10th victory: Bristol Scout

Double victory: 13 March 1916

At 1255 hours Immelmann and Lt. Max Ritter von Mulzer of FFA 62 teamed up to shoot down a Bristol Scout C #4678. (This is not #4678, though the serial is close—469X? Of interest on this example are the extremely atypical wing-mounted machine guns.) #4678 was flown by Maj. Victor Barrington-Kennett, Commanding Officer of No. 4 Sqn. RFC. The plane crashed so near the lines that British artillery was able to shell the wreck to prevent its capture. Barrington-Kennett was killed. (His younger brother 2nd Lt. Aubrey Hampton Barrington-Kennett had already been killed at Aisne, 20 Sept. 1914, and his elder brother, Major Basil Herbert Barrington-Kennett of the Grenadier Guards, had been killed on 18 May 1915.)

The Bristol Scout was a difficult opponent. Only three were ever lost on the German side of the lines. Two of these were downed by Immelmann, the other being his 15th victory, #5301 of No. 11 Sqn., flown by 2Lt. Morden Maxwell Mowat, on 16 May. Mowat was after a pair of German LVG two-seaters when Immelmann attacked his tail. One of the LVG crews claimed the Scout as a victory, but Mowat’s wounds were from behind, and the victory was credited to Immelmann. Mowat died as German soldiers were extricating him from the wreck.

Four hours after downing the Scout, Immelmann fired some 500 rounds at No. 8 Sqn. BE2c #4197 (left), which crashed at Vis-en-Artois, near Pelves, east of Arras. These were Immelmann’s 10th and 11th victories, his first “double.” They constituted half the total German Eindecker victories that day.

And lest we forget: (right) the BE2C’s crew: pilot Lt. Gilbert Denis James Grune (foreground) and observer 2Lt. Brian Edward Glover. Grune had gained his wings on September 2nd 1915 and gone to France that November. Grune is buried at Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery. He was 22 years old, the son of Dr. And Mrs. Grune of The Hall 49, Southwick, Brighton. Glover, 21, buried in the same cemetery, was awarded a DCM and French Medaille Militaire. He was the son of Edward Arthur Glover of Ringmer, Lewes, Sussex.