15 Facts About Kurt Wintgens

Leutnant Kurt Wintgens was a German World War I fighter ace.

Kurt Wintgens was the first fighter pilot to score an aerial victory with a synchronized machine gun.

Kurt Wintgens was born into a military family in Neustadt in Oberschlesien.

On transferring to the German Air Service, Kurt Wintgens flew first as an observer, apparently alternating with telegraph duty.

Kurt Wintgens holds a unique pioneering role in the history of aerial combat, being the first fighter pilot to down an enemy aircraft using a synchronized gun.

Leutnant Kurt Wintgens wrote a letter to a friend named "Karl" the next day with the details of the engagement:.

However, because the Morane landed in Allied territory, Kurt Wintgens was not credited with an official victory.

Kurt Wintgens' victory was the very first for his unit, and earned him an Iron Cross First Class.

Kurt Wintgens followed up with two more confirmed victories in 1915, as well as an unconfirmed one on 24 January 1916.

Kurt Wintgens then suffered from a lingering case of influenza that kept him from flying.

Kurt Wintgens continued to score throughout the summer and into the autumn.

IV even as his contemporaries upgraded; Hans-Joachim Buddecke's writings mention Kurt Wintgens blipping the Fokker's rotary engine on and off as a signal to waiting squadron members that a flight had been victorious.

Hohndorf rushed back to base to sorrowfully report that Kurt Wintgens' plane broke up under the impact of "explosive bullets".

Buddecke blamed the crash on a severed elevator spar, and noted that Kurt Wintgens showed no bullet wounds.

Two days later, Kurt Wintgens was laid to rest in the same French graveyard that already contained the body of his fellow Fokker Eindecker pioneering pilot, Otto Parschau.