| One of England's greatest fighter pilots, Ball lived, and fought, as a "loner". Rather than bunk with his squadron mates, Ball built himself a small shack that he lived in; he had a garden. Gaining his talented and deadly reputation from both sides,
Ball began his war flying a French Nieuport 17 but switched over to the S.E.5 when they were introduced later in the war. The S.E.5 had a Vickers machine gun mounted over the cowling in front of the pilot, and a Lewis "drum fed" machine gun was mounted on the upper wing; these guns were sighted to intersect at about 100 yards in front of the plane. Ball had his mechanics mount a second Lewis gun inside his cockpit so that he could shoot DOWN at any enemy plane beneath him.
In letters to his family he wrote how distasteful it was to kill Germans; he had no animosity towards them, but realized it was his job.
When his squadron took off on their daily patrols, Ball would hunt alone. This sort of "lone wolf" hunting was popular early in the war and only the very best survived. It was the German ace, Oswald Boelcke (pronounced "Buul-kah") who began to form his squadrons (called "jastas") into coordinated fighting forces, a tactic which, after his death, was mastered by Manfred von Richthofen, the famous "Red Baron". This new tactic signaled the end of the "lone wolf" hunter, and Ball's days were numbered.
His death (May 7, 1917) remains confusing. Having engaged several German "scouts", Ball was seen engaged with an all-red Albatross flown by Lothar von Richthofen (40 victories), the Baron's younger brother. During their fight, Ball was seen to fly into a cloud. Advanced German troops saw him emerge from the cloud "inverted" (upside down) which was quite a common occurrence to pilots who became disoriented after flying into clouds. Ball's S.E.5 was only 200 feet above the ground and was seen trailing a stream of smoke; he didn't have time to right himself and he crashed into the ground. When German troops rushed up to help, they found Ball had been removed from the wreck by a French maiden, Mademoiselle Cecile Deloffre, in whose arms he died. Sent to a hospital, the doctors could find no wounds on his body and his death was attributed to a broken back. This was not good enough for the German high command; an enemy like Ball HAD to have been shot down by a German and they pinned the credit on Lothar, although in his daily report he never said that he even fired on an S.E.5 that day. Either way, von Richthofen was given the credit and Ball was buried with full military honors, the Germans notifying the British of Ball's death and burial in a condolence note dropped from a plane. It is very possible that Ball's death was caused by his lack of fuel; he had been out long enough for his tank to have run dry. And when his S.E.5 inverted, what fuel remained would have flowed onto the engine thus causing the stream of smoke. Likewise, when his plane crashed it did not burst into flames which, again, suggest that it was an empty fuel tank which did him in.
Although keeping accurate scores of "victories" was questionable on both sides, Ball was given credit for 44 "kills". He was 20. Of the many medals that Ball was awarded, there are three medals attached to this painting. On Ball's tunic is the white "Military Cross" and the other one is the "DSO" (Distinguished Service Order). Hovering above and near his head is the "Victoria Cross", England's highest medal of honor. It floats beside him because it was awarded to him posthumously.
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