891, Fritz Rumey first served as a soldier with the Prussian 45th Infantry Regiment. He initially saw action in the Great War fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front with the Third Grenadier Regiment. For his service, Rumey was decorated with the Iron Cross, Second Class.
Subsequently in August 1915, Rumey applied for aviation duty and completed an observer’s course and served with Fliegerabteilung (Artillerie) 219. Later, he was accepted for pilot’s training (Jastaschule). Upon completion, Rumey was sent to France early in 1917. In May of that year, he served for a brief period with Jasta 2, also known as Jasta Boelcke (named after the great German ace Oswald Boelcke).
On June 10, 1917, Fritz Rumey was transferred to Jagdstaffel 5. He served as Vizefeldwebel along with Josef Mai and Otto Könnecke. These three NCO pilots flew together and scored forty percent of the squadron’s successes, and they famously became known as “The Golden Triumvirate”. Rumey’s personal aircraft marking was a demon’s head.
His first victim was a British observation balloon, flamed in the vicinity of Boursies on July 6, 1917. Victory number two occurred on August 19th near Epehy; the victim was an R.E.8 (A4266).
But six days later… and again on September 24, 191’7, Fritz Rumey was wounded in action. He soon returned to the fold and scored his third victory over British ace Captain Gerald Crole of Number 43 Squadron (who survived and was taken prisoner near Marcoing) on November 22, 1917. By year’s end, Rumey had five victories to his credit.
He continued to accrue single victories throughout the first half of 1918. Rumey then killed ace Lieutenant James Dawe of Number 24 Squadron near Rosieres on June 7, 1918 for victory number twenty-three. That same day, he was commissioned as Leutnant der Reserve.
On June 26, 1918, just east of Bouzincourt, Leutnant Fritz Rumey brought down and killed Canadian ace Lieutenant Edward C. Eaton of Number 65 Squadron, raising his victory count to twenty-five. Around the same time, he switched to a yellow Fokker D.VII.
With twenty-nine victories to his name, Rumey received the coveted Pour le Mérite on July 10, 1918. This made him one of only five pilots to have received both this award and the Golden Military Merit Cross.
After going scoreless in August, Rumey shot down an amazing sixteen aircraft in the month of September over a period of three weeks. It was a figure surpassed only by Franz Büchner.
However in that same great month, Fritz Rumey had a premature end… and there were conflicting accounts over his death.
The first theory was that Rumey perished after a mid-air collision with the SE5a of surviving pilot Captain George E. B. Lawson (Number 32 Squadron). With the top wing of his Fokker D.VII smashed to pieces, Rumey was driven out of control and soon bailed out. But the spin that his aeroplane was in caused his parachute to open incorrectly when he threw it from the cockpit.
Another theory suggests that Lieutenant Frank Hale of Number 32 Squadron actually shot down the Leutnant. But Rumey’s squadron comrades believed that his full throttle dive in pursuit of an R.A.F. SE5a caused the fabric to peel off the upper wing of Rumey’s Fokker aircraft.
When the Leutnant jumped from the damaged machine, his parachute failed in total, sending the ace plummeting to the ground below. According to Lawson, it was from an altitude of one thousand feet.
Regardless, Fritz Rumey did not survive. He died on September 27, 1918 at Neuville-Saint-Rémy, France at the age of only twenty-seven.
Fritz Rumey’s final tally of forty-five victories consisted almost entirely of downing enemy fighter planes. In fact, he shot down more enemy scouts (thirty-five) and even had a greater fighter to two-seater victory ratio (3.5 to 1) than the great Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen (whose ratio was 0.57 to 1 with only twenty-nine enemy scouts grounded).
