KITS 05/2021

Albatros D.V 1154/17, Lt. Max Ritter von Müller, Jasta 28, Varsenare, Belgium, September 1917

Max Müller was the German ace with 36 victories. He finished his pilot course on April 4, 1914 and at the outbreak of the war, he joined

Bavarian FFA1. Following his one-seaters course he joined KEK Nord in May 1916 and after a short spell with Jasta 1 he got tempted by the

offer of Oswald Boelcke to join the Jasta 2. Müller achieved his first victory on October 10 and added four more before the end of the year.

On January 20, 1917 he was transferred again, now to the new Jasta 28, where he became the most successful pilot of the unit. By the end

of the 1917 his score had risen to 36 victories and Müller decided to return to his “old” Jasta 2. But after the death of Walter von Büllow, the

CO of Jasta 28, Müller was appointed deputy leader of the unit. He took off for his first Staffelführer combat flight on January 9, 1918 and

it turned out to be also his last flight. The fuel tank of his Albatros was hit during combat with R.E.8, the aircraft caught fire and went down

in flames. With no parachute and inevitable dreadful death Müller opted to bail out from the cockpit to his inevitable end. His Albatros D.V

sported personal marking of the stylised black comet; the fuselage got the red painting to reflect the new Staffelführer status. The horizontal

stabiliser was in yellow with black longitudinal stripe – the unit´s colour markings.

Albatros D.V, 2030/17, Lt. Alfred Lenz, Jasta 22, Ercheu, France, April 1918

Alfred Lenz scored six victories during the Great War and although not the most successful ace, he was highly regarded long-time leader of

Jasta 22. Prior to the war he served in Infantry Regiment r. 95, being commissioned in the Reserve. He had re-joined his unit at the outbreak

of the war but requested pilot training. After the completion, he joined FA61 at the end of June 1914 and scored his first victory in 1915. He

went to FFA23 and Fokker Kommando Vaux under Berthold´s leadership in January 1916. The unit later became Jasta 4 and Lenz had stayed

there from September to October 16, 1916. His next move was to the Jasta 14 later, but he did not achieve any success. Nevertheless, he

was appointed commander of Jasta 22 on July 1, 1917 and stayed there till the end of the war. He flew Albatros DIIIs in 1917, Pfalz DIIIs and

Albatros D.Vs in 1918. After the war he served as an aerial gunner with Abteilung 431 in 1919. This Lenz´s Albatros D.V is a bit of mystery, as

the blue colour of the fuselage is only probable. Some sources also mention green colour, but Lenz was a Bavarian, so the cobalt blue would

be logical choose for him. Apart of the band of the diamond shaped objects behind the cockpit, there is an interesting painting at the rear of

a person sitting on the big bird and looking through the lens at something what looks like D.H.2 airplane.

INFO Eduard - May 2021

eduard

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