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The Red Battle Flyer - Story of The Red Baron - Manfred von Richthofen · Classic Drama Book Collection

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Speaker 1: Preface. Some time ago, a naval officer who was engaged
0:04
Speaker 1: on particularly hazardous duty was discussing calmly the chances that
0:09
Speaker 1: he and his like had of surviving the war, assuming
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Speaker 1: that it continued for several more years, and that his
0:15
Speaker 1: particular branch of it increased its intensity. He wound up
0:19
Speaker 1: his remarks by saying, the chief reason why I particularly
0:23
Speaker 1: want to survive the finish is that I am so
0:26
Speaker 1: keen on comparing notes with our opposite members in the
0:29
Speaker 1: German Navy. That is the answer to those who ask,
0:33
Speaker 1: as an important official gentleman asked recently why this English
0:37
Speaker 1: translation of Ritmeister von Richtoven's book should be published. It
0:42
Speaker 1: gives our flying people an opportunity of comparing notes with
0:45
Speaker 1: one of Germany's star turn fighting pilots, just as that
0:49
Speaker 1: excellent book by Contact gives the Germans the chance of
0:52
Speaker 1: gathering the atmosphere of the Royal Flying Corps as it
0:56
Speaker 1: was in nineteen sixteen and nineteen seventeen. The Red Battleflyer
1:02
Speaker 1: has evidently been carefully censored by the German authorities. Also,
1:07
Speaker 1: it has possibly been touched up here and there for
1:09
Speaker 1: propagandist's purposes. Consequently, although the narrative as it stands is
1:14
Speaker 1: extraordinarily interesting. The book as a whole is still more
1:18
Speaker 1: interesting on account of what one reads between the lines
1:22
Speaker 1: and of what one can deduce from the general outlook
1:25
Speaker 1: of the writer. There is perhaps little to learn of
1:28
Speaker 1: immediate topical interests, but there is much that explains things
1:32
Speaker 1: which were rather difficult to understand in the past, and
1:35
Speaker 1: the understanding of such points gives one a line of
1:38
Speaker 1: reasoning which should be useful to our active service aviators
1:41
Speaker 1: in the future. When one makes due allowance for the
1:45
Speaker 1: propagandist nature of the book, which gives one the general
1:48
Speaker 1: impression of the writing of a gentleman prepared for publication
1:51
Speaker 1: by a hacked journalist, one forms a distinctly favorable mental
1:55
Speaker 1: picture of the young Rittmeister Baron von Richtoven Friend Frossart
2:01
Speaker 1: is credited with the statement that in his age of chivalry,
2:04
Speaker 1: it was always impossible to inculcate into the German knights
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Speaker 1: the true spirit of knightliness, which seems to indicate that
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Speaker 1: the practical German mind of those days could not understand
2:15
Speaker 1: the whimsicalities of the Latin ideas of chivalry, which for example,
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Speaker 1: made a knight against whose shielded an opponent break his spear,
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Speaker 1: haul off out of the fight to the lanceless enemy,
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Speaker 1: unsheathed his sword, and drave into combat again. Probably the
2:31
Speaker 1: hunt of those days proceeded to stick his opponent into
2:34
Speaker 1: middrift wherever it may be, and so finish the fight
2:38
Speaker 1: in the same true spirit of nightliness. An Englishman knocks
2:42
Speaker 1: a man down and then stands back so that he
2:45
Speaker 1: can get up and have another chance, whereas a more
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Speaker 1: practical person would take excellent care that his opponent never
2:52
Speaker 1: got up till he had acknowledged himself beaten. It is
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Speaker 1: all a matter of the point of view, and largely,
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Speaker 1: no doubt matter of education. However, making due allowance for
3:03
Speaker 1: the point of view, one finds surprisingly little hunnishness in
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Speaker 1: von Richtoven's manners or methods, as set forth in print.
