Gottfried
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...
von Banfield (6 February 1890 – 23 September 1986) was the most successful
Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
naval aeroplane
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He was known as the 'Eagle of Trieste' and was the last person in history to wear the
Military Order of Maria Theresa
The Military Order of Maria Theresa (german: Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden; hu, Katonai Mária Terézia-rend; cs, Vojenský řád Marie Terezie; pl, Wojskowy Order Marii Teresy; sl, Vojaški red Marije Terezije; hr, Vojni Red Marije Te ...
. He scored 9 aerial victories during the war,
making him one of the only
Flying ace
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...
s who flew a flying boat to five or more victories.
[Chant, Rolfe 2000, pp. 83–86.]
Family
Of
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
origin, the Banfields were an Irish family in the 16th century. The ancestor Thomas Banfield, an officer in the
British army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
, while in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
married an
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
noblewoman. He took part in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
and died after the taking of
Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
. His son Richard Banfield, born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
in 1836 and educated in Austria, chose Austrian citizenship, became an officer of the
k.u.k. Kriegsmarine and took part in the
Battle of Lissa as one of the commanders on
Wilhelm von Tegetthoff
Wilhelm von Tegetthoff (23 December 18277 April 1871) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian admiral. He commanded the fleet of the North Sea during the Second Schleswig War of 1864, and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He is often considered by some A ...
's flagship, the ''
Erzherzog Ferdinand Max''.
Early training
Banfield was born 6 February 1890 in
Castelnuovo, which is situated in the
Bay of Cattaro and was the homeport of an Austrian fleet. His father was a British subject, but the boy Gottfried took Austrian nationality.
He attended the Military secondary-school in
Sankt Pölten
Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. St. Pölten ...
, and the Naval academy in
Fiume
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...
: on 17 June 1909 he emerged as cadet. In May 1912 he was promoted to frigate-Lieutenant. One month later he began pilot training in the flying school in
Wiener Neustadt
Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...
, and in August he obtained his flying licence.
[ Enthused with aviation like his older brother, who had already become a well-known aviator, he was chosen to be among the first pilots of the Austrian navy, and went off to perfect his training at the Donnet-Lévèque pilot school in France, where his trainer was the company's chief pilot, the naval lieutenant ]Jean-Louis Conneau
Jean Louis Conneau (8 Feb 1880 Lodève, Hérault – 5 August 1937, Lodève), better known under the pseudonym André Beaumont, was a pioneer French aviator, Naval Lieutenant and Flying boat manufacturer.
Flying career
Conneau used the pseud ...
, a pilot famous at the time for having won many air contests under the pseudonym of ''Beaumont''. On the Pola Pola or POLA may refer to:
People
* House of Pola, an Italian noble family
* Pola Alonso (1923–2004), Argentine actress
* Pola Brändle (born 1980), German artist and photographer
* Pola Gauguin (1883–1961), Danish painter
* Pola Gojawiczyńsk ...
Naval Air base of Santa Caterina island he trained in seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
s. As a result of a forced landing in 1913 he broke a leg so badly that the foot was barely saved.[ He was not airborne again until the outbreak of war.
]
Wartime experience
At the start of the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Banfield was posted to fly the Lohner flying boat E.21 allocated to the pre-dreadnought battleship SMS ''Zrínyi'' for aerial reconnaissance.[ He took part in the first aerial actions against ]Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
from the base of Cattaro. In the period following he worked as a test pilot and instructor at the airfield on the island of Santa Catarina off Pola Pola or POLA may refer to:
People
* House of Pola, an Italian noble family
* Pola Alonso (1923–2004), Argentine actress
* Pola Brändle (born 1980), German artist and photographer
* Pola Gauguin (1883–1961), Danish painter
* Pola Gojawiczyńsk ...
. Once the Italians entered the war he was commissioned with building up a larger seaplane station near Trieste, and after its completion was named as its commanding officer. He retained his command until the end of the war.[ He won his first air-battles in a Lohner biplane seaplane against the Italians and their French allies in the gulf of Trieste in June 1915, downing a balloon on the 27th. Even coming up against his old teacher Jean-Louis Conneau (better known as ]André Beaumont
Jean Louis Conneau (8 Feb 1880 Lodève, Hérault – 5 August 1937, Lodève), better known under the pseudonym André Beaumont, was a pioneer French people, French aviator, Naval Lieutenant and Flying boat manufacturer.
