Adolf Ritter von Tutschek

Adolf Ritter von Tutschek (born Adolf von Tutschek)(16 May 1891 – 15 March 1918) PlM, MOMJ was a professional soldier turned aviator. As German air strategy turned towards concentrated air power, he was entrusted with one of the world's first fighter wings.

Early life and infantry service

Adolf von Tutschek was born in Ingolstadt on 16 May 1891. He was the son of Karl von Tutschek, Chief Medical Officer to the Royal Bavarian Military Academy. The elder Tutschek died when his son was eight years old, sparking a family relocation to Augsburg to live near his mother's relatives. Adolf von Tutschek attended Saint Anna High School in Augsburg until 1910, then joined the Royal Bavarian Cadet School. After graduation in October 1912, he joined in the "Prince Carl of Bavaria" 3rd Royal Bavarian Infantry Regiment as a Fahnenjunker (officer aspirant). He was later commissioned as Leutnant (second lieutenant). He started his field service in World War I with Prussian Fusilier Regiment No. 40 in Vosges, but soon was transferred back to the Bavarian 3rd Infantry Regiment. His service on the Western Front was valorous enough to earn him the Prussian Iron Cross Second Class on 26 November 1914, and the Bavarian Military Merit Order, 4th Class with Swords, on 10 December 1914. At some point after this, he was transferred to the Eastern Front.

On 2 May 1915, Tutschek was wounded by a hand grenade, temporarily removing him from combat. After his return to the front, on 25 July 1915 he led an attack on a superior Russian force. Fighting devolved into bitter hand-to-hand combat before Tutschek and the Germans prevailed over the Russians. They held the captured position through repeated counterattacks for the next 17 days, until 10 August. Tutschek's award of the Prussian First Class Iron Cross also came through during this period, on 30 July. For his leadership during this battle, Tutschek won Bavaria's highest military honor, the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph; its recipients were paid a lifetime honorarium and ennobled by the insertion of "Ritter" or "Ritter von" into their names. Additionally, on 30 July, he was granted the Prussian Iron Cross First Class.

On 28 October 1915, Austria awarded Tutschek the Military Merit Cross, 3rd Class, with War Decorations. Then the Military Order of Max Joseph was actually granted to him on 31 January 1916. Also in January, he was promoted to Oberleutnant (first lieutenant), and reassigned as battalion adjutant. He was also transferred back to the Western Front.

Aerial service

In July 1916, von Tutschek attended flight school at Schleissheim with Fliegerersatz-Abteilung 1 (Replacement Detachment 1). In October 1916 he returned to the front flying initially with Flieger-Abteilung 6b (Flier Detachment 6b), an artillery spotting unit.

He was then posted to fly single-seat fighters with Jagdstaffel 2 (Fighter Squadron 2) in January 1917. Over the next three months, he had three confirmed victories. His first triumph, on 6 March 1917, was over the Airco DH.2 of ace Lt. Maxmillian Mare-Montembault of No 32 Squadron RFC, who was shot down and captured.

On 28 April, von Tutschek assumed command of Prussian Jagdstaffel 12 based at Epinoy upon the death of its commander. One of the pilots there was future Jagdstaffel 52 commanding officer and ace Paul Billik. Von Tutschek's appointment was unusual in that although a Prussian raised Jagdstaffel, von Tutschek was a Bavarian. On 30 April, von Tutschek allayed any Prussian suspicion of Bavarians by sprinting to his airplane through falling bombs during a raid on their home airfield; he led a flight into the air into a night pursuit of the bombers. He shot down one of the raiders, a Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2b of No. 57 Squadron RFC thus scoring a victory on his first flight with his new command.

His personal aircraft color scheme was ink black overall with a white propeller spinner and a square white background for the Maltese cross tail markings.

In May he was credited with shooting down a trio of Sopwith Pups of No. 3 Naval Squadron RNAS. However, his 11 May victim recovered from an apparently uncontrollable spin and returned to base despite being shot through the mouth.

On 20 May, von Tutschek scored his tenth victory in a long duel with a SPAD of No. 23 Squadron RFC that crashed in flames.

On 26 May, von Tutschek left for leave, and returning on 26 June attacked two Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters, though the return fire damaged von Tutschek's Albatros and forced him to land. In combat with 60 Squadron Nieuports on 29 June his engine was again damaged, and he force-landed near Cantin.

He scored 11 victories in July. On the 15th, he downed one of Captain Billy Bishop's 60 Squadron's comrades, Lt. GAH Parkes, for victory number 16. On the 28th, he shot down English 7-victory ace Flt. Sub-Lt. E. D. Crundall of Naval 8 Squadron RNAS (who survived), on a morning sortie. In the afternoon, he claimed another ace, 40 Squadron's Captain John Henry Tudhope (10 victories), who returned to base, damaged.

On 11 August 1917, after victory 23, von Tutschek was severely wounded in the shoulder by Flt Lt Charles Dawson Booker of Naval 8 Squadron. He was pitched into the challenge of gearing up and staffing a new organization; he expressed his dissatisfaction with progress in his diary. The new unit was short of aircraft, parts, and fuel and faced a numerically superior Royal Flying Corps.

One of his prerequisites was a new airplane to fly. He was delighted with his brand-new Fokker Dr.I triplane. He first test flew it on 17 February 1918, and raved about it in his diary "..a tremendous machine climbs terrifically." He flew it to the last four victories of his career, on 26 February, and 1st (a balloon) 6th and 10 March.

On the last day of February, he narrowly survived a mid-air collision with Lt. Paul Blumenbach flying another triplane. Both pilots managed to coax their damaged machines to safe landings.