3:11
Speaker 1: It is one of the accepted facts of war that
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Speaker 1: the German aviators have displayed greater chivalry than any other
3:17
Speaker 1: branch of the German services. It was a common occurrence
3:21
Speaker 1: for their pilots to fly over our lines in the
3:24
Speaker 1: course of their business, and, by way of variety from
3:27
Speaker 1: that business, to drop packets containing letters from captured British
3:31
Speaker 1: aviators or the personal belongings of the dead. One gathers
3:36
Speaker 1: that these acts of courtesy have become less frequent of late,
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Speaker 1: owing to the intensification of aerial warfare. But it seems
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Speaker 1: that captured or killed aviators still received the full courtesies
3:48
Speaker 1: of war from the German aviators, whatever may be the
3:51
Speaker 1: fate of prisoners in other hands afterwards. It is not surprising, therefore,
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Speaker 1: to find that Taking Him all Round, written on Richtovein,
4:00
Speaker 1: conveys to one the general impression that Utatus mutands he
4:05
Speaker 1: is very like an English public schoolboy of good family.
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Speaker 1: His egotism, as one finds it in the book, is
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Speaker 1: the egotism of a young man who is frankly pleased
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Speaker 1: with himself, but is more related by his good luck
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Speaker 1: than by his cleverness. Taking him, by and large, one
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Speaker 1: rather likes von Richtovein, and one fancies that most of
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Speaker 1: the are of sa people who have fought him would
4:29
Speaker 1: be quite pleased after the war to sit at table
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Speaker 1: with him and compare notes over the cigarettes and liquors,
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Speaker 1: as my naval friend wants to do with his pre
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Speaker 1: war friends of the German navy. And there are unhappily
4:42
Speaker 1: not too many of our present enemies, of whom one
4:45
Speaker 1: would like to express such an opinion. When one comes
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Speaker 1: to read into the book, one begins to find many
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Speaker 1: interesting things about the German army and the war in general,
4:56
Speaker 1: as well as about the German Feltfligertrupen or fly. The
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Speaker 1: German is not really a skillful censor, just to certain
5:05
Speaker 1: portraits painted by an artist at Ruleven, conveyed by the
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Speaker 1: expression of the faces a good deal that Germany would
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Speaker 1: like hidden. So von Richtoven's book, though carefully censored, lets
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Speaker 1: out quite a good deal of information. The first thing
5:20
Speaker 1: that strikes one is that Germany's standing army at the
5:24
Speaker 1: beginning of the war was nothing like so perfect a
5:27
Speaker 1: fighting machine as we in this country believed. Although like
5:31
Speaker 1: all people with any sense in this country, the German
5:34
Speaker 1: army knew that a war was coming, the officers and
5:37
Speaker 1: men seemed to have set about their work in a
5:40
Speaker 1: singularly amateurish way, judging by the short section of the
5:44
Speaker 1: book devoted to the opening of the war on the
5:46
Speaker 1: Russian Front, and what is pleased to find that Von
5:50
Speaker 1: Richtoven has the grace to laugh at himself and his
5:52
Speaker 1: brother officers for their mistakes. In some ways, the soldiers
5:57
Speaker 1: of all nations resembled one another. For instance, one finds
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Speaker 1: in this book the same contempt for what the Germans
6:06
Speaker 1: pictureously called a base hog as the French half for
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Speaker 1: the embush, and as the British front line officer has
6:12
Speaker 1: for the young and able bodied officer who is something
6:16
Speaker 1: on the staff. This obnoxious breed is the same in
6:19
Speaker 1: all armies, and must be clearly distinguished from the carefully
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Speaker 1: trained and expensively educated general staff officer, who is very
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Speaker 1: much of a specialist and is the very brain of
6:30
Speaker 1: the army. When we come to the purely aviatic portion
6:34
Speaker 1: of the book, one finds more of the real vunrich
6:37
Speaker 1: Tobin and less of the cavalry officer. His honesty about
6:42
Speaker 1: his utter metal confusion the first time he went into
6:44
Speaker 1: the air recalls General Brackner's famous remark in his lecture
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Speaker 1: to the Aeronautical Society, when he said that no one
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Speaker 1: ever sees anything at all during his first hour in
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Speaker 1: the air, owing to the hopeless confusion in his mind
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Speaker 1: caused by the novel aspect of everything. Von Richtoven's description
7:03
Speaker 1: of his experience is about the best thing that has
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Speaker 1: been written on the subject. An interesting bit of information
7:10
Speaker 1: is disclosed in his description of his flight in a
7:12
Speaker 1: Grosfluksoig on September one, nineteen fifteen. At that period, little
7:18
Speaker 1: was known about twin engined aeroplanes. The Germans were known
7:22
Speaker 1: to have tried them, but they were not a success.
