BackgroundHermann Goering was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria, in 1893. His father was a professional soldier who rose to be the first governor of German West Africa (modern-day Namibia, where one of the main streets in the capital is still Goringstrasse). Young Hermann grew up in friends' homes and in military schools while his parents were abroad. (Historians and amateur psycho-analysts have had a field day attributing Göring's adult evil to his childhood without parental love. Of course, Winston Churchill's youth was about the same.) Without question, Göring was an undisciplined and reckless youth, but he fit into the rigid structure of military life. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1912, and was assigned to Alsace where he formed a cyclist corps. By 1915, he was hospitalized for rheumatism; a visit by his friend Bruno Loerzer (a future 41-victory ace) persuaded him to join the air corps. He essentially deserted his infantry unit, and assumed the role of Loerzer's observer. He and Loerzer both won the Iron Cross, First Class, for their reconnaissance work. He flew with Loerzer until the spring of 1916, when he went to pilot training school at Courtrai. Göring claimed he already knew how to fly and "borrowed" a Rumpler that he flew to the front. In short order, he was assigned to a fighter staffel near Verdun. Staffel 5Göring's unit was Staffel 5, flying Fokkers (E.IIIs?) with his friend Bruno Loerzer. By the end of 1916, he was credited with three French airplanes and with saving Bruno's life. When Loerzer's machine gun wouldn't fire, two Nieuports pounced on him. Goering saw this and drove off both Frenchmen, destroying one of their aircraft. In mid-February, 1917, he got separated from his flight one day and went after a twin-engine biplane. After he knocked out one of its engines, a flight of Spads showed up and attacked. He fought them for fifteen minutes as he flew all-out for the German lines. The Spads shot up him and his aircraft quite badly, but he managed to land near a field hospital, where prompt treatment probably saved his life. (What a shame, one cannot help but observe. How much agony would the world have been spared if Göring and a certain German corporal had been killed in World War One?) But he did survive, and returned to action in a couple months. In May, Loerzer reciprocated and saved Goering one day when his propeller was shot away; Loerzer covered him until he could land at an advance airfield. By the end of May, Göring had accumulated seven aerial victories. Jasta 27In June, 1917, Göring was given command of Jagdstaffel 27, a unit made of new graduates of flying school. Within a few days of joining Jasta 27, Goering was leading a flight of ten planes over Arras when they encountered a group of British Nieuports. Göring dived after one Nieuport and soon found himself in trouble as the Nieuport began to shoot him up. But he got in a lucky burst and Englishman went down on the German side. A week later Göring scored his tenth kill when he met some FE's and Camels above Cambrai. After destroying an FE, another flight of Sopwiths came on and shot down one of his Albatroses. Göring knocked down another one of the Camels before even more arrived, at which point he led his Albatroses home. By the end of 1917, he had sixteen claims. 1918Göring started the year on a near-disastrous note, when the gunner in a British F.E.2b riddled his fuel tank and sent him spinning earthwards. Some other Albatroses from his squadron saved him again. He had another close encounter in February when Lt. W.B. Craig, a five-victory Sopwith pilot, shot up Göring's Albatros. Once again, luck rather than skill seemed to be with Göring, and he shot down Craig. By June he had run his score to 21, and won the Ordre pour le Mérite. Richthofen GroupGöring was appointed head of the Richthofen Group in July, much to the annoyance of many aces in that group with 40+ kills. But Göring turned out to be a good group leader and the complaints faded away and morale improved. He shot down one more Spad for his 22nd and final victory. The respected historian and author, Norma Franks, noted that many of Goring's kills seem to have occurred over British lines, a rather suspicious circumstance. When the war ended, J.G. Richthofen was ordered to Darmstadt. When the group arrived there, the city was in the hands of revolutionaries, who captured some of the planes' weapons. Goering faced down the rebels, threatening to bomb and strafe the town if the arms were not returned. The revolutionaries complied.
Did he have a panache for Gaudy uniforms and glutonious eating in those days too LOL.. Good post buddy
I don't know about his eating habits, but that D.VII above was his personal mount, specially finished by Fokkers in all white As he was commanding JG 1, I suppose that was one of his percs. His previous D.VII was rather sober, and his Albatros D.V had an all black fuselage with white tail and nose. I'll try to get images of those later.
