Max Immelmann (21 September 1890 – 18 June 1916) PLM was the first German World War I flying ace.

[1] He was a pioneer in fighter aviation and is often mistakenly credited with the first aerial victory using a synchronized gun, which was in fact achieved on 1 July 1915 by the German ace Kurt Wintgens.

Immelmann was the first aviator to receive the Pour le Mérite, colloquially known as the "Blue Max" in his honour, being awarded it at the same time as Oswald Boelcke.

Immelmann served as a pilot with Feldflieger Abteilung (Field Flier Detachment) 10 from February to April 1915, and then in FFA 62 by early May 1915.

It was with the E.13/15 aircraft, armed with the synchronized lMG 08 Spandau machine gun, that Immelmann gained his first confirmed air victory of the war on 1 August 1915, a fortnight after Leutnant Kurt Wintgens obtained the very first confirmed German aerial victory on 15 July 1915 with his own Fokker M.5K/MG production prototype E.5/15 Eindecker,[4] one of five built, following two unconfirmed ones on 1 and 4 July, all before Immelmann:[1] Like a hawk, I dived ... and fired my machine gun.

Nonetheless, the 450 bullets fired at him took their effect; Reid suffered four wounds in his left arm, and his airplane's engine quit, causing a crash landing.

[7] Immelmann was the first pilot to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest military honour, receiving it on the day of his eighth win,[8] 12 January 1916.

The thrashing of the unbalanced air screw nearly shook the aircraft's twin-row Oberursel U.III engine loose from its mounts before he could cut the ignition and glide to a dead-stick landing.

After a long-running fight, scattering the participants over an area of some 80 square kilometres (30 sq mi), Immelmann brought down one of the enemy aircraft, wounding both the pilot and observer.

[18] Early versions of such gears frequently malfunctioned in this way and this had happened to Immelmann twice before, while testing two- and three-machine gun installations.

[19] Damage to the propeller resulting in the loss of one blade could have been the primary cause of the structural failure, evident in accounts of the crash of his aircraft.

The resultant vibration of an engine at full throttle spinning half a propeller could have shaken the fragile craft to pieces.

Immelmann’s body was recovered by the German 6 Armee from the twisted wreckage, lying lifeless over what was left of the surprisingly intact Oberursel engine, sometimes cited as under it.

The Pöppelmann grave figure "Eagle of Lille", weighing around 100 kilograms, and approximately 180 centimetres in height, was dismantled and taken away by two men using a handcart to transport it to a pick-up truck parked nearby.

[22] The public prosecutor's office in Dresden, which brought charges against the alleged perpetrators, estimated the value of the grave figure at around 50,000 euros.

[23][24] A number of historically significant First World War artefacts have been stolen from the graves of soldiers in the Tolkewitz cemetery during 2021, with a suspicion of possible "theft to order".

Both these E.3/15 machine earlier shared with Boelcke, and his own E.13/15 aircraft, both used to secure Immelmann's first five victories between them each had a seven-cylinder 80 horsepower Oberursel U.0 rotary engine for their power.

According to Immelmann, the latter E.13/15 aircraft was retired and shipped off to Berlin for display at the Zeughaus Museum, in March 1916,[43] but was wrecked in the first bombing raids of the Royal Air Force in 1940, during World War II.