Combat Wisdom: Insight for Martial Artists from a World War I Fighter Pilot
- Mark Hatmaker
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read

Martial artists can learn a lot from people who have mastered different realms of combat because often the principles and tactics they use can be adapted to what we do.
Case in point: Oswald Boelcke. This German flying ace was one of the top innovators and instructors in the Axis air force during World War I. Among his many accomplishments, Boelcke chose a young Baron Manfred von Richthofen to become his pupil and coached him to an astonishing string of air victories. Von Richthofen is better known as the Red Baron.
Boelcke flew at a time when pilots of both the Axis and Allied powers still considered themselves “knights of the air.” They demonstrated a curious kind of chivalry that often entailed showing courtesy to the opposition. Stories abound of pilots who found that their primitive machine guns had jammed in the middle of a dogfight, only to receive a salute from their adversary as he opted to fly away rather than engage a defenseless opponent for an easy kill.