On 15 March 1918, South African future 10-victory ace Lieutenant Harold Redler of the Royal Flying Corps' No. 24 Squadron shot down von Tutschek. The German spun down in his green triplane (SNo.404/17) out of control. There are two versions of what followed.

One version of his death states when found he still had his wiping cloth tucked through his buttonhole and under his safety harness; as it was his habit to wipe his goggles clean going into battle, it was deduced he had been caught unaware.

A second version, less likely, claimed that one of Redler's bullets creased Tutschek's head and that the wound caused him to land. He supposedly waved to his wingmen as they circled, but was later found dead next to his plane.

His tally of 27 victories (24 with Jagdstaffel 12 or Jagdgeschwader II) would amount to a quarter of the 104 victories for his parent Jagdstaffel 12.

Decorations and awards Military Order of Max Joseph (25 February 1916) Iron Cross of 1914, 1st and 2nd class Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords (11 July 1917) Pour le Mérite (3 August 1917) Military Merit Order, 3rd class with Crown and Swords (Bavaria)

List of victories of Adolf Ritter von Tutschek

His victories are reported in chronological order, which is not necessarily the order or dates the victories were confirmed by headquarters. Downed pilots are listed before their aerial observers.

This list is complete for entries, though obviously not for all details. Background data was abstracted from Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918, , p. 219; Under the Guns of the Kaiser's Aces: Bohme, Muller, von Tutschek and Wolff: The Complete Records of Their Victories and Victims, , pp. 100–137; and The Aerodrome webpage on Adolf Ritter von Tutschek . Abbreviations were expanded by the editor creating this list.

No.DateTimeFoeUnitLocationCasualties 1 6 March 1917 1630 hours Airco DH.2 No. 32 Squadron RFC Beugny, France Ace Maxmillian Mare-Montembault POW 2 31 March 1917 0900 hours Nieuport Northeast of Lens Identification uncertain 3 6 April 1917 0830 hours Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2d No. 57 Squadron RFC Anneux, France Raymond Schreiber, Martin Lewis POW. Werner Voss lost a coin toss for this victory claim. 4 30 April 1917 0755 hours Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2d No. 18 Squadron RFC Izel, France Edward Jennings, John Robinson Lingard POW. 5 1 May 1917 1140 hours Sopwith Pup No. 3 Naval Squadron, RNAS Cantaing, France Arthur Mather POW 6 4 May 1917 2040 hours Sopwith Pup No. 3 Naval Squadron RNAS Baralle, France Harry Murton POW Unconfirmed 10 May 1917 1320 hours Sopwith Pup West of Monchy, France Victim not identified 7 11 May 1917 1540 hours Sopwith Pup No. 3 Naval Squadron RNAS Croisselles, France Hubert Broad WIA, crashlanded behind friendly lines 8 12 May 1917 1050 hours Sopwith Pup No. 66 Squadron RFC Baralle, France John Ross Robertson KIA 9 19 May 1917 0905 hours Sopwith Triplane No. 1 Naval Squadron RNAS Dury, France Geoffrey Bowman KIA 10 20 May 1917 1110 hours SPAD S.VII No. 23 Squadron RFC Riencourt, France Hyde Garrett KIA 11 3 July 1917 1030 hours Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter North of Vaulx, France Victim unidentified 12 11 July 1917 1815 hours Royal Aircraft Factory RE.8 No. 5 Squadron RFC Thelus, France Victim unidentified 13 11 July 1917 1845 hours Royal Aircraft Factory FE.2d No. 25 Squadron RFC Monchy Frederick Sargant WIA. He and James Herbert Kirk escaped crash, returned to British lines. 14 12 July 1917 1800 hours Observation balloon Section 36, 16th Company, 1st Balloon Wing Northwest of Lens 15 13 July 1917 0800 hours Martinsyde G.102 No. 27 Squadron RFC Noeux-les-Mines Harold Wilkins crashed unhurt within British lines 16 15 July 1917 2025 hours Nieuport 23 No. 60 Squadron RFC South of Douai Gerald Parkes POW 17 21 July 1917 2130 hours Nieuport 27 No. 40 Squadron RFC South of Moeuvres, France Frederick Rook KIA 18 23 July 1917 1755 hours Observation balloon 20th Section, Kite Balloon Wing, RFC Neuville, France No casualties 19 28 July 1917 0730 hours Sopwith Triplane No. 8 Naval Squadron RNAS Mericourt, France Future ace Edward Crundall recovered at treetop level and hedgehopped home 20 28 July 1917 1040 hours Nieuport 17 No. 40 Squadron RFC Northeast of Lens Future ace John Henry Tudhope returned unhurt but with badly shotup plane 21 29 July 1917 0805 hours Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a No. 60 Squadron RFC Henin-Lietard William Henry Gunner KIA 22 11 August 1917 0910 hours Bristol F.2 Fighter No. 22 Squadron RFC East of Biache Percy Chambers DOW, Walter Richman WIA/POW 23 11 August 1917 1830 hours Bristol F.2 Fighter No. 22 Squadron RFC West of Courcelles, France Arthur Ward, Kenneth Holmes both KIA 24 26 February 1918 1120 hours SPAD S.VII No. 23 Squadron RFC Northeast of Laon, France David Colquhoun Doyle POW 25 1 March 1918 0845 hours Observation balloon Terny French kite balloon 26 6 March 1918 1445 hours Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a No. 24 Squadron RFC Nertancourt Arthur Wigan POW 27 10 March 1918 1745 hours SPAD S.XIII Escadrille Spa.86, Service Aéronautique Chavignon, France Eugene Vollod KIA

Inline citations