7:26
Speaker 1: The only example known to our people, though probably there
7:29
Speaker 1: was actually several different machines, was commonly known in the
7:33
Speaker 1: r of c as Zwangwong on account of the curious
7:36
Speaker 1: noise made by the engine or airscrews when they got
7:39
Speaker 1: out of phase. As an electrician might call it. This
7:43
Speaker 1: noise is now quite familiar to the inhabitants of southeastern
7:46
Speaker 1: England as the characteristic note of the growth of bombers.
7:51
Speaker 1: Von Richtoven's good judgment of fighting values, though he was
7:54
Speaker 1: then only an observer and a novice at that he's
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Speaker 1: shown by his disapproval of the twin engine aeroplane as
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Speaker 1: a fighting machine. It is also of interest to learn
8:04
Speaker 1: that at that period the Germans had tried an autolock
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Speaker 1: device to hold the rudder of a twin engined machine
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Speaker 1: over to one side so that it would fly straight
8:13
Speaker 1: at one engine without of action an ingenious idea, even
8:17
Speaker 1: if for doomed a failure. It is encouraging to find
8:20
Speaker 1: that though these twin engined machines were in operation in
8:24
Speaker 1: September nineteen fifteen, the first bombing squadron so composed only
8:29
Speaker 1: came into action against defenseless book Arest a year later.
8:33
Speaker 1: This shows that actually, we in this country are not
8:37
Speaker 1: so very much slower in producing our new ideas for
8:40
Speaker 1: our big Handley page. Twin engine biplanes first flew towards
8:43
Speaker 1: the end of nineteen fifteen, and we began to use
8:46
Speaker 1: them regularly early in nineteen seventeen, only a little more
8:51
Speaker 1: than a year later. The similarity of aviators in all
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Speaker 1: countries is shown by von Richtobn's frank confession of Blue
8:59
Speaker 1: Funk when he is first flight alone, that first solo
9:03
Speaker 1: is always the most anxious time in a pilot's career.
9:07
Speaker 1: Another touch of that nature which makes all aviators akin
9:11
Speaker 1: is seen in his accounts of how he and other
9:14
Speaker 1: pupils under instruction used to fly off on cross country
9:17
Speaker 1: training trips and suffer from opportune forced landings in the
9:20
Speaker 1: parts of their friends were in likely looking estates. One
9:25
Speaker 1: imagined that this manifestation of wangling was an essentially English
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Speaker 1: trick and would not have been tolerated for a moment
9:32
Speaker 1: under the iron discipline of the German army. In the
9:35
Speaker 1: early days of the RFC, this looking for opulent hosts
9:39
Speaker 1: used to be known sarcastically as hunting for jew palaces.
9:44
Speaker 1: The state of affairs on the Russian front is well
9:47
Speaker 1: shown in the brief reference in the book Flying in
9:50
Speaker 1: the East is absolutely a holiday, says the writer, who
9:54
Speaker 1: adds that there was no danger on the Russian front,
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Speaker 1: except the danger of being massacred by the Russians if
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Speaker 1: brought down by engine failure, from which one understands that
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Speaker 1: the Russians did not approve of making prisoners of enemy aviators.
10:08
Speaker 1: Their archies were apparently good, but too few to be useful,
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Speaker 1: and their aviators practically did not exist, which is rather
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Speaker 1: what one ventured to surmise in print at the time.
10:20
Speaker 1: Despite the magniloquent Russian communic hays, when one thinks of
10:24
Speaker 1: all the good British and French aeroplanes and engines which
10:27
Speaker 1: were sent to Russia, one regrets the waste of material.
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Speaker 1: On the subject of air fighting. Von Richtoven is always
10:36
Speaker 1: worth studying carefully. None will dispute his wisdom in laying
10:40
Speaker 1: stress on the importance of calmness in an air fight.
