April 17th 1915
Pilot Wilhelm Wolmacher and his observer Lt. Joseph Seeboth encounter a British aircraft during a reconnaissance above the front north of Boezinge. A gunfight breaks out at an altitude of about 1500 metres. From 50 metres Seeboth shoots with his rifle at the opponent, a type BE 2c biplane of squadron 4. With Capt R M Vaughan & Lt J F Lascelles, on board. The latter is probably a better shooter after 24 bullets, he hits the German pilot in the heart. The plane crashes near the Phylipo farm in Boezinge bois 14. The observer appears unharmed, he was able to squeeze himself onto the pilot’s seat and managed to land the plane in a spiral. Kapitain Allaire of the 73 RT was able to arrest him.
While Seeboth was being taken away, another German plane circled above Boezinge, dropping a number of bombs. He was taken to the place where the bombs fell to show him that they were not really much of a problem,( wait a minute not causing any damage?) A few days later the crashed plane was picked up by a special service from Malo les Bains, only there wasn’t much left of it, the engine and the iron skeleton, the rest had been taken by souvenir hunters.
Wilhelm had the dubious honour being the pilot of the only aeroplane to be officially acknowledged as being brought down by rifle fire during aerial combat from an attacking British B.E.2c of No. 4 Squadron .Lieutenant Lascelles was awarded the Military Cross for this action (would later be KIA 31 July 1915).
OffStllv Wilhelm Wohlmacher was born 14th of May 1890 in Eisenach ,Steenstraat is mentioned in the verlustlisten as the place where he died on the 17th of April 1915, but no known burial site.
Seeboth Joseph would survive his captivity & go on to lead a distinguished career through WWII, attaining the rank of Generalrichter. Born 7th of January 1891 in Wolfenbüttel died 28th of January 1965
He entered the Army as Fahnenjunker and Company Officer in the 17th infantry regiment in oct.1912-July 1914; Started his observer training with the 2nd flying replacement battalion 9/09/1914-29/09/1914
Became an observer with the 40th field flying battalion 30/09/1914-17/04/1915 captured at steenstraete Boezinge .
He stayed in French captivity from 17/04/1915-22/12/1916 there is an image that stats he was escorted by French and Belgian soldiers into Roesbrugge, what is for sure he ended up in châteauneuf by 22/04/15 found that in the pow red cross files. further digging came up with a pow camp in Châteauneuf-d’Ille-et-Vilaine. In that area there were different types of cantonments: troop depots, such as at Montfort Abbey (1,000 prisoners in 1916), officer depots at Vitré, Fougères or Châteauneuf Fort, which held up to 250 prisoners in 1916, and workers’ cantonments (around 60 in 1916).
Eventually he was interned in Switzerland from 23/12/1916 till 16/07/1917, one online source says he escaped from the internment and was placed to the disposal of the inspection of flying until 08/08/1917. ( The red cross files tell me repatriation of German internees on the 17th of July 1917)
Now there was some interesting material in the French war dairy or RT73, where several sources online and the two booksI have in my library claim the observer was burning material before he was captured well nothing at all was mention in the diary, read for yourself :
The observer taken prisoner was carrying a bag and a map to which he attached a particular importance , wishing to dry a piece as a souvenir he said, two notebooks that he had thrown overboard were found, on one was indicated the place of departure on 17/04/1915 from Handzame to west of Boezinge on a line passing by the forest of Houthulst . On this notebook the observer had started to note something of a battery near Lo . The aircraft still had two bombs. Also in the driver’s seat were devices which should be of interest. The engine must have suffered in the crash. After the bombardment of Boezinge, the colonel tried to link up with the artillery of the Zuidschote sector and the post of Major Lamour. Heavy shells fall on Boezinge, and the bell tower is completely demolished. The rest of the day is quiet without a penny to spare.
On the 18th the diary tells that the pilot was buried at bois 14.
Today Bois 14 or Wood 14 is no longer there, it was situated between the Poezelstraat and the Sasstraat, see photo I took last Sunday morning. Since a few days later the Gas attack occurred and bois 14 ended up in German hands I do wonder if his grave was found or moved or was it just lost.
Zeitschrift flugsport jahrgang 1915
histoirealasource.ille-et-vilaine.fr
Boezinge 14 -18 R.baccarne J Steen
Luchtoorlog boven West Vlaanderen 1914-1918 Bernard Deneckere
Red cross files on Seeboth
Map bois 14 and image looking towards where bois 14 used to be from Poezelstraat