Aerial Service
Upon his completion of observer training at Wiener-Neustadt in March 1916, Linke-Crawford was posted to Fliegerkompanie 22 to fly reconnaissance and bombing missions in two seater airplanes.
In September, 1916, after six active months flying as an observer, he retrained as a pilot.
In January, 1917, he was transferred to Fliegerkompanie 12 as chief pilot, which made him second in command of the unit. His new posting was still to a unit serving on the Isonzo Front in northern Italy. While his duties remained recon and bombing, he was now operating over mountainous terrain. He also flew some attack sorties in single seat fighters. On one of these missions, on 13 April, he shot down a Nieuport that cartwheeled into a crash far behind the Italian lines. He did not bother to attempt to claim this victory, though he mentioned it in a letter home to his sister. On 25 May, his aircraft was badly shot up, taking 14 hits from a couple of Spad fighters. He then had another unconfirmed triumph on 25 June.
He gained a reputation for courage. On one of his long range reconnaissance missions, he was attacked by an Italian Spad, which riddled his Hansa-Brandenburg C.I with 68 bullet holes over a half hour period. Nevertheless, he completed his mission.
On 2 August 1917, while flying his Aviatik C.I with no rear gunner aboard to man the craft's single machine gun, he was shot down but uninjured as Pier Piccio's eighth victim.
On 4 August 1917, he was transferred to Fliegerkompanie 41, situated near Trieste. Flik 41 was Austro-Hungary's most renowned air unit; it was commanded by the empire's top ace, Godwin Brumowski. Linke-Crawford damaged his airplane upon landing at his new base, Sesana Airfield.
He began wearing a scarlet flying helmet and white trousers when he flew, leading to the nickname of "Redhead". He marked his plane with falcons painted on either side.
He scored his first confirmed aerial victory on 21 August 1917, using a Hansa-Brandenburg D.I to down a Nieuport. In the next five days, he scored three more confirmed wins using this plane, with one claim going unconfirmed.
The Hansa-Brandenburg D.I had serious liabilities as a fighter plane; it spun easily, had poor forward visibility, and its machine gun was mounted well above the pilot's head on the top wing to fire above the propeller arc. It was nicknamed "the flying coffin" and killed more pilots in flying accidents than died in combat.
Linke-Crawford's switch to flying an Albatros D.III mounted him in a fighter that not only offered him better field of vision, especially downward, but also armed him with twin Spandau machine guns in front of him that were synchronized to fire through his propeller.
Flying the Albatros D.III, he shot down a seaplane on 23 September 1917 to become an ace. Continuing to use the Albatros, he ran up a score of 13 by 13 December.
In late December, 1917, Linke-Crawford was appointed commander of Fliegerkompanie 60. This unit was stationed at Grigno in northern Italy until March, 1918. This airfield was located in a swampy mountainous basin and was prone to flooding. Flik 60j's seven pilots flew against an opposition of British, Italian, and French pilots.
Linke-Crawford's plane in Flik 60j was a Phonix D.I. He used this slow but sturdy twin-gunned fighter to run up seven triumphs in the first three months of 1918. Flik 60 transferred to Feltre, also in northern Italy. This was a better airfield than Grigno.
Linke-Crawford scored his last victory in the Phonix on 11 March. In mid-March, he grounded all the Phonix's in his unit because of their unreliability.
Beginning on 10 May, Linke-Crawford switched to an Aviatik D.I. (115.32) At least five of these seven wins were over superior aircraft, such as the Sopwith Camel and Bristol F.2 Fighters.
Read more about this topic: Frank Linke-Crawford
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