10:44
Speaker 1: We have lost many good fighting pilots through their getting
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Speaker 1: excited and dashing headlong into an unequal combat. He or
10:52
Speaker 1: his editor has been sufficiently skillful not to give away
10:56
Speaker 1: his pet method of attack. However, one gathers that he
11:00
Speaker 1: depended largely on his first rush for his results, rather
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Speaker 1: than on a prolonged series of maneuvers. His dictum that
11:07
Speaker 1: in air fighting results depend on ability and not on
11:10
Speaker 1: trickery bears out this impression. Nevertheless, he occasionally tells of
11:16
Speaker 1: a lengthy tussle with a particularly skillful enemy. Such a
11:21
Speaker 1: story relates how that very gallant gentleman Major Lineaux Hawker,
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Speaker 1: one of the best love and admired of the RFC's
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Speaker 1: many gallant fighting leaders, fell. It would seem that Major
11:32
Speaker 1: Hawker's machine was outclassed, rather than that he was beaten
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Speaker 1: by superior skill. One is glad to find that Von
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Speaker 1: Richtoven pays a tribute to the bravery and ability of
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Speaker 1: his enemy, and it is perhaps some slight consolation to
11:46
Speaker 1: those of us who knew Loneaux hawker to think that
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Speaker 1: he fell a victim to the German's best man and
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Speaker 1: not to a chance shot from an unworthy foe. It
11:56
Speaker 1: is rather curious that some time after emphasizing the fact
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Speaker 1: that trickery does not pay in air fighting, von Richtoven
12:03
Speaker 1: should show how trickery does pay by describing his young
12:06
Speaker 1: brother Lotar's trick of pretending to be shot and letting
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Speaker 1: his machine fall apparently out of control, so as to
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Speaker 1: break off a fight with opponents who were above his weight.
12:16
Speaker 1: One is inclined to wonder how many optimistic young air
12:19
Speaker 1: fighters have reported enemy machines as driven down out of control,
12:24
Speaker 1: when in reality the wily hun has only been getting
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Speaker 1: out of the way of harm. The older hands in
12:30
Speaker 1: these days are not easily caught by such a trick,
12:34
Speaker 1: and the high command refuses to count any victims so
12:37
Speaker 1: claimed unless the performance is verified by independent witnesses, either
12:42
Speaker 1: on the ground or a loft. Another point of interest
12:46
Speaker 1: in fun Richtoven's fighting methods is that he states that,
12:49
Speaker 1: as a rule, he opens fire at fifty yards. Distances
12:53
Speaker 1: are hard to judge in the air, the pilot is
12:56
Speaker 1: more likely to underestimate them than otherwise, one does in
13:00
Speaker 1: judging distances at sea. But von Richtoven is probably as
13:05
Speaker 1: good as judge as any, and in this he seems
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Speaker 1: to be stating a plain fact. In these days, fifty
13:11
Speaker 1: yards is fairly long range. Some of our own cracked
13:15
Speaker 1: fighters prefer fifty feet if they can get into their
13:18
Speaker 1: favorite positions. Anyhow, he shows the unwisdom of opening fire
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Speaker 1: at one thousand yards, as some inexperienced and excited machine
13:27
Speaker 1: gunners are rather rapt to do. Von Richtoven's chaser squadron,
13:31
Speaker 1: or yachstaffel, as the Germans called these formations, was the
13:34
Speaker 1: first to be known as a circus. The famous Boki Squadron,
13:39
Speaker 1: although a fairly mobile body, the members of which cooperated
13:42
Speaker 1: closely on occasion, never developed formation fighting to the extent
13:46
Speaker 1: that Von Richtoven did his men, although as the book shows,
13:51
Speaker 1: they went out periodically on lone hand adventures, generally flew
13:54
Speaker 1: in a body numbering anywhere from half a dozen to
13:57
Speaker 1: fifteen or so. Their leader chose to paint his little
14:01
Speaker 1: albatross a brilliant pillar box red. The others painted their
14:05
Speaker 1: machines according to their fancy. Some had yellow noses, blue bodies,
14:09
Speaker 1: and green wings. Some were pale blue underneath and black
14:13
Speaker 1: on top. Some were painted in streaks, some with spots.
