From author Bruno Schmaling -
Hello Friends,
after publishing of our book "Royal Bavarian Jagdstaffel 76" I would like to give you some insights of the research for the book.
In 1974 I obtained a small booklet listing the names and the addresses of the members of the “Alte Adler” (old eagles, the association of German pre- and First World War aviators. In the late spring 1976 I had my first phone call to Dr. Walter Böning, former member of Feldflieger-Abteilung 6b, Jagdstaffel 19 and Staffelführer of Jagdstaffel 76. He invited me to visit him, and in September 1976 I seized the chance to meet him at his home in the city of Arolsen.
Dr. Walter Böning, now 82 years of age, was a very active person who had worked as a physician until the end of his 70´s. He was mentally fully active, and only ocassionally suffered from the late effects of the wound in his leg from the 1st World War. I was very warmly welcomed by him and his wife and I stayed for two days and Dr. Böning made his three photo albums available to me for research. I used the time to go through the photo albums with Dr. Böning in order to obtain additional information from him about the photos. A point of particular interest for me was, of course, the painting schemes of the aircraft shown in the photos.
He also showed me the letters he had written to his parents during the war, from 1914 – 1918. Two week later I received the copy of the letters, all together 370 pages ! I recognised the historical value of these letters, as they documented substantial parts the history of Bavarian Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 6, Jagdstaffel 19 and Jagdstaffel 76.
As I found the material extremely interesting, I made a second trip to Arolsen in October 1976 to meet Dr. Walter Böning again. In this case I stayed nearly three days and he took the time to meet me every day. The focus of the second meeting was to go with him to go through his letters, dealing mainly with Jagdstaffel 19 and Jagdstaffel 76, in an attempt to collect additional information.
Some years later I was able to establish contact to Frau Anna Vollert, the widow of Herrn Clemens Vollert, the special duties officer of Jagdstaffel 76. The very friendly and helpful lady also gave me the chance to copy the photo albums of her late husband, which contained photos of Bavarian Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 6 and Jagdstaffel 76. Surprisingly, she also had a photo-album with very interesting photos covering the early days of Jagdstaffel 2, and I could also copy these pictures.
After time-consuming research, I also found the daughter of Jagdstaffel 76 pilots Josef Bauer, as well as relatives of Julius Geyer and Karl Hopf, who also kindly provided access to their photos and notes. Especially the photos and information left behind by Julius Geyer and Josef Bauer provided interesting details about the aircraft equipment of Jagdstaffel 76 during the closing stages of the war. More very interesting photos were provided by my colleagues Greg VanWyngarden, Rainer Absmeier, Reinhard Zankl and Tobias Weber.
All this material gave me the chance to do the book in cooperation with Reinhard Kastner and Jörn Leckscheid, with 50 colour profiles a good number never seen bevor including correction of before published colour profiles.
I hope the reader will enjoy the book.
Bruno Schmäling
James
*Source - The Aerodrome
