Max Immelmann - Death

Death

In the late afternoon of 18 June 1916, Immelmann led a flight of four Fokker E.III Eindeckers in search of a flight of eight F.E.2b reconnaissance aircraft of 25 Squadron Royal Flying Corps over Sallaumines in northern France. The British flight had just crossed the lines near Arras, with the intent of photographing the German infantry and artillery positions within the area, when Immelmann's flight intercepted them. After a long-running fight, scattering the participants over an area of some 30 square miles, Immelmann brought down one of the enemy aircraft, wounding both the pilot and observer. This was his 16th victory.

Later that same evening, Immelmann in Fokker E.III, serial 246/16, encountered No. 25 Squadron again, this time near the village of Lentz. Immediately, he got off a burst which hit the pilot of one of the pushers, killing him instantly. This was his 17th victory. The crew of the second aircraft he closed on, which Max Ritter von Mulzer downed a few minutes later, was piloted by Second Lieutenant G.R. McCubbin with Corporal J. H. Waller as gunner/observer, and was credited by the British with shooting Immelmann down. On the German side, many had seen Immelmann as invincible and could not conceive the notion that he had fallen to enemy fire. Meanwhile, British authorities awarded McCubbin the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Service Medal and sergeant's stripes for Waller.

The German Air Service at the time claimed the loss was due to (friendly) anti-aircraft fire. Others, including Immelmann's brother, believed his aircraft's gun synchronisation (designed to enable his machine gun to fire between the whirling propeller blades without damaging them) had malfunctioned with catastrophic results. This is not in itself unreasonable, as early versions of such gears frequently malfunctioned in this way. Indeed, this had already happened to Immelmann twice before (while testing two- and three-machine gun installations), although on each occasion, he had been able to land safely. McCubbin, in a 1935 interview, claimed that immediately after Immelmann shot down McCubbin's squadron mate, the German ace began an Immelmann turn, McCubbin and Waller swooped down from a greater altitude and opened fire, and the pioneer German ace fell out of the sky. Waller also pointed out later that the British bullets could have hit Immelmann's propeller.

In fact, damage to the propeller seems unlikely to have been the primary cause of the structural failure evident in accounts of the crash of his aircraft, although it is possible that a sudden stall and spin resulting from the sudden loss of motive power could have caused structural failure. At 2,000 meters, the tail was seen to break away from the rest of Immelmann's Fokker, the wings detached or folded, and what remained of the fuselage fell straight down, carrying the 25-year old Oberleutnant to his death. His body was recovered by the German 6 Armee from the twisted wreckage, laying smashed and lifeless over what was left of the surprisingly intact Oberursel engine (sometimes cited as under it), but was only identified because he had his initials embroidered on his handkerchief.

Immelmann was given a state funeral and buried in his home of Dresden. His body was later exhumed, however, and cremated in the Dresden-Tolkewitz Crematorium.

The present-day Luftwaffe has dubbed Squadron AG-51 the "Immelmann Squadron" in his honour.