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Speaker 1: In fact, they rang the changes on the whole of
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Speaker 1: the paint box. They flew wonderfully, being all picked men,
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Speaker 1: and in a fight they performed in a manner which
14:27
Speaker 1: would have seemed impossible to the most expert aerial acrobats. Also,
14:33
Speaker 1: the squadron was moved from place to place as a
14:35
Speaker 1: self contained unit, so that it appeared wherever the fighting
14:38
Speaker 1: was thickest, or wherever British or French reconnaissance machines were busiest.
14:44
Speaker 1: It would be operating and Verdun one week. The next
14:47
Speaker 1: week it would be north of Arras. A few days
14:49
Speaker 1: later it would be down on the Song, But as
14:52
Speaker 1: a rule it specialized on the British front. Wherever it
14:55
Speaker 1: pitched its tents, it did its regular squadron performance and
14:59
Speaker 1: followed later in the day with lone hand raids or
15:02
Speaker 1: strafing flight by two or three machines at a time.
15:06
Speaker 1: When one considers the harlequin coloring of the machines, their
15:09
Speaker 1: acrobatic flying, and their two shows a day performances from
15:13
Speaker 1: their one week pitches, it follows logically that the hubris
15:16
Speaker 1: of the ROFC simply had to call the squadron from
15:20
Speaker 1: Richtoven's traveling circus. Since then the word has acquired a
15:24
Speaker 1: meaning of its own. Among flying men, it connotes practically
15:29
Speaker 1: any special formation organized for the purpose of hunting enemy
15:32
Speaker 1: aviators and consisting of picked men under a specialty skillful leader.
15:38
Speaker 1: It need not necessarily be more mobile than any other squadron,
15:42
Speaker 1: and it need not indulge in free colourings, though in
15:45
Speaker 1: the nature of its work its flying must be acrobatic.
15:50
Speaker 1: The British circuses are in these days superior to the
15:53
Speaker 1: German circuses, because our machines are now at least as
15:57
Speaker 1: good as those of the Germans, and so are men
15:59
Speaker 1: who have always been of higher average quality than the
16:02
Speaker 1: German aviators have a fair chance of proving their work.
16:06
Speaker 1: Of those upon Richtobn's sircus mentioned in the book. Schaeffer
16:10
Speaker 1: was the first to be killed. Before the war, he
16:13
Speaker 1: lived in London to learn English, working in an office
16:16
Speaker 1: in the city when so inclined, but mostly spending his
16:19
Speaker 1: time on the river or on sport. Those who knew
16:22
Speaker 1: him say that he was a pleasant lad and a
16:25
Speaker 1: good sportsman. Lost was the next to go. After what
16:29
Speaker 1: has been described by those who were in it as
16:31
Speaker 1: one of the most gallant fights of the war. On
16:34
Speaker 1: a Foker triplane with a French larone engine, evidently an
16:38
Speaker 1: experimental machine built for quick maneuvering. He fought single handed
16:42
Speaker 1: a patrol of six of our people, when he could
16:44
Speaker 1: have broken off the fight and have got away by
16:47
Speaker 1: abandoning an inferior companion. He was a brave man and
16:51
Speaker 1: a most brilliant pilot. His flying and shooting at his
16:55
Speaker 1: last fight are said to have been marvelously clever. None
16:59
Speaker 1: admire his bravery more than those who fought him. Others
17:03
Speaker 1: of the circus have fallen since then, and the present
17:06
Speaker 1: Rick Trove and Yachstaffel is probably constituted very differently from
17:10
Speaker 1: that band of high spirited desperadoes which was evolved from
17:13
Speaker 1: the original Bulky Squadron and helped to build up the
17:17
Speaker 1: fame upon Richthoven. There is none of the old RFC
17:21
Speaker 1: who would not cheerfully kill what is left of the circus,
17:24
Speaker 1: and there is probably none who would not gladly shake
17:27
Speaker 1: hands with the survivors after piece is declared. They are
17:31
Speaker 1: worthy enemies and brave men. This little book gives one
17:35
Speaker 1: a useful insight into the enemy's methods, and more than
17:39
Speaker 1: a little respect for, at any rate, some of those
17:41
Speaker 1: whom we are at present endeavoring to kill. C. G. Gray.
