Frank Linke - Crawford Oberleutnant Frank Linke - Crawford ( 18 August 1893 – 30 July 1918 ) , was the fourth - ranking ace of the Austro - Hungarian empire during World War I , with 27 victories . Early life . Frank Linke - Crawford was born in Krakau ( Cracow ) , in what is presently Poland . His father , Major Adalbert Linke , was a Galicia n soldier ; his mother , Lucy Crawford , was British . Despite this mixed background , he was a citizen of the Austro - Hungarian Empire . He entered the Wiener - Neustadt military academy in 1910 . Upon graduation , he was commissioned Leutnant and assigned to the 6th Dragoon Regiment . On July 28 , a month after the assassination of Austria - Hungary ' s Archduke Franz Ferdinand , his country declared war on Serbia . This was the initial declaration of war that snowballed into World War I . Linke - Crawford first saw battle on the Russian Front . In November , 1914 , he was appointed commander of the infantry troop of the Sixth Dragoons . Between October 1914 and October 1915 , he received several decorations ; he also was hospitalized several times with malaria and dysentery . In 1915 , Linke - Crawford ' s fascination with the Luftfahrtruppen ( Austro - Hungarian air service ) led him to request a transfer for pilot training . His poor health is also mentioned as a reason for his transfer . Aerial service . Upon his completion of observer training at Wiener - Neustadt in March 1916 , Linke - Crawford was posted to Fliegerkompanie 22 to fly reconnaissance and bombing missions in two seater airplanes . In September , 1916 , after six active months flying as an observer , he retrained as a pilot . In January , 1917 , he was transferred to Fliegerkompanie 12 as chief pilot , which made him second in command of the unit . His new posting was still to a unit serving on the Isonzo Front in northern Italy . While his duties remained recon and bombing , he was now operating over mountainous terrain . He also flew some attack sorties in single seat fighters . On one of these missions , on 13 April , he shot down a Nieuport that cartwheeled into a crash far behind the Italian lines . He did not bother to attempt to claim this victory , though he mentioned it in a letter home to his sister . On 25 May , his aircraft was badly shot up , taking 14 hits from a couple of Spad fighters . He then had another unconfirmed triumph on 25 June . He gained a reputation for courage . On one of his long range reconnaissance missions , he was attacked by an Italian Spad , which riddled his Hansa - Brandenburg C . I with 68 bullet holes over a half hour period . Nevertheless , he completed his mission . On 2 August 1917 , while flying his Aviatik C . I with no rear gunner aboard to man the craft ' s single machine gun , he was shot down but uninjured as Pier Piccio ' s eighth victim . On 4 August 1917 , he was transferred to Fliegerkompanie 41 , situated near Trieste . Flik 41 was Austro - Hungary ' s most renowned air unit ; it was commanded by the empire ' s top ace , Godwin Brumowski . Linke - Crawford damaged his airplane upon landing at his new base , Sesana Airfield . He began wearing a scarlet flying helmet and white trousers when he flew , leading to the nickname of " Redhead " . He marked his plane with falcons painted on either side . He scored his first confirmed aerial victory on 21 August 1917 , using a Hansa - Brandenburg D . I to down a Nieuport . In the next five days , he scored three more confirmed wins using this plane , with one claim going unconfirmed . The Hansa - Brandenburg D . I had serious liabilities as a fighter plane ; it spun easily , had poor forward visibility , and its machine gun was mounted well above the pilot ' s head on the top wing to fire above the propeller arc . It was nicknamed " the flying coffin " and killed more pilots in flying accidents than died in combat . Linke - Crawford ' s switch to flying an Albatros D . III mounted him in a fighter that not only offered him better field of vision , especially downward , but also armed him with twin Spandau machine gun s in front of him that were synchronized to fire through his propeller . Flying the Albatros D . III , he shot down a seaplane on 23 September 1917 to become an ace . Continuing to use the Albatros , he ran up a score of 13 by 13 December . In late December , 1917 , Linke - Crawford was appointed commander of Fliegerkompanie 60 . This unit was stationed at Grigno in northern Italy until March , 1918 . This airfield was located in a swampy mountainous basin and was prone to flooding . Flik 60j ' s seven pilots flew against an opposition of British , Italian , and French pilots . Linke - Crawford ' s plane in Flik 60j was a Phonix D . I . He used this slow but sturdy twin - gunned fighter to run up seven triumphs in the first three months of 1918 . Flik 60 transferred to Feltre , also in northern Italy . This was a better airfield than Grigno . Linke - Crawford scored his last victory in the Phonix on 11 March . In mid - March , he grounded all the Phonix ' s in his unit because of their unreliability . Beginning on 10 May , Linke - Crawford switched to an Aviatik D . I . ( 115 . 32 ) At least five of these seven wins were over superior aircraft , such as the Sopwith Camel and Bristol F . 2 Fighter s . Death and legacy . On July 30 , 1918 , the day after his final victory , he was flying an early model Aviatik ( Berg ) D . I in a formation of four . He was shot down in flames by a pair of Italian Hanriot HD . 1 fighters , with his plane disintegrating before impact . Linke - Crawford had separated from his wingmen before engaging the Italians . His plane had spun out before engaging them ; he had then recovered and been fired upon . His plane had then fallen apart in midair . Linke - Crawford was accredited as Caporale Aldo Astolfi ' s sole success as a fighter pilot . Given that the Aviatik was the first fighter manufactured entirely in Austria , and that it initially had a reputation for wing failures during violent aerial maneuvers , there was suspicion that Linke - Crawford had fallen afoul of a faulty airplane rather than an Italian pilot . While the original Aviatik D - I design by Julius von Berg was sound , the Series 115 aircraft license - produced by the Lohner firm at Wien - Floridsdorf were notorious for failures along the wing trailing edges in high speed maneuvers , as Lohner had deviated from Aviatik specifications by employing thinner , lighter wing ribs . At the time of his death , Linke - Crawford was flying one of these defective machines , build number 115 . 32 . His legacy was best described by one of his peers , Julius Arigi , who was the second ranked Austro - Hungarian ace : " Linke was both a fine flier and a fine man . He gave his men full support and generally ignored the rules about officers and non - officers having little to do with each other . He often gave away victories to other , less experienced pilots . As you can imagine , the feelings of his men for him were quite strong . " Although Frank Linke - Crawford was originally buried at Pobrežje Cemetery in Maribor , now Slovenia , after the war , in 1919 , he was reinterred in Salzburg .