Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg
Encyclopedia
Hauptmann Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg (16 June 1890 – 29 October 1964), Order of the Iron Crown
Order of the Iron Crown (Austria)
The Austrian Imperial Order of the Iron Crown , was restablished in 1815 by Emperor Franz I. The Order of the Iron Crown had previously been an order of the Napoleanic Kingdom of Italy.-History:...

, Order of Leopold
Order of Leopold (Austria)
The Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold was founded by Franz I of Austria on 8 January 1808. The order's statutes stipulated only three grades: Grand Cross, Commander and Knight. During the war, in common with the other Austro-Hungarian decorations Crossed Swords were instituted to reward bravery in...

, Military Merit Cross
Military Merit Cross
Military Merit Cross is the name for a military decoration in various states, including:* Military Merit Cross * Military Merit Cross * German States:...

, Military Merit Medal
Military Merit Medal
Military Merit Medal can refer to:* Medal of Military Merit * Military Merit Medal * Military Merit Medal of Philippines* Military Merit Medal * Military Merit Medal * Argentine Army Military Merit Medal...

, Gold Medal for Bravery, Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

 was an Austro-Hungarian fighter ace with 28 victories to his credit during World War I. He was the third ranking ace of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was also a technical innovator who pioneered the use of machine guns, radios, and cameras in airplanes. His forty-year aviation career also included aircraft manufacture, airport management, and the establishment of commercial airlines.

Early life

Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg was born in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to an aristocratic family with a tradition of military service. His father was an artillery officer and his brother in naval aviation. Fiala attended primary and secondary school in Vienna, and went on to major in mechanical engineering at the local University of Technology, becoming an Ingenieur.

He had an early fascination with aviation but was initially refused aviation service, instead being gazetted as an officer in the engineers and assigned to Fort Artillery Regiment 1 in 1910.

Assignment to Aviation

Being assigned to the artillery didn't quash his interest in aviation; his brother was a naval aviator, and Fiala visited airports. While at one, he met Emil Uzelac
Emil Uzelac
Milan Emil Uzelac was a Croatian soldier and military commander who was a leading figure in the air forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia.-Life:...

, Commander of the fledgling air force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Uzelac arranged Fiala's transfer to Fliegerkompagnie 1 of the Luftfahrtruppen as a technical officer. Fiala completed training as a flying observer on 28 July 1914, the very day Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 declared war on Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

.

In November 1914, Fiala took charge of the locomotive of a supply train and drove it to safety even though it was under attack by Russian troops and he was wounded in the action. He was awarded the Silver Military Merit Medal
Military Merit Medal (Austria-Hungary)
The Military Merit Medal was a military decoration of the Empire of Austria-Hungary. It was founded by Emperor Franz Joseph I on March 12, 1890...

 for this. On 10 November, he was also received a most unusual promotion to leutnant (Second Lieutenant) ahead of his sequence in seniority.

Although trained as an observer, Fiala's duties in this beginning of the war consisted mainly of arming planes with machine guns, and experimenting with aerial cameras. He also rigged a 30 kilogram (66 pound) radio transmitter in an unarmed plane. It was used in May 1915 at the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow on the Russian Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...

; by sending corrections to a receiver on the ground, it successfully adjusted mortar fire. Fiala was briefly attached to the testing section of the air arsenal before being reassigned to a flying unit.

Aerial Victories

Fiala had had a couple of unconfirmed victories on the Russian Front. Now he was transferred to Fliegerkompany 19 on the Italian Front in January 1916. There he flew a Hansa-Brandenburg C.I
Hansa-Brandenburg C.I
-See also:-References:# Munson, Kenneth - Bombers, Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft 1914 - 1919 ISBN 0 7537 0918 X# # # -External links:* ....

 two seated reconnaissance plane, scoring his first confirmed triumph on 29 April 1916.

On 4 May 1916, he was piloting a Hansa-Brandenburg C.I when he teamed with a second C.I to shoot down the Italian airship M-4. The semi-rigid dirigible had been returning from a bombing raid when Fiala shot it down above Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...

, Italy, killing the entire crew of six.

Fiala was wounded by anti-aircraft fire in the beginning of 1917. It was during this recuperation that he decided to apply for pilot's training. After he recovered, he moved into Fliegerkorps 41J, then into a Hansa-Brandenburg D.I
Hansa-Brandenburg D.I
|-See also:-Bibliography:*Angelucci, Enzo . World Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft. London: Jane's, 1981. ISBN 0 7106 0148 4.*Gray, Peter and Thetford, Owen. German Aircraft of the First World War. London: Putnam, 1962....

 fighter in Fliegerkorps 12D.