Found this in a WW1 forum. Strange formatting but... *The aircraft of Herman Goering by Greg Van Wyngarden appears in Over the Front Vol. 10 Number 3. * * My only interest in Herman Goering is in the colours and markings of his aircraft. *In May 1918,his triplane (possibly 206/17 ) of Jasta 27, bore his standard white cowling, tail, struts and wheel covers , otherwise factory finish. Original white crossfields overpainted during conversion to Balkenkreuze. Rudder remains white with black balkenkreuze. *His first D.VII fighter( possibly 278/18) *from Jasta 27 also bore white nose, struts, tail, wheel centres. Rest of aircraft in early factory finish -streaky fuselage/ lozenge wings. Fin and rudder white. The port interplane strut also carried an anemometer type ASI (there is one in the Dragon kit) There is also the *all white D.VII (5125/18) which was his final fighter during the war. He also flew a D.VII ( 4250-4449/18 series) *with a red forward fuselage, *all struts, and wheel covers in red. *From mid-cockpit aft fuselage and tail white. Front third of fin also painted white. The rest of the fin and rudder in factory finish. *This red and white D.VII and the all white aircraft had the port cockpit side cut down. *His triplane and D.VII fighters were also fitted with simple baffles made from sheet metal to deflect spent cases away from his immediate vicinity. * His final victory was in a early model Fokker D.VII F294/18 *described in his combat report with red forward fuselage with yellow tail. It has been said this aircraft was Lothar von Ricthofen's as it bore his colours. *In Greg's article,this aircraft is provisionally depicted as red metal cowling, all struts and wheel covers in red. Horizontal Stab. and fuselage aft. in yellow. wings lozenge, front third of fin white white, remainder of fin and rudder in factory finish. Fuselage in streaky finish. * * *As all D.VII noted were Fokker built, all with lozenge fabric wings would have rib tapes cut from lozenge fabric. * In regards to the black and white striped Fokker D.VII you noted on the W.W.I modelers website , according to the caption in Alex Imrie's " Fokker Fighters of World War 1" *this aircraft was flown to Sweden and sold to the Swedish Air Service in 1920. It's pilot Herman Goering. He notes that the machine carries the markings of Jasta 26 and judging by the neatness of the paint job was probally *factory applied. * The markings are of the type used by Goering's friend , noted German ace and JG 3 commander, Bruno Loerzer. *Note the horizontal black and white bands on top wing. As lead aircraft of JG 3,*this wing marking was used on Lozerer's other D.VII fighters.
Nice post, Za. Did I read that it was during WWI that Goering developed his opium addiction, or am I losing my mind?
One thing does not neither imply nor prevent the other I'm not quite sure but I think Hermann did develop an addiction after his wound during the Beer Hall Putsc in 1923. Pain-killers simply were not what they are nowadays. Remember Sherlock Holmes and his cocaine fix? That was entirely acceptable back then, and if I'm not mistaken C0ca-C0la did contain coca at first.
Werner Voß (Voss) painting fuselage insignia on his Albatros D.III Unbelievable collection of WW1 aircraft photos here: http://www.earlyaviator.com/archive1.htm
A decent fighter for his time bracket, the DH-2. And the frightful Gotha bomber (G.IV). Some say this was another propaganda myth. And its cousin, the Frierichshafen G.III
The SPAD A2. The gunner is actually in front of the propeller. The 'true white-knuckles aeroplane', it was so described Any volunteers? :lol:
great pics M ~ Göring in fact liked to make a poser of himself in a rather large way, his wife, his home and his hunting escapades which in respect he was an above average hunter. during pre-war and when time permitted during the war he would run off to his rather un-modest Jagdhaus in Ost Preussia and goof off in the forest firing at anything and everything that was allowed , moose and Elk especially as the ehads of course became prize trophies for his Lodge, enough so that his party's were on par with a convention 35 to 100 folk at a time. did he adept himself to his drug use during this time, quite possibly. There are at least 2 books in the German covering this period of time by unknown authors, have read through one with some quite interesting photos of a youthful but gaining weight Göring, and his "prizes"
