Joseph Doerflinger | Alsatian in the German Army 1914-1918
Pictures
This is a short account of the life of Joseph Doerflinger, pilot in the German air force during World War I.
As an orphan and Alsatian, he had volunteered at 16 for the flying service in the German Air Force, but he was too young, so he became a machine gunner in the army. He spent three years at the front, three years of mudding, trenching, killing, blood, devastation, filth and disease, and foul smells.
He fought on both the Western and the Eastern fronts. He survived the murderous battles of the Schratzmannele an Hartmansweilerkopf in the Vosges mountains, and the hell-fire of the Verdun sector. He had witnessed the defeat of the Russians at Gorlice. He had campaigned against the Russians in Galicia. Finally 19 years old, at the end of 1917, he was accepted to the training school for aviators at Hannover, Germany. His first flight was on January 7, 1918.
After training, he was transferred to the Von Richthofen Jagdstaffel 10 (the red Baron ).
In April 1918 Manfred von Richthofen was shot down by the Royal Air Force and the new Staffelführer became Herman Göring (the later Reichmarschall der Luftwaffe), in the same squadron were famous aces like Ernst Udet and Loewenhardt. After months of fighting in different parts of the front in the Jasta 10, Doerflinger and other members of the squad were transferred to the Jasta 64 until the end of the war.
Doerflinger was a non commissioned officer, a Feldwebel in the German air force. He was shot down twice and had 14 air victories.
After the armistice, he joined the French air force and became a flight instructor in Istres. Some of his flying students also became famous pilots, like Jean Mermoz. In the 1920s he started to work for the French air company Latécoère and Aeropostale, with Jean Mermoz and Antoine de Saint-exupéry. In the late 1920th he emmigrated with his family to the United States of America, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he worked as a pilot and for aviation companies.
He married Marie Hodapp in 1924 and had 8 children and many grandchildren.
He was my Great-uncle. Information from his book Stepchild Pilot written in 1959 and from the Magazine Diligence d'alsace
This Pictures was made in 1918 , and was a present to a Person who bought Joseph book Stepchild Pilot 1959
Joseph Doerflinger as Pilot 1918
Germany
Joseph Doerflinger 1918
Photograph
Aviator training school Hannover , Germany 1918
Hannover Germany
Picture in the aviator Training scholl in Hannover Germany . Joseph Doerflinger third from right and his Trainer Heinrich Heinze ( civilian clothes)
Joseph Doerflinger in his plane Fokker D-VII 1918
Joseph in a Fokker D-VII before a combat patrol 1918
Joseph Doerflinger and his brother in law Denis Hodapp as French pilots in the French air force 1921 in Istres.
Istres, France
Joseph Doerflinger and Denis Hodapp 1921 in Istres
Postcard with Joseph Doerflinger as an Aviation pioneer for Aeropostale and Latécère .
Postcard
CONTRIBUTOR
Guy-Pierre Lichtwarck
DATE
1914-10 - 1918-11
LANGUAGE
eng
ITEMS
5
INSTITUTION
Europeana 1914-1918
PROGRESS
METADATA
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