Hans-Joachim Buddecke award received Pour le Mérite
Hans-Joachim Buddecke (22 August 1890  – 10 March 1918) was a German flying ace in World War I, credited with thirteen victories. He was the third ace, after Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, to earn the Blue Max (Pour le Mérite). He saw combat in three theaters during the First World War: Bulgaria, Turkey, and the Western Front. His exploits at Gallipoli arena won him the nickname El-Schahin, "hunter falcon".Background
Buddecke was born in Berlin and followed his father's footsteps into the Army. In 1904, he started as a Cadet; in 1910, he received his commission as Leutnant in the 115th Life Guards Infantry Regiment. He left the army in 1913 due to his little time for a social life and his new enthusiasm for flying. In the same year, he moved to the United States to start a new life, and flew for a time from the early aerodrome in Cicero, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. While in the US, he worked beside one of his uncles as a mechanic at a car factory in Indianapolis. By saving his earnings, on May 20, 1914 he was able to buy his own aircraft (a Nieuport monoplane) and he immediately taught himself how to fly. On the day Buddecke started his own aircraft production company, war was declared and he abandoned his business plans and returned to Germany, with the American-built Nieuport monoplane he had purchased at the Cicero aerodrome.  Travelling under a fake name, Buddecke crossed the Atlantic in the Greek ship Athene to Palermo (Italy). After he arrived in Europe, he immediately made his way home to join the German Army's Fliegertruppe air service.
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