Hans Imelmann

Hans Imelmann (* May 14, 1897 in Hanover, Germany, January 23, 1917 at Miraumont, Somme) was a successful German Jagdflieger in the First World War. He was shot down and killed before the age of 20.

Imelmann trained as a volunteer at the outbreak of the First World War and became a pilot. Oswald Boelcke, who had been appointed head of the new hunting season 2 in August 1916, and the pilots of his season could choose themselves, saw the only 19-year-old Imelmann during his combat training as a monoplane pilot at the Metz combat command center (KEK) Frescaty and chose the young lieutenant of the reserve for his season. Imelmann was the youngest pilot of the Jasta 2. Within less than five weeks, from October 10 to November 9, 1916, Imelmann scored five Luftsiege, several of them in joint assignments with his squadron Manfred von Richthofen. He reached his sixth and last on December 20, 1916.

On January 23, 1917, in northern France, the village of Miraumont (north-east of Albert and west of Bapaume) became an air raid between Imelmann's Albatros D.III and a British B.E.2c with Captain J.C. McMillan (pilot) and Second Lieutenant Hopkins (observer). At 14:05 am, Imelmann's machine burst into flames after a machine gun dash into the fuel tank and crashed. Imelmann was the first German air raid, which was shot down in the air in 1917 and was killed. Annotations and Single Signs Edit source text Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext

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