Leutnant Karl Plauth was a German World War I

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 ...

credited with 17 aerial victories. He would crash a

Junkers A 32 The Junkers A 32 was a mail plane built in prototype form in Germany in the late 1920s, and later developed as a prototype reconnaissance-bomber under the designation K 39. The design was a conventional low-wing cantilever monoplane with fixed t ...

to his death on a test flight.

Biography

See also

Aerial victory standards of World War I Aerial may refer to: Music * ''Aerial'' (album), by Kate Bush * ''Aerials'' (song), from the album ''Toxicity'' by System of a Down Bands *Aerial (Canadian band) * Aerial (Scottish band) * Aerial (Swedish band) Performance art * Aerial sil ...

Karl Plauth was born on 27 August 1896 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Germany.''Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918'', p. 181 Plauth originally served in a

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

battalion early in the First World War. After being wounded during the

Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun (french: Bataille de Verdun ; german: Schlacht um Verdun ) was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front in France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north ...

and earning a First Class

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...

, he transferred to flying service. After a stint in ''Flieger-Abteilung 204'' (Flier Detachment 204),. he was assigned to fly a

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII qu ...

''Fokker D VII Aces of World War 1, Part 2'', pp. 11–13 with Royal Prussian ''

Jagdstaffel 20 Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 20 was a fighter squadron of the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the air arm of the Imperial German Army during World War I. History Jasta 20 was founded in the 2 Armee sector on 25 October 1916. On 24 December 1916, it suffered ...

'' (Fighter Squadron 20) on 14 June 1918. Plauth scored his first triumph on 9 July 1918. On 14 July, he was shot down, totaling his airplane, lacerating his head and blackening his eye. He was grounded for eight days because of the eye.''Fokker D.VII Aces of World War I, Part 2'', p. 13 That did not deter him from scoring again on the 31st. By 28 September, his tally stood at 10. The following day, he became the ''

Staffelführer ''Staffelführer'' was one of the first paramilitary ranks used by the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in the early years of that group's existence. The later SS rank of ''Staffelführer'' traces its origins to the First World War, where the tit ...

'' of Royal Prussian ''

Jagdstaffel 51 Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 51, commonly abbreviated to Jasta 51, was a "hunting group" (i.e., fighter squadron) of the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the air arm of the Imperial German Army during World War I. The squadron would score over 24 aerial victor ...

''. As their leader, he shot down seven more enemy aircraft during October, 1918, bringing his total to 17. However, he was no killer; he preferred to see his opponents survive. He was piloting the

, which he helped design, on a test flight on 2 November 1927, when it failed to pull out of a loop. He died in the resultant crash.

End notes

References

* ''Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918''.

Norman Franks Norman Leslie Robert Franks (born 1940) is an English militaria writer who specialises in aviation topics. He focuses on the pilots and squadrons of World Wars I and II. Biography He published his first book in 1976. He was an Organisation a ...

, Frank W. Bailey, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1993. , . * ''Fokker D.VII Aces of World War I, Part 2''. Greg VanWyngarden, Harry Dempsey. Osprey Publishing, 2004.

Biography

End notes

References

Further reading