A CREW FOR ETERNITY

MCCUDDEN'S 17TH - THE HUTS CWGC CEMETERY, YPRES

As we are in Flanders today I thought I’d take the chance to visit a highly decorated Saxon Oberleutnant and observer of the Fliegertruppe, whose photo I have in my collection. It is signed in ink on the obverse:

‘In the field, 28.9.1917. To my dear pilot Koriath as a friendly souvenir of joy and sorrow on joint combat flights, Ernst Hädrich, Oblt’. 

The Huts CWGC cemetery near Ypres in Belgium.

Ernst Hädrich was born on 30 December 1893 in Weißenfels in the Prussian Province of Saxony. When the war broke out, Hädrich was already serving as an officer in the Royal Saxon Fußartillerie-Regiment Nr. 12 a regiment in which he served until at least September 1916. All of his awards were won during the time he served as an artillery officer. Most prominent on his medal bar and most certainly most noteworthy is the Saxon Knights Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry, the highest bravery award the Kingdom could bestow. On second place of his medal bar is the second class of the Saxon Knights Cross of the Order of Merit with Swords. In third place he is wearing the Saxon Knights Cross Second Class of the Order of Albrecht with Swords while the fourth and last place is taken by the Prussian Iron Cross 2nd Class. 

While we don’t know how he won the last three decorations, we do know for what the Military Order of St. Henry was awarded as the citation survives: ‘Leutnant Hädrich has distinguished himself as officer-observer during the costly fighting at Verdun and especially during the assault on the village of Fleury where on 23. 6. 1916, he has directed the fire of the artillery while advancing with the first wave of the infantry and as such ensured the artilleristic defence against French counter attacks. He set a shining example for the men and, in the face of heaviest artillery fire, obtained the highest commitment of his subordinates to achieve a maximum of firepower from the guns. Leutnant Hädrich has crucially contributed to the capture of Fleury.’

It is unclear when Hädrich decided to join the Luftstreitkräfte, but it is clear that shortly after having been wounded a second time (a light wound which didn’t require stationary treatment) in September 1916, he must have been transferred to observer school and, probably in early 1917, to his new field unit Flieger-Abteilung 8, where he seemed to have teamed up with a pilot named Koriath, of whom little is known, but to whom he dedicated the photograph depicted below.

Oberleutant Ernst Hädrich

On 17 October 1917 Oberleutnant Hädrich took off from FA8s airfield at Ooigem in Flanders with another pilot, Flieger Heinrich Horstmann (born 2 May 1893 in
Stift Quersheim) on board a LVG C.V (Number G.81) reconnaissance two-seater. It was to be the last flight of both men. What happened to the two is described in the after action report of the man who would become their vanquisher, British ace and later VC holder James McCudden of 56 Squadron:

'Whilst going north at 14000 feet over Wytschaete at 11am saw EA two-seater getting height over Comines. I waited till EA crossed lines and started pursuit when EA was well East. Caught up to EA just S of Poperinghe without being observed, and fired a burst of 30 rounds from Vickers from just under his tail. EA's propeller stopped and petrol which was streaming from his centre-section caught fire. The flames soon burnt out and after going down vertically to 12,000 EA's left wings fell off and he crashed just south of Vlamertinghe.'

In his book ‘Flying Fury’, McCudden recorded a far more detailed account of the encounter:

‘Nothing much happened of further interest to relate until October 17th, when I shot down another Hun two-seater within our lines. We left the ground at about 10 a.m. to do a patrol over our lines, as the wind was so strong from the west that I was given orders not to cross the lines. As we got our height over the Nieppe Forest, I saw that the visibility was very good, and so I thought that we should have some Huns over our lines. Very soon a Hun came over Armentières and then turned south, but it was no use our chasing him, for we had not yet sufficient height, so we flew on up the line towards Ypres, and on our way I watched a Hun two- seater who was over Commines, apparently waiting to cross the lines as soon as we passed, so I went on as far as Ypres, over which we arrived at 14,000 feet. Presently we saw a German two-seater scuttling towards Neuve Eglise, so very soon we were between him and his lines. The Hun was slightly higher than we were, and as we went towards him another Hun passed over us, whom some of my patrol turned to engage. However, now that the first Hun had seen us he came east towards us and then turned away west again, no doubt with the intention of trying to out-climb us, but I am sure he did not fully appreciate the performance of a well tuned S.E.5. 

Very soon I got to my position, and fired a good burst from my Vickers, when the L.V.G. at once burst into flames which issued from the centre section. While the Hun was turning to the left I could see the unfortunate observer standing up in an attitude of abject dejection. As he turned I saw that the flame, which had burned the fabric off his rudder, had gone out, for apparently there was not much petrol in the tank in the centre section to burn for long. By now the Hun was gliding down towards the North, and as he had no means of turning either way I was interested in following him down until he landed in our lines, for we were now over Vlamertinghe, which was fifteen miles from the trenches. But now another member of the patrol arrived and at once commenced shooting at the poor unfortunate Hun, who went down in a dive and then broke to pieces, no doubt because of the weakening of the centre section of his wings by the fire. I followed the wreckage down till the Hun crashed and then landed alongside on some good stubble in order to put a guard on the Hun. 

I left my engine ticking over while I went to look at the Hun, and I found two groups of Australian infantry. I pushed my way into the middle of the first group and found that the attraction was the observer, who had fallen from the machine at about 5,000 feet. He was a huge man named Ernst Hadrich, and seeing that he was dead I went over to the other group of men, about a hundred yards away, and here found the remains of the machine and the pilot. 

Everything of any value in the way of souvenirs on the machine had already gone, for although I landed a very short time after the Hun came down, the Tommies had already taken what was worth taking, and the way they behaved around the machine was not very edifying from the disciplined point of view in which I had always been brought up. Seeing that I could not do anything more, I went to have some lunch with a Sapper officer at an artillery group headquarters, where they were very good to me and gave me a good time. After lunch I restarted my engine and flew back to my aerodrome with my machine laden with various interesting fittings from the Hun machine, which was a new type of L.V.G. with all controls "balanced," and for motive power a 200 h.p. Benz engine. To this day I have a very nice cigarette box made out of the propeller of that Hun.’

It is well possible that Oblt. Hädrich jumped to his death intentionally, thus evading the horrible fate of being burnt to death in the stricken LVG. We will never know. 

Oberleutnant Ernst Hädrich and his pilot, Flieger Heinrich Horstmann, are buried in one grave on the The Huts CWGC cemetery, 6 kilometres south-west of Ypres in Flanders, Belgium. Pilot and observer united in eternity. Pay them a visit when you can.