Beginning 9 August 1917, he ran off a string of five confirmed and two confirmed wins for the month. He scored once more, in October, before changing squadrons once again in November, to move into an Albatros D.III
Albatros D.III
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service and the Austro-Hungarian Air Service during World War I. The D.III was flown by many top German aces, including Manfred von Richthofen, Ernst Udet, Erich Löwenhardt, Kurt Wolff, and Karl Emil Schäfer...

 with Fliegerkorps 56J.

He notched win number nine with 56J, but didn't spend long with them; he transferred into command of Fliegerkorps 51J in January, 1918. His steady accretion of victories helped shape Flik 51J into the premier squadron of the Austro-Hungarians. Especially notable was his 14th win; on 30 May 1918, he downed British ace Alan Jerrard
Alan Jerrard
Flight Lieutenant Alan Jerrard VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....

 in an action that was so fierce, it won the loser the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

.

Fiala racked up number 28 on 20 August 1918. He continued to fly until October, but then was posted to nonflying staff duties until war's end.

The engineer turned fighter pilot had flown on two fronts which had more hazardous flying conditions and less opportunity for air combat than the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

 in France. His victory roll included a dirigible, three observation balloons, and a predominance of enemy fighters among the planes he had felled. He claimed at least five unconfirmed victories. He had won the Order of the Iron Crown
Order of the Iron Crown (Austria)
The Austrian Imperial Order of the Iron Crown , was restablished in 1815 by Emperor Franz I. The Order of the Iron Crown had previously been an order of the Napoleanic Kingdom of Italy.-History:...

, Order of Leopold
Order of Leopold (Austria)
The Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold was founded by Franz I of Austria on 8 January 1808. The order's statutes stipulated only three grades: Grand Cross, Commander and Knight. During the war, in common with the other Austro-Hungarian decorations Crossed Swords were instituted to reward bravery in...

, Military Merit Cross
Military Merit Cross
Military Merit Cross is the name for a military decoration in various states, including:* Military Merit Cross * Military Merit Cross * German States:...

, Military Merit Medal
Military Merit Medal
Military Merit Medal can refer to:* Medal of Military Merit * Military Merit Medal * Military Merit Medal of Philippines* Military Merit Medal * Military Merit Medal * Argentine Army Military Merit Medal...

, Gold Medal for Bravery, and the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....

.

Postwar

Fiala returned to college after the war, completing an engineering degree from the University of Vienna in 1923. From 1925 through 1927, he worked with Professor Hugo Junkers
Hugo Junkers
Hugo Junkers was an innovative German engineer, as his many patents in varied areas show...

 of Junkers
Junkers
Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG , more commonly Junkers, was a major German aircraft manufacturer. It produced some of the world's most innovative and best-known airplanes over the course of its fifty-plus year history in Dessau, Germany. It was founded there in 1895 by Hugo Junkers,...

 fame on aircraft maintenance for civil airliners. In 1928, he entered into a partnership with Mitsubishi Industries of Japan to produce an all-metal plane for the United States market.

In March, 1933 he was placed under house arrest by the Gestapo by direct order of Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...

. After his release, he fled Germany back to his native Austria. He then joined his old comrade in arms Julius Arigi
Julius Arigi
Julius Arigi was a flying ace of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I with a total of 32 credited victories. He was Austro-Hungary's most highly decorated ace. His victory total was second only to Godwin Brumowski. Arigi was considered a superb natural pilot...

 in founding an airport operations company. He was an executive of this company through 1936. During World War II, he served in the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 as a Captain, or Hauptmann. Later, he ran the airport in Horsching
Hörsching
Hörsching is a municipality in the district Linz-Land in Upper Austria, Austria. It is next to the Linz Airport which is served by a shuttle bus from the Hörsching train station....

, Austria.

He died in Vienna on 29 October 1964. The Austrian air force base at Aigen
Aigen
Aigen is a district in the city of Salzburg, Salzburgerland, Austria and is known as one of the most expensive residential areas of the provincial capital.It is one of the 24 districts in which Salzburg is organized...

is named for him.

External links

  • http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/fiala.php
  • http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/fernbrugg.htm
  • http://www.greatwarflyingmuseum.com/aces/austria_hungary/benno_von_fernbrugg.html
  • http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_gorlice_tarnow.html
  • http://aces.safarikovi.org/victories/austria_hungary-ww1-airship.killers.html
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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