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Alex Imrie via Greg VanWyngarden

HISTORY

First of Gabriel´s Fokker D.VIIs was the aircraft with military number 286/18.

The orange stripes were not painted on the fuselage at that time.

found no airport after more than an hour of flying. Willi eventually landed on

a pasture near Valenciennes, but the chassis struck the fence, the aircraft

lost its lower wing therefore and finally ended up with its tail pointing helplessly to the sky.

The warning

outclimbed him easily and set for attack. He ran in and fired on the starboard

Bréguet repeatedly. When closing in for the third time, he noticed both pilot

and observer collapsed in the cockpit and after another burst also the engine stopped. Gabriel ran out of ammo, but Bréguet was done and went into

a spiral, hitting the ground a mile away from the airport.

He was receiving congratulations from his comrades after landing, but Wenzl

saw the situation differently: "We cut off a French bombing squadron that

was approaching Neuilly, intending to bomb Fére en Tardenois. I cut one of

them out and really went to work hard on him. At first the observer was still

firing, but then he was quiet. He´d had enough. My opponent crossed the

lines, stinking and smoking, with his engine shot in pieces. I was convinced,

he was done. I broke off and watched the outcome of the operation. One of

my comrades (Gabriel) suddenly thought that he should intervene and pumped another series of rounds into the Bréguet, which didn´t even moved but

continued quietly on. lt went into the ground near lgny and bumed. When

we got back, I got involved rather undiplomatically in throwing the dice into

it – and lost my victory, naturally." 5)

For Gabriel there was a bigger problem waiting than dispute with Wenzl, as

he had to hear annoyed Göring out. The JG I commander clearly expressed

his thoughts and warned him, that anything like going off on his own must not

happen again. Göring then asked him to confirm his victory over the Spad, but

Gabriel refused because he did not observe any combat between Göring and

French airplane. He certainly did not improve his situation by this…

Too “expensive” trip

An afternoon patrol followed the same day and Willi, who thought the best

way to prove Göring is wrong on banning pilots from the lone hunts, went off

on his own again. Leaving the formation, he overflew the front at very low

altitude to avoid the British anti-aircraft “Archies” and spotted a two-seater

(probably Spad XVI) guarded by two Spad fighters. Willi concentrated on the

two-seater, as observer was firing at the trenches, losing his vigilance a bit.

Gabriel sent his victim down by first burst, frightening probably the escort

fighters, as they turned sharply and disappeared in the haze.

After landing, Gabriel met furious Göring, for whom four victories Willi had

achieved that day were no excuse for disobeying the rules. He ordered him

four weeks leave to get rid of him, at least for a while. Before departure,

Alex Imrie via Greg VanWyngarden

After Reinhard's death, the JG I was without lead again, and the pick of the

headquarters for the position was probably the worst possible choice from

Gabriel's point of view. To the great disappointment of the JG I pilots, none

of their ranks was chosen to command the unit. Experienced pilots in officer

ranks, such as Udet or Loewenhardt, were not professional officers and so

disqualified to lead such a large unit as the Jagdgeschwader was. It had to be

professional soldier. Somebody like Hermann Göring, then commander of Jasta 27 and an ace with 21 victories... Immediately after his arrival on July 14,

he gathered all the pilots and informed them about the changes that would

take place under his leadership. He asked for better discipline and morale in

the air with commanders of the formations giving the signal to attack with

a signal pistol. The most important change was quite painful, as it was forbidden to carry out “lone hunts” with immediate effect. Most of the members

of JG I did not like the new order, most of them also hoped that it was just

a kind of mandatory process for Göring to demonstrate his determination,

and soon everything would return to the old tracks. But they were mistaken…

On July 18, Willi took part in formation led by Göring. The flight did not last

long, and although there was a combat with the French Spad squad, none of

the pilots, according to Gabriel, achieved any victory.

As the Fokker formation approached the home base, Gabriel felt there is still

“something in the air” for him. He had still enough fuel, so he left the formation and headed back to the front. Soon he spotted another Spad formation,

approached from behind and pounced up for the rearmost one. The victim

went down, and the situation already described repeated, as eight Spads

were hunting lone Gabriel again. Willi had to manoeuvre furiously to save

his life, but he managed to shoot down another Spad and the rest eventually gave up the fight, thus pleasing sweaty Gabriel. Approaching the base at

Beugneux, already on the landing finale, he noticed three Bréguet bombers

overflying at an altitude of about 10 000 ft (3050 m), heading for Neuilly. He

did not hesitate, opened the throttle of the BMW engine, pulled his Fokker

into climb, and headed towards the enemy formation. He also noticed another D.VII climbing, with Richard Wenzl of Jasta 6 in the cockpit. Flying D.VII

with more powerful BMW engine compared to Wenzl´s Daimler version, Willi

Intimidating pose of Willi Gabriel. It is quite common on the photos of him…

A mood before take-off to the operational flight. Willi Gabriel (in the middle of the group on the left side) is just putting on his flying suit. His D.VII stands on the left of

a row and sports complete paintwork with orange fuselage stripes.

INFO Eduard - February 2021

eduard