ACE17P Lt. Hermann Frommherz - "Hard Luck Hermann"

Hermann Frommherz (10 August 1891 - 30 December 1964) began his military career in World War I as a fighter pilot. He was credited with 32 victories. General Major (Major General) "hard luck" Hermann Frommherz (winner of the Knight Cross and nominated for the Pour Le Merite with 32 kills) was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden in Imperial Germany in 1891, and died in Baden in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1964. A former Non-Commissioned Officer in the Jager Infantry who served with distinction on both the Eastern and Western Front before transferring to the Luftstreitkrafte (German Air Service) in the summer of 1915, Hermann Frommherz first flew two seat Aircraft, and was finally commissioned as a Leutenant in August 1916, and posted to Macedonia in late 1916. In March 1917 he was transferred to the elite Jagdstaffel (Jasta)-2 which had been commanded by the legendary Oswald Boelcke before his untimely death in 1916. Lt. Hermann Frommherz served in Jasta-2 during "Bloody April" and flew an Albatross-D-III called the "Blaue Maus" (Blue Mouse) in which he gained his first 2 kills by forcing his British opponents in a Spad-VII and BE-2c to land and be taken prisoner.

Hermann Frommhertz was a Conservative Monarchist and Nationalist, but was well known to be unenthusiastic about the Nazi Party. However, as a life long friend of Hermann Goering with very strong leadership skills he initially benefited from the rise of the Nazi Party, and became first a Colonel and then a Major General in the Luftwaffe in the 1930's and during the early part of World War-II. He was heavily involved in the occupation of Czechoslovakia, but after that his lack of enthusiasm for the Nazi cause seems to have cost him, and he was regulated to secondary commands during World War-II and eventually placed on the retirement list. After the war he was briefly detained by the French and then went home to his beloved Baden.