LEUTNANT DER RESERVE WERNER VOSS (13.04.1897 – 23.09.1917)

Werner Voss was born on 13 April 1897 in the Rhineland mill town of Krefeld. Long famed for its quality silk and velvet manufacture, this ancient town still boasts a number of factories that continue a tradition of textile finishing that can be traced back to an influx of Mennonite cloth weavers who settled in the region during the 18th century. Some time in the 1890s, Max Voss, a wealthy industrialist and one of the town's most respected citizens, married his childhood sweetheart Mathilde Pastor; a staunch Evangelical Lutheran who took her faith seriously. It has been intimated in several histories that the Voss family were non-practising Jews, but this has no foundation in truth, and though there was at least one Jewish family of the same name living in Krefeld during the 1930s they were not related to the subject of this book. Voss is a very common name for the region, and at the time of writing the Krefeld directory lists no less than eighty-five telephone numbers for residents named Voss.

Shortly after their wedding Max and Mathilde moved into a large, well-to-do house on Blumenthalstrasse, then a pleasant tree-lined avenue that like most of the town was sadly destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War. But before the turn of the century the couple had produced five lively children, two girls Margrit and Katherine, and three boys Werner, Otto and Max. Mother saw to it that they were brought up properly; church on Sundays and Bible readings before bedtime. As might be expected the Voss children enjoyed all the comforts of an affluent background. Their fortune stemmed from a highly successful cloth dyeing business, then situated on Geburstsstrasse, that still exists to this day, though now merged into a larger concern trading as Voss-Biermann Lawaczeck GmbH.

Werner was happy and carefree as a child, and often displayed a natural wit that was popular with everyone, but at times he could be headstrong and impetuous – characteristics that came to the fore during his military career. Afforded a good education at Krefeld's Real Gymnasium, he did well as a student and passed several examinations with distinction. As the years passed he grew into a handsome young man of slim build, topped off with a mop of dark hair. Though not over tall, he had captivating blue eyes that from his early teens won the hearts of many a young Fraülein he chanced to meet in and about Krefeld. Unfortunately, the clouds of war arrested any possibility of his casual liaisons blossoming into long-term relationships, although there was talk of a young lady named Doris, who at some time may have figured large in his life and wrote a touching yet thought provoking letter to his mother in June 1918.

It was intended that the Voss boys would join the family business after completing their education, and no doubt they would have done so, but like so many impressionable young men of that hapless generation they were caught up in a wave of nationalistic fervour that swept through Europe like a tidal wave just prior to the outbreak of the Great War. In April of that fateful year of 1914, notwithstanding German conscription laws, Werner volunteered for his local militia, Ersatz Eskadron 2, a replacement unit for Westfälische Husaren-Regiment Nr. 11, then stationed at Paderborn. At the time the great alliances of Germany and Austria, opposed by Russia, France, and a less enthusiastic Great Britain, were busily stockpiling the powder kegs of war – and looking for an excuse to light the fuse. In April the French Ambassador to Austria wrote: 'Feelings that the nations are moving towards conflict grow from day to day.' In May a US envoy reported to President Woodrow Wilson: 'Militarism runs stark mad ... It only needs a spark.' The spark came in June when a young Serbian anarchist assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne during a state visit to Sarajevo. Heated diplomatic exchanges flew back and forth between the capitals of Vienna and Belgrade and Austrian accusations were followed by demands, which in turn were followed by an impossible ultimatum to Serbia. Self-righteous Austria demanded retribution – but was refused. On 28 July 1914, with the full support of Imperial Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on the tiny Balkan state. Within a matter of days the continent of Europe became irrevocably embroiled in the greatest conflict the world had ever known.

When Germany mobilised Werner Voss was still only seventeen years old, but this did not stop him taking full enlistment in his active service regiment on 16 November 1914. Two weeks later Hussar Regiment No. 11 was ordered to the Eastern Front where, in contrast to fighting in the west, a war of movement was still being fought. However, like so many cavalrymen of that era, the young Rhinelander soon found himself fighting on foot. The battle fronts settled down, and as static warfare spread from the Baltic Sea to far off Galicia, the opposing armies were forced to dig-in. Unpleasant, muddy trenches, constantly swept by shell-fire and flying bullets, were not to his liking at all. Inclement weather only added to his misery and with the onset of that chilling winter of 1914 life in the firing line became particularly arduous. As on the Western Front, the war in the east degenerated into localised acts of attrition that daily took their toll on the men in the trenches. Despite the hardships, and no doubt fortified by the invulner-ability of youth, Voss did his duty and distinguished himself in action on more than one occasion. On 27 January 1915 he was promoted to Gefreiter and by May he had been awarded his first decoration for bravery, the Iron Cross 2nd Class, which was quickly followed by a second promotion to Unteroffizier. But after ten months at the front, and by now feeling there could be no glory dying in a sea of mud far from home, he applied for a transfer to the Imperial German Air Service and was accepted. It is entirely possible that he actually engineered this move by getting himself classified as 'unfit for further infantry and cavalry duties.'

His discharge from the Hussars finally came through, and on 1 August 1915 Voss reported to Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilungen Nr. 7 stationed at Cologne. FEA-7 was a training and replacement depot where recruits were put through a stiff induction course and assessed. Within a month he was recommended for pilot training...