Vizefeldwebel Friedrich Ehmann was a German World War I flying ace

Flying ace

A flying ace or fighter ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied, but is usually considered to be five or more...

 credited with eight confirmed aerial victories. Two of his victims were enemy aces: Richard Minifie

Richard Minifie

Richard Pearman Minifie DSC & Two Bars was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War. Born in Victoria, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. Travelling to the United Kingdom, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in June 1916...

 and Robert A. Little

Robert A. Little

Robert Alexander Little DSO & Bar, DSC & Bar is officially regarded as the most successful Australian flying ace of World War I, with a total of forty-seven aerial victories. Born in Victoria, he travelled to England in 1915 and learnt to fly at his own expense before joining the Royal Naval Air...

.

Early life

Friedrich Ehmann's birthplace in the Kingdom of Württemberg can be deduced by its custom of awarding their military medals solely to their own citizens.

World War I

Ehmann first comes to history's notice when he flew for Kest 5 from 22 October to 25 December 1917. During this time, he claimed his first aerial victory, which went unconfirmed.

He then transferred to an established fighter squadron, Jasta 47. Ehmann's second confirmed victory was over one of the leading Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...

 aces, Richard Minifie

Richard Minifie

Richard Pearman Minifie DSC & Two Bars was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War. Born in Victoria, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. Travelling to the United Kingdom, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in June 1916...

, who had 21 victories. Minifie, who belonged to 1 Naval Squadron

No. 201 Squadron RAF

No. 201 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, until March 2010, operated the Nimrod MR2, based at RAF Kinloss, Moray. It is the only squadron affiliated with Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. This affiliation started in 1935 and is commemorated in the museum on Castle Cornet. Its history goes even...

, came down unwounded on 17 March 1918, but sat out the remainder of the fighting as a prisoner of war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

.

On 21 April 1918, Ehmann downed his second enemy ace. Robert A. Little

Robert A. Little

Robert Alexander Little DSO & Bar, DSC & Bar is officially regarded as the most successful Australian flying ace of World War I, with a total of forty-seven aerial victories. Born in Victoria, he travelled to England in 1915 and learnt to fly at his own expense before joining the Royal Naval Air...

, who was the leading Australian ace of the war, scoring the majority of his wins in a RNAS Sopwith Triplane

Sopwith Triplane

The Sopwith Triplane was a British single seat fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Sopwith Aviation Company during the First World War. Pilots nicknamed it the Tripehound or simply the Tripe. The Triplane became operational with the Royal Naval Air Service in early 1917 and was...

, shot down one of Ehmann's squadronmates. When Ehmann, in turn, shot Little down, he crashlanded unhurt behind British lines. Little reported the cause of his downing as a shattered main spar and bullet-riddled controls.

Ehmann was awarded Württemberg's Military Merit Order

Military Merit Order (Württemberg)

The Military Merit Order was a military order of the Kingdom of Württemberg, which joined the German Empire in 1871. The order was one of the older military orders of the states of the German Empire...

 on 18 October 1918. He was also awarded the Iron Cross

Iron Cross

The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

 First Class.

List of aerial victories

See also Aerial victory standards of World War I

Aerial victory standards of World War I

During World War I, the national air services involved developed their own methods of assessing and assigning credit for aerial victories.The victory scores of the pilots represented at List of World War I flying aces often cannot be definitive, but are based on itemized lists that are the best...

Confirmed victories are numbered and listed chronologically. Unconfirmed victories are denoted by "u/c" and may or may not be listed by date.

