On this day in 1915, a 20-year-old German aviator named Kurt Wintgens becomes the first pilot in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with a synchronized machine-gun. “I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other in the face,” he later writes. pic.twitter.com/4ysDS6GnLd
— Military History Now (@MilHistNow) July 1, 2025
The post On this day in 1915, a 20-year-old German aviator named Kurt Wintgens becomes the first pilot in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with a synchronized machine-gun. “I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other in the face,” he later writes. first appeared on JOSSICA – jossica.com.