17:46
Speaker 1: And of preface Chapter one, my family, the members of
17:52
Speaker 1: my family that of rick Hoffin, have taken no very
17:55
Speaker 1: great part in wars until now. The rick Hoffins have
17:59
Speaker 1: always lived in the country. Indeed, there has scarcely been
18:02
Speaker 1: one of them without a landed estate, and the few
18:05
Speaker 1: who did not live in the country have as a
18:08
Speaker 1: rule entered the state service. My grandfather and all my
18:12
Speaker 1: ancestors before him had estates about Breslau and Straigau. Only
18:17
Speaker 1: in the generation of my grandfather it happened that the
18:20
Speaker 1: first rickhoff and his cousin became a general. My mother
18:25
Speaker 1: belongs to the family Vunschikfus and Neudorf. Their character resembles
18:30
Speaker 1: that of the Richshoffen people. There were a few soldiers
18:34
Speaker 1: in that family, all the rest were agrarians. The brother
18:38
Speaker 1: of my great grandfather, Shukfus, fell in eighteen o six.
18:42
Speaker 1: During the Revolution of eighteen forty eight, one of the
18:45
Speaker 1: finest castles of a Shikfus was burnt down. The Shikfous
18:49
Speaker 1: half as a rule, only become captains of the reserve.
18:53
Speaker 1: In the family Schikfus and in the family Falkenhausen. My
18:57
Speaker 1: grandmother's maiden name was Falkenhausen. There were two principal hobbies,
19:02
Speaker 1: horse riding and game shooting. My mother's brother, Alexander Schikkus,
19:07
Speaker 1: has done a great deal of game shooting in Africa, Ceylon,
19:10
Speaker 1: Norway and Hungary. My father is practically the first member
19:15
Speaker 1: of our branch of the family to become a professional soldier.
19:19
Speaker 1: At an early age, he entered the Quora Cadets and
19:22
Speaker 1: later joined the twelfth Regiment of Uhlans. He was the
19:25
Speaker 1: most conscientious soldier imaginable. He began to suffer from difficulty
19:30
Speaker 1: of hearing and had to resign. He got ear troubled
19:34
Speaker 1: because he saved one of his men from drowning, and
19:36
Speaker 1: though he was wet through and through, he insisted upon
19:39
Speaker 1: continuing his duties as if nothing had happened, wet as
19:43
Speaker 1: he was, without taking notice of the rigor of the weather.
19:46
Speaker 1: The present generation of the rick Toppins contains, of course,
19:50
Speaker 1: many more soldiers in war. Every able body. Rick Hooven
19:54
Speaker 1: is of course on active service in the very beginning
19:57
Speaker 1: of the present war, I lost six cousins and all
20:01
Speaker 1: were in the cavalry. I was named after my uncle Manfred,
20:05
Speaker 1: who in peacetime was Adjudant to His Majesty and commander
20:09
Speaker 1: of the Corps of the Guards. During the war, he
20:12
Speaker 1: has been commander of a corps of cavalry. My father
20:15
Speaker 1: was in the first regiment of the Courisirs in Breslau
20:18
Speaker 1: when I was born on the second of May eighteen
20:21
Speaker 1: ninety two. We then lived at Kleinberg. I received tuition
20:26
Speaker 1: privately until my ninth year. Then I went for a
20:29
Speaker 1: year to a school in Schwiednitz, and then I became
20:32
Speaker 1: cadet in Volstein. The people of Schweidnits considered me as
20:36
Speaker 1: one of themselves, having been prepared for a military career.
20:40
Speaker 1: As a cadet, I entered the first regiment of Uhlans.
20:45
Speaker 1: My own adventures and experiences will be found in this book.
20:49
Speaker 1: My brother Lotar is the other flying man Richthauven. He
20:53
Speaker 1: wears the audre poor de Meat. My youngest brother is
20:57
Speaker 1: still in the Corps of Cadets, and he is waiting
20:59
Speaker 1: anxiously until he is old enough to go on active service.
21:03
Speaker 1: My sister. Like all the ladies of our family, he's
21:06
Speaker 1: occupied in nursing the wounded. My life as a cadet.