No.	Date/time	Aircraft	Foe	Result	Location	Notes
u/c	7 November 1917		Dorand AR.2		Dannemarie, Haut-Rhin Dannemarie, Haut-Rhin Dannemarie is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It is the principal town in the canton of the same name and the seat of the Communauté de communes de la Porte d'Alsace.-Geography:...
1	11 March 1918 @ 1705 hours	Pfalz Pfalz Pfalz may refer to:*Kaiserpfalz, also known as Königspfalz, a castle which was a temporary seat of power for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Early and High Middle Ages, etymologically derived from Latin palatium - Geography:...	Sopwith	Destroyed	Zonnebeke Zonnebeke Zonnebeke is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the villages of Beselare, Geluveld, Passendale, Zandvoorde and Zonnebeke proper. On January 1, 2006 Zonnebeke had a total population of 11,758...
2	17 March 1918 @ 1215 hours	Pfalz	Sopwith Camel Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917. Manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Company, it had a short-coupled fuselage, heavy, powerful rotary engine, and concentrated fire from twin synchronized machine guns. Though difficult...  serialnumber B6420	Destroyed	Moorslede Moorslede Moorslede is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Dadizele and Moorslede proper. On 1 January 2006, Moorslede had a total population of 10,618...	Victim: Richard Minifie Richard Minifie Richard Pearman Minifie DSC & Two Bars was an Australian fighter pilot and flying ace of the First World War. Born in Victoria, he attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. Travelling to the United Kingdom, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in June 1916...
3	18 March 1918 @ 1205 hours	Pfalz	Nieuport Nieuport Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars.-Beginnings:...  fighter	Destroyed	Hooglede Hooglede Hooglede is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Gits and Hooglede proper. On January 1, 2006 Hooglede had a total population of 9,831...	Victim from No. 29 Squadron RFC No. 29 Squadron RAF No. 29 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was first raised in 1915, and is one of the world's oldest fighter squadrons. The second British squadron to receive the Eurofighter Typhoon, it is currently the Operational Conversion Unit for the RAF's newest fighter.-Service in World War I:This unit was...
4	12 April 1918 @ 1020 hours	Pfalz	Sopwith Camel	Destroyed	Frelinghien Frelinghien Frelinghien is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is part of the Urban Community of Lille Métropole.-Heraldry:-References:*...	Victim from No. 43 Squadron RAF No. 43 Squadron RAF No. 43 Squadron was a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron originally formed in 1916 as part of the Royal Flying Corps. It last operated the Panavia Tornado F3 from RAF Leuchars, Scotland in the air defence role until disbanded in July 2009.-In World War I:...
5	21 April 1918 @ 1630 hours	Pfalz	Sopwith Camel s/n B6319	Destroyed	Southeast of Hazebrouck Hazebrouck -Communications:The town enjoys excellent rail connections, with frequent daily services to Lille and Paris, some by High Speed Line. There is a small international airport, concentrating on business flights, at Merville-Calonne just 12 kilometre / 8 miles away...	Victim: Robert A. Little Robert A. Little Robert Alexander Little DSO & Bar, DSC & Bar is officially regarded as the most successful Australian flying ace of World War I, with a total of forty-seven aerial victories. Born in Victoria, he travelled to England in 1915 and learnt to fly at his own expense before joining the Royal Naval Air...
6	11 May 1918 @ 1835 hours	Pfalz	Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a	Messines Messines Messines may refer to:* Mesen, a village in Belgium**Battle of Messines, World War I,* Messines, Quebec* HMCS Messines, one of twelve Battle class naval trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy* Messines, Queensland...	Destroyed; sent down smoking	Victim from No. 1 Squadron RAF No. 1 Squadron RAF No. 1 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It operated the Harrier GR9 from RAF Cottesmore until 28 January 2011.The squadron motto is In omnibus princeps , appropriate for the RAF's oldest squadron and one that has been involved in almost every major British military operation since...
7	28 May 1918 @ 2020 hours	Fokker D.VII Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII was a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the summer and autumn of 1918. In service, the D.VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft...	Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a	Destroyed	Northwest of Vlamertinghe, Belgium
8	28 May 1918 circa 2020 hours	Fokker D.VII	Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a	Destroyed	Northwest of Vlamertinghe

Reference

• Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920 Christopher F. Shores, Norman L. R. Franks, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1990. ISBN 0948817194, 9780948817199.
• Pfalz Scout Aces of World War 1: Volume 71 of Aircraft of the Aces. Greg Vanwyngarden. Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1841769983, 9781841769981.

Endnotes

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