[2] He transferred to the Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Service) for pilot training with Flieger-Abteilung (Flier Detachment) 5 and was commissioned a Leutnant in March, 1916.

Bongartz was finally assigned to flying fighter aircraft with Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 36 in April 1917.

[2] His initial success as a fighter pilot came during Bloody April, so called such because of the severe losses suffered by the Royal Flying Corps.

Bongartz contributed to the British bloodshed by claiming four victories during April—a Spad VII, a Caudron and a pair of observation balloons.

One German infantryman rescuer noted the grotesquerie of the eyeball dangling down Bongartz's cheek during the bow.

His partial blinding and loss of depth perception, ended Bongartz's war but not his aviation career.

While serving as test pilot there, he wrote a report on the Dornier-Zeppelin D.I fighter prototype, which was the first plane to use a stressed skin/torsion box structure.

[citation needed] Once the war ended, he served as a postwar Director of the German Aeroplane Inspectorate.

After helping deactivate the air service in which he had served so gallantly, he went on to fight against the Spartakists who were attempting to overthrow the German government.

[7] During World War II, he originally served as an Oberstleutnant in supply during 1941 to 1942 at Pleskau on the Eastern Front.

[citation needed] He survived World War II, only to die of a heart attack on 23 January 1946,[8] while in Rheinberg.