The second youngest
A man on one of the many hospital beds is breathing rapidly, a worried nurse regularly wipes the beads of sweat on his forehead. The slender young man with delicate features and premature wrinkles around his eyes suffered a gunshot wound to his thigh in an aerial combat a few days ago and lost a lot of blood because of it. But that doesn’t worry the doctors nearly as much as the inflammation that is slowly but surely poisoning his entire body. Just twenty years old, Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay is losing his fight for life, meanwhile far away in Germany a paper-pusher is now rushing to bestow the highest honour, the Pour le Mérite, on the exceptional young man before his death...
#8483
BOXART STORY
A man on one of the many hospital beds is
breathing rapidly, a worried nurse regularly
wipes the beads of sweat on his forehead.
The slender young man with delicate features
and premature wrinkles around his eyes
suffered a gunshot wound to his thigh in an
aerial combat a few days ago and lost a lot of
blood because of it. But that doesn’t worry the
doctors nearly as much as the inflammation
that is slowly but surely poisoning his entire
body. Just twenty years old, Olivier Freiherr
von Beaulieu-Marconnay is losing his fight for
life, meanwhile far away in Germany a paper-
pusher is now rushing to bestow the highest
honour, the Pour le Mérite, on the exceptional
young man before his death...
Two months shy of his eighteenth birthday,
Olivier was already promoted from cadet to the
rank of lieutenant as a member of the Fourth
Cavalry Regiment (Dragoner Regiment von
Bredow Nr. 4). When he switched from horses
to planes, he took the stylized 4D badge as
his personal symbol to adorn his planes. The
Jasta 18, led by the vigorous Rudolf Berthold,
was Olivier’s first air unit from December 1,
1917, and subsequently, after a major reshuffle
orchestrated by Berthold as the newly
appointed commander of JG II, he and all his
comrades became part of Jasta 15.
The young fighter, whom his colleagues
called “Bauli”, waited nearly half a year for
his first kill. Why? In the spring of 1918, Jasta
15 was flying new Siemens-Schuckert D.III
fighters, which were forbidden to fly over the
front line into enemy territory, lest the new
aircraft fall into enemy hands. This noticeably
limited the opportunities for combat, which
was reflected in the persistent zero on Olivier's
fighter account. But on May 28 a formation of
AR.2 reconnaissance Dorands flew over the
front line and one of them became Olivier’s
prey. His account began to grow rapidly with
the arrival of new Fokkers D.VII. During June he
added seven victories, with six more in August.
With a tally of thirteen victories, he then left his
unit to take command of Jasta 19 on September
2, just two weeks before his twentieth birthday.
Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay
was the representative of fighter pilots who
no longer knew the “gentlemanly” duels fought
by the pre-war aviation pioneers, who in many
cases were friends until the outbreak of the
war. The air battles of 1918 were fierce, and
the fallen old knights were replaced by new
energetic men whose zeal and aggressiveness
were just what the new D.VII Fokkers needed.
Olivier took one of these great aircraft with
him when he left Jasta 15. It was a machine
powered by a BMW IIIa engine, which made
these planes better climbers and also capable
of higher speed. No wonder pilots loved them.
Beaulieu-Marconnay was given an aircraft that
was originally intended for Rudolf Berthold,
commander of the entire JG II. Olivier had it
repainted to match the color scheme of his
new unit, notably a yellow nose instead of red.
For more information on this subject, the reader
is referred to the kit Cat. No. 8483, the boxart
of which is the work of our Greek collaborator
Antonis Karydys. It depicts Olivier's D.VII in one
of the many battles with American pilots on
French Spads XIII. This time the painting is not
reflecting any specific action. It is just a scene
that represents the character and participants
of those battles.
The young commander of Jasta 19 met his
destiny on October 18, 1918. On that day, Jasta
19 pilots engaged British fighters in a crossfire
and one bullet hit Olivier's thigh. Some sources
state that it was a bullet fired by a fellow
German fighter, but evidence for this claim is
lacking. The heavily bleeding pilot was still
able to get his plane to the airfield and land.
He lost consciousness shortly afterwards
and was taken to hospital in Arlon, Belgium.
The wound became inflamed, and his condition
continued to deteriorate. The Luftstreitkräfte
command was already in process of awarding
him the Pour le Mérite after his twentieth
victory, but official procedures usually took
four to five weeks. Now, three weeks after
reaching the threshold required for the award
of the highly valued decoration, its prospective
recipient was lying in critical condition in
hospital. Sources differ as to the events at the
end of Olivier’s life. Some state that he learned
of the award six hours before his death, others
that the information had not reached him alive.
However, the “Blue Max” could not have been
awarded posthumously, so the official report
must have stated the first option ... In any case,
Olivier became the second youngest pilot to be
awarded this high decoration.
Text: Richard Plos
Illustration: Antonis Karydys
The second youngest
INFO Eduard
37
February 2024