54 Facts About Rudolf Berthold

In postwar Germany, Berthold organized a Freikorps and fought in the Latvian War of Independence.

Rudolf Berthold died of gunshot wounds during fighting in Harburg on 15 March 1920.

Oskar Gustav Rudolf Berthold was born on 24 March 1891, in Ditterswind, Kingdom of Bavaria in the German Empire.

Rudolf Berthold was the sixth child of Oberforster Oskar Berthold.

Oskar's first wife, Ida Anne Hoffmann Rudolf Berthold, died in childbirth, leaving as survivors a daughter and three sons.

Rudolf Berthold was followed by three younger brothers, two of whom survived to adulthood.

Rudolf Berthold's father was employed by a local nobleman, Oskar Freiherr von Deuster; Rudolf Berthold grew up roving the baron's great estate.

Rudolf Berthold graduated on 14 July 1910, with a reputation for being fearless, cheerful, and studious.

Rudolf Berthold served a year and a half's training as a Fahnrich before being accepted by its officers for commissioning as a leutnant.

Rudolf Berthold learned to fly at his own expense in 1913, qualifying as a pilot in September.

Rudolf Berthold trained at the Halberstadter Flugzeugwerke on dual-control Bristol types; one of his fellow students was Oswald Boelcke.

Rudolf Berthold saw panicked French troops retreating across the Marne River.

German staff officers' disbelief led to Rudolf Berthold personally briefing Generaloberst Karl von Bulow on the situation.

Rudolf Berthold became friends with a fellow student, Hans Joachim Buddecke.

Rudolf Berthold was assigned an observer, Leutnant Josef Gruner, for flying reconnaissance sorties; they quickly became friends.

At about the same time, Rudolf Berthold was laid up for a fortnight with dysentery.

Rudolf Berthold took command of the big bomber, and left the Eindekker to Buddecke.

Rudolf Berthold was depressed by his friend's death, and sent on home leave.

Rudolf Berthold accompanied Ernst Freiherr von Althaus when the latter shot down enemy planes on both 5 and 28 December 1915.

Rudolf Berthold was rewarded with one of the 12 Military Merit Orders awarded to aviators during the war.

Rudolf Berthold continued flying a bomber on missions as well as to patrol in his fighter.

Rudolf Berthold reawakened two days later in Kriegslazarett 7 in Saint-Quentin.

Rudolf Berthold made his orderly help him bend his knee and flex strength back into his withered leg.

Rudolf Berthold was very near attaining the Prussian Pour le Merite for eight victories.

Rudolf Berthold received his Blue Max, considered Imperial Germany's supreme award for valor, on 12 October 1916.

Jagdstaffel 14 was newly formed when Rudolf Berthold took command at Sarrebourg, France.

Rudolf Berthold took advantage of being in a quiet sector, and trained his troops hard.

Rudolf Berthold flew to Laon to find there were no quarters for his men.

Rudolf Berthold was adamant that he would not move his squadron until quarters were furnished.

From reports, Rudolf Berthold determined that his squadron's performance declined, and believed this was due to the lack of in-air leadership.

Shortly after assuming command, Rudolf Berthold again pitched his idea of using fighters en masse; 4th Armee headquarters responded by grouping Jagdstaffelen 18,24,31, and 36 into the ad hoc Jagdgruppe 7 with Rudolf Berthold in command.

Rudolf Berthold overcame the handicap of half-severed ailerons and remained conscious long enough to make a smooth one-handed landing at the Jagdstaffel 18 home airfield.

Rudolf Berthold's pilots alerted his elder sister, Franziska, who was a nursing supervisor in Viktoria-Lazarett, Berlin.

Rudolf Berthold was there for four months and Doctor Bier labored to save the mangled arm from amputation.

Rudolf Berthold spent his convalescent leave learning to write with his left hand.

Rudolf Berthold was returned to command of Jagstaffel 18, but denied permission to fly.

Rudolf Berthold had suffered the loss of his best friend, left his familiar old squadron, was taking command of an unfamiliar and newly formed larger unit, and was not on flight status.

Rudolf Berthold designated Jagdstaffel 15 the wing's Stab Staffel.

Rudolf Berthold returned to his new assignment two days into the new German offensive, to find that the infantry divisions his wing was supposed to support were complaining about their lack of air cover.

Meanwhile, Rudolf Berthold had his men begin repainting the wing's aircraft with a common background marking.

Rudolf Berthold kept his sister apprised of his medical condition.

Rudolf Berthold outlined an air defense warning net posted forward to alert his wing, and he pleaded for a transport column to maintain the unit's mobility.

Rudolf Berthold felt that the squadron commanders were plotting to have him replaced.

Rudolf Berthold borrowed one of the new machines from Jagdgeschwader 1 for a surreptitious test flight.

Rudolf Berthold liked its lightness on the controls, remarking hopefully that he could even fly it with his damaged right arm.

Rudolf Berthold's Fokker crashed into a house in Ablaincourt with such force that its engine fell into the cellar.

Rudolf Berthold arrived at the Jagdstaffel 15 officers' mess coincidentally with the newly appointed wing commander.

In early 1919, Rudolf Berthold was medically cleared to return to duty.

Rudolf Berthold soon had the airfield functioning smoothly when it was shut down.

Rudolf Berthold's men commandeered a train and crew from striking rail workers and moved to join the coup.

Rudolf Berthold tried to flee into a nearby pub but was dragged out by the angry crowd.

Rudolf Berthold pulled a handgun to defend himself, which was taken from him and used to shoot him twice in the head and four times in the body as the crowd beat him.

Rudolf Berthold's Pour le Merite, Iron Cross First Class, and Pilot's Badge were retrieved from a garbage dump in Harburg before she arrived.

Such as that Rudolf Berthold was strangled with the ribbon of his Pour le Merite or that he was decapitated, highlighting the supposed brutality of the defenders of the republic.