Vizefeldwebel Kurt Ungewitter was a German test pilot for Rumpler Flugzeugwerke and Albatros Flugzeugwerke, aircraft manufacturers in 1913. During World War I, he became a flying ace credited with seven aerial victories.^[1] He died in a postwar flying accident on 14 March 1927.

Biography

Kurt Ungewitter was born in Elberfeld on 13 November 1891. He had an early interest in aviation; he learned to fly in 1913 and became a test pilot for two German aircraft companies, Albatros and Rumpler until the start of the First World War.^[2] On 27 February 1914, just before the First World War began, he qualified for pilot certificate No. 683.^[3]

His assignments and actions in the early days of the war are unknown; however, he was still a Gefreiter when assigned to Schutzstaffel 5 (Protection squadron 5) in 1917.^[2]

On 3 January 1918, Ungewitter flew a DFW C.V that attacked a British aerial photography mission flown by Keith Park and his observer. The latter, Lieutenant John Henry Robertson, fired a burst of machine gun fire into the German two-seater, which dropped away in a sharp dive. The British air crew submitted a combat report claiming a "driven down out of control" victory. It was confirmed.^[4] Ungewitter also submitted a combat report claiming victory over Park and Robertson. It was denied.^[2]

However, flying with Vizefeldwebel Meinke as the aerial observer manning the guns in the rear seat, Ungewitter and Meinke scored two confirmed aerial victories in early 1918, on 9 January and 18 February. Ungewitter was awarded both the Second Class and First Class Iron Cross.^[2]

He was subsequently promoted, first to Unteroffizier, then to Vizefeldwebel. Though there is no mention of Ungewitter receiving the usual advanced training at Jastaschule (Fighter School), on 6 June 1918 he left Flug Park 18 (Flight Park 18) on a posting to a fighter squadron, Jagdstaffel 24. At 1940 hours on 27 June, he scored his first single-seater victory when he destroyed an observation balloon over Saint Just.^[2]

Ungewitter would not score again until 23 September 1918, when he downed a Bristol F.2b Fighter at 1725 hours over Levergies. He would destroy a Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5 on morning sorties on both 3 and 8 October. A final victory over Sopwith Dolphin number C8165 from No. 87 Squadron RAF on 4 November 1918, just one week before the war ended, brought his total to seven victories.^[2]

Kurt Ungewitter was killed in a flying accident on 14 March 1927.^[2]

Endnotes

References

• Norman Franks, Frank W. Bailey, Russell Guest. Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. Grub Street, 1993. ISBN 0-948817-73-9, ISBN 978-0-948817-73-1.
• Jon Guttman. Bristol F2 Fighter Aces of World War I: Volume 79 of Aircraft of the Aces: Volume 79 of Osprey Aircraft of the Aces. Osprey Publishing, 2007.

ISBN 1846032016, 9781846032011.