Carl "Charly" Degelow (5 January 1891 – 9 November 1970) Pour le Merite, Royal House Order of Hohenzollern,[1] Iron Cross,[2] was a German fighter pilot during World War I.
Degelow initially served with distinction in this infantry regiment in both France and Russia, winning both classes of the Iron Cross and earning promotion in rank from Gefreiter to Vizefeldwebel.
[4][7] He was reassigned to the Prussian Jagdstaffel 36 for transitional training into flying Pfalz D.III fighters in August 1917, but lasted fewer than four days.
Degelow accidentally wounded a member of the unit and was hastily reassigned on 17 August to Prussian Jagdstaffel 7 to fly a Pfalz D.III under the leadership of Leutnant Josef Jacobs.
[4][8] Degelow chose to fly a Pfalz because the Albatros D.V available to him had a reputation at the time for losing its wings in a dive.
He filed three widely spaced consecutive victories that were unconfirmed as the enemy planes landed on the Allied side of the front lines.
[8] In September, he was almost shot down by a Bristol F.2 Fighter after it hit his oil tank, which misted his flying goggles and blurred his vision.
Emblazoned on the side was a white running stag with gold antlers and hooves, its head pointed toward the propeller.
Immediately postwar, Degelow helped found the Hamburger Zeitfreiwilligen Korps to battle communists in Germany.
They were published in English in 1979 as Germany's Last Knight of the Air by Peter Kilduff, who added some additional commentary.