Flying career
Conneau ...
) in September 1915. Experimenting with a monoplane seaplane early in 1916, he won many victories and for a time held first place among the Austrian aces. In April 1916, he successfully developed the first indigenously designed Austro-Hungarian fighter aircraft of the war by modifying his twin-seater Lohner Type M into a single-seater with a forward-facing, unsynchronized Schwarzlose machine gun
The Maschinengewehr (Schwarzlose) M. 7, also known as the Schwarzlose MG, is a medium machine-gun, used as a standard issue firearm in the Austro-Hungarian Army throughout World War I. It was utilized by the Dutch, Greek and Hungarian armies dur ...
bolted to the hull in front of the cockpit. Banfield was also the first Austro-Hungarian pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft at night, downing an Allied flying boat on 31 May 1917. He was wounded in combat in 1918.
Decorations and military tally
Banfield's 9 confirmed and 11 unconfirmed air-kills make him the most successful Austro-Hungarian naval airplane fighter, and he holds a place among the most successful flying aces of Austro-Hungary. It was because he made most of his expeditions over the northern Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...
, and therefore many of his attributed air-victories could not be confirmed, that accounts for his high tally of unconfirmed air-conquests.[ For his military services he was in 1916 decorated with the Grand Military Merit Medal with Swords. Founded on 1 April 1916, this honour was intended for the "highest especially praiseworthy recognition" and was awarded only 30 times. 28 of its recipients were officers of general's rank; the other two were the ]cryptologist
This is a list of cryptographers. Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries.
Pre twentieth century
* Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi: wrote a (now lost) book ...
Hermann Pokorny
Hermann Pokorny (Kroměříž, Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1882–1960, Budapest, Hungary) was a World War I Austro-Hungarian Army cryptologist whose work with Russian ciphers contributed substantially to Central Powers victories over Russia. He was ...
(1918) and Banfield himself. On 17 August 1917 Banfield was further honoured when he received the Military Order of Maria Theresa. Individuals who received the order and were not already members of the Austrian nobility
The Austrian nobility (german: österreichischer Adel) is a status group that was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of Austria-Hungary. The nobles are still part of Austrian society today, but they no longer retain any specific privil ...
were ennobled and received the hereditary title of 'Freiherr', meaning 'Baron' to their family name. At the time of his death in 1986, Freiherr von Banfield was the last living Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.
Il Barone at Trieste
After the First World War, the city of Trieste was annexed by Italy, and Freiherr von Banfield was for a time imprisoned by the occupation police. In 1920 he emigrated to England and became a British subject. He married the Contessa Maria Tripcovich of Trieste (d. 1976). They settled in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...
, where their son Raphael Douglas, known to the world as the composer Raffaello de Banfield Tripcovich, was born in 1922. In 1926, Gottfried took Italian nationality and returned to Trieste to become Director of the Diodato Tripcovich and Co. Trieste Shipping-Company, which he took over from his father-in-law. Trieste Company ships then sailed under the Italian flag. Banfield became a celebrity of the city, usually called "Our Baron", ''Il nostro Barone'', even winning a local tennis championship in 1927. Serving as the Honorary Consul of France at Trieste, he was decorated with the Legion d'Honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...
in 1977. Freiherr von Banfield died in Trieste 23 September 1986, at the age of 96.[Bassett, Richard, ''For God and Kaiser: The Imperial Austrian Army'', 1619-1918, Yale University Press, 2015.]
A military tribute
As a memorial, the 1990 graduating year's class of the Theresa Military Academy in Wiener-Neustadt, the greater number of whom had begun their foundation military service in the year of Freiherr von Banfield's death, called itself the 'Banfield Class.'
See also
* k. u. k. Luftfahrtruppen
*List of World War I flying aces
The following are lists of World War I flying aces. Historically, a flying ace was defined as a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The term was first used by French newspapers, describ ...
Notes
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Short biography in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banfield, Gottfried von
1890 births
1986 deaths
Austro-Hungarian World War I flying aces
Austro-Hungarian Navy officers
Italian male tennis players
People from Herceg Novi
Barons of Austria
Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class
Knights Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa
Italian people of Austrian descent
Austrian people of British descent
Naturalised citizens of Italy
Naturalised tennis players