Leutnant () is the lowest junior officer rank in the armed forces of Germany ( Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the military of Switzerland. History The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") from Middle High German «locum ...

'' Franz Hemer was a World War I German

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

credited with 18 aerial victories.

Biography

Hemer was originally a talented concert cellist. His long curly blonde hair sparked his nickname of "Locken". Hemer served with Flieger-Abteilung (Artillerie) 283 before he was posted to Jagdstaffel (Jasta) 6 on 10 September 1917. He scored his first victory on 27 October 1917, when he shot down an RE.8. He scored once more in 1917, on 12 November. He was then assigned a Fokker Dr. 1. He had a wavy yellow line painted the length of the fuselage, symbolizing the wavy locks of hair that gave him the nickname "Locken".''Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps 1914 - 1918'', pp. 126-127 By the end of March 1918, he became an ace. He scored at least five more victories with the triplane before upgrading to a

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII is 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 second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII ...

. He scored his last victory on 8 August 1918. The following day, he was wounded in action when his

was shot down during a dogfight with RAF DH.9s of No. 49 Squadron RAF supported by

Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...

s. While convalescing, he was commissioned a ''

''. However, he apparently did not return to flight duty before the war's end. Later he became managing Director of ''König & Bruder'' in Leipzig, head office in Vienna, an old fur trading company. Franz Hemer died on 18 October 1982 in Frankfurt.

References

Sources

* ''Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps 1914 - 1918''. Norman L. R. Franks, et al. Grub Street, 1993. . *

Biography

References

Sources

Further reading