Jagdstaffel 55

Jasta 55
A German Albatros D.Va aircraft (serial 7416/17) from Jasta 300 captured by Australian forces at Jenin, North Palestine, in 1918.
Active	1918
Country	German Empire
Branch	Luftstreitkräfte
Type	Fighter squadron
Engagements	World War I

Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 55, commonly abbreviated to Jasta 55, was a "hunting group" (i.e., fighter squadron) of the Luftstreitkräfte, the air arm of the Imperial German Army during World War I. The squadron scored at least eight aerial victories during the war. The unit's victories came at the expense of eight killed in action, one killed in a flying accident, and one taken prisoner of war.^[1]

History

October 17, 1917 A German Albatros D.III aircraft (serial D636/17) flown by Oberleutnant Gustav Adolf Dittmar of Fliegerabteilung 300. The aircraft had been shot down, practically intact, into AIF Light Horse lines near Beersheba, Palestine, by a Bristol fighter aircraft flown by Lieutenant R. Steele, a Canadian pilot with No. 111 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, members recovered the machine and moved it to their airfield where repairs, including a bullet holed radiator, were carried out returning it to flying condition. The aircraft is pictured at the aerodrome at Sheikh Nuran.

Jasta 55 was formed on 1 January 1918 at Flieger-Abteilung (Flier Detachment), Schneidemuhl, Kingdom of Prussia (present day Poland). On 25 January, it mobilized for shipment to Jenin, Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire; the new unit was in place by 31 March 1918. The squadron was locally dubbed Jasta 1F. It moved to Derra on 20 September 1918, and lasted out the war there.;^[1] Consolidated with "Fl.abt 300" aka "Jasta 300"^[2]

Commanding officers (Staffelführer)

• Karl Meierdirks: ca 1 January 1918 – 4 May 1918 (KIA)
• Wilhelm Debus: ca 4 May 1918 – 1 June 1918
• Gerhard Wilhelm Flecken: 1 June 1918 – war's end^[1]

Duty stations

• Jenin: 31 March 1918 – 20 September 1918
• Derra: 20 September 1918 – war's end^[1]

Aircraft

• Albatros D.III
• Albatros D.V^[1]

References

1. Franks, Bailey & Guest (1993), p. 48.
2. The Aerodrome Forum

Bibliography

• Franks, Norman; Bailey, Frank W. & Guest, Russell F. (1993). Above The Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service, and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. London, UK: Grub Street. ISBN 978-0-948817-73-1.