Death of Oswald Boelcke, 1916, a silver medal by F. Eue for Ball, bust left, rev. three aeroplanes over country setting, one shot down and in the process of falling to earth, 33mm (Frankenhuis 1005; cf. DNW 38, 913); Death of Oswald Boelcke, 1916, a struck bronze medal by K. Goetz, bust left, rev. naked female Victory holding a wreath over an aeroplane, German eagle above, 36mm (K 183) [2]. Very fine, the first bright from cleaning (£50-70)

Captain Oswald Boelcke (1891-1916), German flying ace with 40 kills to his credit, learnt to fly in the months immediately before August 1914. He and Max Immelman (†June 1916) were given the first two Fokker E1s, fitted with a synchronised forward-firing machine gun, in July 1915. In the weeks leading up to his death he commanded Jagdstaffel 2, a hand-picked group of pilots whose number included Manfred von Richthofen. Boelcke was killed when his aircraft collided with that of his colleague, Erwin Böhme, during a dogfight with DH2s flown by 24 Squadron RFC on 28 October 1916