Unsuspecting victim

Text: Richard Plos

Illustration: Antonis Karydis

Cat. No. 8114 

The  red-nosed blue aircraft with a white stylized winged sword on the sides of the fuselage became the real threat to Allied airmen from August 1917. Not only because its pilot, the commander of Jasta 14, Rudolf Berthold, posed a mortal danger to any adversary, but also because he was an exceptional leader with great ability to prepare his unit for combat.

Berthold was a gutsy personality and quite an aggressive pilot. He often took his aircraft to their limits , and the vice of the Albatros D.III, the lower wing failures, was an unpleasant complication for him. Like other commanders, he had a personal spare aircraft of the same type. But while his better-known D.III came from the Albatros factory, the other one was the product of the O.A.W. factory. Little is known about this Albatros, only one photograph is known to us, showing it after an unspecified crash. It was not the lightest one, as the poor aircraft lost its undercarriage, the nose was badly damaged, the upper wing broken, and the lower wing was destroyed by contact with the ground. However, if Berthold himself flew the plane and did not lend it to someone else, then he probably escaped unharmed. There is no mention of any such crash even in Peter Kilduff's biographical book Iron Man.

Berthold was wounded on April 24 while in command of Jasta 14. He had to take a break for treatment and convalescence until June 15, when he rejoined the unit. But on August 12

he learned that he was to take command of Jasta 18 and six days later he was cleared to fly again. The whole of Jasta 18, by then a unit with  little success, had repainted their aircraft in Berthold's red and blue scheme, but the winged sword remained the commander's personal symbol.

Berthold drilled his new unit from the start and within a short time he was able to increase both the combat morale and the tactical abilities of its pilots, and thus their combat success. Since August 21, he  also  increased his own score , which before his injury had stopped at 12,and during September 14 opponents fell victim to him! One of them was Lt. Bernard Alexander Powers of No. 19 Squadron RFC. The 20-year-old young man, admittedly already a fairly experienced pilot, volunteered to go on a dangerous reconnaissance flight over enemy territory to find out the current position of two regiments of the German 30th Division, which were to counter-strike the positions of the British 33rd Division. For the Britons this was an extremely dangerous opponent, as the 30th Division was classified as first class, that is in full condition and with a wealth of combat experience. This could not be said of the British, who had shortly before relieved the 23rd Division. When a request came from headquarters for an aerial reconnaissance to reveal the German positions on September 25, Powers started studying the maps while his mechanics prepared his Spad IX (B3520). As soon as he received his final instructions, he took off. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and the weather was less than ideal. Unfortunately for him, Rudolf Berthold, flying an Albatros D.III, was also in the area east of Ypres. We don't know which of his aircraft Berthold was  flying, but this was the period in which he might have been using his spare aircraft, the one produced by O.A.W. (number unknown). Near the town of Geluveld, close to the road between Ypres and Menin, the German ace attacked from  above and fired a precise fatal burst on the British pilot and his aircraft. The lone reconnaissance pilot, who quite possibly did not even realize the attack, crashed and Berthold scored his victory number 24. This situation is captured on the boxart for the Albatros D.III kit (Cat. No. 8114) by Antonis Karydis.

Just two weeks later, while leading his pilots into one of their many battles, the commander of Jasta 18 suffered a serious injury to his right arm, which until that moment he claimed was his only limb still uninjured. A bullet, probably fired by Capt. Gerald Maxwell of No. 56 Squadron RFC, ricocheted in the cockpit and devastated his right humerus. Berthold was flying a Pfalz D.III (probably No. 4004/17) on this flight and while single-handed, he was able to get his aircraft back to the airfield and land safely. Only then he collapsed and was transported unconscious to the hospital in Courtrai, where he began his harrowing journey to recovery, which never ended.

Berthold's 24th casualty was reported to have had one kill on July 29, 1917. With his wingman Lt. Francis Behrens, Powers fought with fighters from Jasta 29. It ended in a draw; Powers shot down one of his opponents, while his wingman was shot down by Vzfw. Misch.