One tough hombre

Eduard Ritter von Schleich standing by his Albatros D.Va, Serial No. unknown, while serving with Jagdgruppe Nr. 8 in the Spring of 1918. Its fuselage, tail, struts and wheel covers were painted black, and the aircraft displayed unusually proportioned Balkenkreuze on the wings. The wings were finished in standard 5-color lozenge pattern. A white edelweiss had previously been worn on the fuselage just aft of the cockpit, and was still barely visible under the black over-painting. The presence of the edelweiss may indicate that this plane previously belonged to Otto Kissenberth, who flew a similarly-marked Albatros with a white edelweiss in this position while serving with Jasta 23b. Known as the “Black Knight”, von Schleich survived the war with 35 victories.