Roden Aircraft 1/32 Fokker FI WWI German Triplane Fighter Kit
On the morning of September 23rd Voss achieved his 48th victory (on September 11th he had managed to shoot three enemy planes in the same fight!) and he also hoped during the same day to notch up at least two more planes, however this ambition was not allowed to be carried out. In the afternoon he took off on patrol and came up against some British S.E.5a's from 56 Squadron. This was the elite squadron of the Royal Flying Corps and included some of the most successful and most skilled pilots. Voss did not hesitate; he had met a formidable enemy, but he courageously accepted the fight - one against seven. Voss was up against James McCudden, Arthur Rhys Davids and Richard Mayberry, aces of aces for the British Empire.
This legendary fight has become part of the history of the First World War, as a remarkable display of heroism and selflessness. James McCudden reported that at one point he watched five S.E.5a's simultaneously shoot tracers at Voss's plane. It was the very definition of a dogfight, planes flying around one another at distances of a few meters, but a happy outcome was not to befall the Germans on this day. Clearly Voss's was badly wounded - his plane lost control and started to plummet to the ground, its propeller stopped. The end for the triplane in this vicious and bloody struggle was delivered by Arthur Rhys Davids - he came onto the tail of the German and shot it with his last remaining rounds. The plane fell near Plum Farm, north of Frezenburg, and there the brave German ace came to his final rest.
The loss of two leading aces - Voss and Wolff - during one week had not been fatal to the fighting career of Fokker's triplane. The doubts disappeared when the details of Voss's epic fight with the English became known. The military issued Fokker with an order for 300 triplanes under the designation Dr.I, and soon this small three winged machine would become historic as the plane flown by the most famous German aces and, thanks to the Red Baron, one of the symbols of the First World War.
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