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 Do you stil see me?
("Kennscht mi noch?") Leutnant
Friedrich Kempf
By : Deborah Susan Jones : Editor
Some
aeroplanes are famous and some are simply legendary through paradox,
publicity, or appearance. Not especially fast, certainly very
manoeuvrable and good at climbing, yet, unstable to the point where
some pilots were scared to fly it, once painted red and in the hands of
"The Red Baron" it was never going to be less than legendary, but there
were many exotically painted Triplanes and this issue's subject is
certainly an interesting one.
Manfred
von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, Josef Carl Jacobs, Erich Loewenhandt, all
were were Triplane flying Aces, and that included LT Paul Friedrich
Kempf, who was a pilot of Jasta 2 (Boelke). He only achieved four
victories but an entry on 'The Aeroplane' Forun suggests the following
story, that "Kempf was a very talkative young man and when he meets an
old comrade he hasn't seen for months he walks up to him, touches his
shoulders and says "Hello, I'm Fritz Kempf, we know each other from...,
kennscht mi noch?" (Do you still remember me?) He adds this question
nearly everytime, a habit. His comrades made a joke of it even in a
dogfight. So he decided to choose this sentence as his personal
marking".
Be
that as it may, on 3/20/1917 Kempf received the Iron Cross 1st Class
and transfers to Jasta Boelcke and the recorded victories on
these dates are: 4/30/17 a BE2d, 6/5/17 Sopwith Pup, 10/20/17 Sopwith
Camel. He received another decoration, Bulgarian Military Merit Order
w/ War Decoration. Then assigned on 10/20/17 to Jastaschule I at
Valenciennes for duty at the flight school until 1/30/18. Kempf scored
again on 5/8/18, another Sopwith Camel. His last victory. Then awarded
another decoration, the Knight 2nd Class with Swords of the Zaehringen
Lion, on 8/18/18 Kempf is detached from Jasta B and returns to
Jastaschule I and finishes out the war there. His final award of the
war comes two days before his return home, the Wound Badge in Black for
his wounding four years earlier in the infantry
Though
he was not a leading ace of course the paint scheme on his plane
assures his machine is always seent scheme his pictures are widely seen
and makes for a great painting.
Deborah Susan Jones : Editor
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