21:11
Speaker 1: As a little boy of eleven, I entered the Cadet Corps.
21:14
Speaker 1: I was not particularly eager to become a cadet, but
21:18
Speaker 1: my father wished it, so my wishes were not consulted.
21:22
Speaker 1: I found it difficult to bear the strict discipline and
21:25
Speaker 1: to keep order. I did not care very much for
21:28
Speaker 1: the instruction I received. I never was good at learning things.
21:33
Speaker 1: I did just enough work to pass. In my opinion,
21:37
Speaker 1: it would have been wrong to do more than was
21:39
Speaker 1: just sufficient, so I worked as little as possible. The
21:42
Speaker 1: consequence was that my teachers did not think over much
21:46
Speaker 1: of me. On the other hand, I was very fond
21:49
Speaker 1: of sport, particularly I liked gymnastics, football and other outdoor amusements.
21:55
Speaker 1: I could do all kinds of tricks on the horizontal bar.
21:59
Speaker 1: For this I received various prizes from the commander. I
22:03
Speaker 1: had a tremendous liking for all risky foolery. For instance,
22:07
Speaker 1: one fine day, with my friend Frankenberg, I climbed the
22:10
Speaker 1: famous steeple of Alstadt by means of the lightning conductor
22:14
Speaker 1: and tied my handkerchief to the top. I remember exactly
22:18
Speaker 1: how difficult it was to negotiate the gutters. Ten years later,
22:23
Speaker 1: when I visited my little brother at Bolstadt, I saw
22:26
Speaker 1: my handkerchief still tied up high in the air. My
22:30
Speaker 1: friend Frankenberg was the first victim of the war. As
22:34
Speaker 1: far as I know, I liked very much better the
22:37
Speaker 1: institution of Lichtfelde. I did not feel so isolated from
22:41
Speaker 1: the world and began to live a little more like
22:44
Speaker 1: a human being. My happiest reminiscences of Lichtefelde are those
22:49
Speaker 1: of the great sports. When my opponent was Prince Frederick Charles.
22:53
Speaker 1: The Prince gained many fine prizes against me, both in
22:56
Speaker 1: running in football, as I had not trained my body
23:00
Speaker 1: a perfectly as he had done. I entered the army
23:04
Speaker 1: Easter nineteen eleven. Of course, I was very impatient to
23:09
Speaker 1: get into the army. Immediately after passing my examination, I
23:13
Speaker 1: came forward and was placed in the first regiment of
23:16
Speaker 1: Uhlan's Emperor Alexander. I had selected that regiment. It was
23:22
Speaker 1: garrisoned in my beloved Silesia, and I had some acquaintances
23:26
Speaker 1: and relations there who advised me to join it. I
23:29
Speaker 1: had a colossal liking for the surface with my regiment.
23:32
Speaker 1: It is the finest thing for a young soldier to
23:34
Speaker 1: be a cavalry man. I can say only little about
23:38
Speaker 1: the time which I passed at the War Academy. My
23:42
Speaker 1: experience there reminds me too much of the cor cadets,
23:45
Speaker 1: and consequently my reminiscences are not over agreeable. I remember
23:50
Speaker 1: that once one of my teachers bought a very fat mayor,
23:53
Speaker 1: an amiable animal whose only fault was that she was
23:57
Speaker 1: rather old. She was supposed to be fifteen years old.
24:01
Speaker 1: She had rather stout legs, but she jumped splendidly. I
24:05
Speaker 1: wrote her frequently, and her name was Viffy. About a
24:08
Speaker 1: year later, when I joined the regiment, my captain Fawn,
24:11
Speaker 1: who was very fond of sport, told me that he
24:14
Speaker 1: had bought a funny little mare, a fat beast who
24:17
Speaker 1: jumped very nicely. We all were very interested to make
24:20
Speaker 1: the acquaintance of the fat jumping horse, who bore the
24:23
Speaker 1: strange name Biffy. I had quite forgotten the old mayor
24:27
Speaker 1: of my teacher at the War Academy. One fine morning
24:31
Speaker 1: the animal arrived, and I was astonished to find that
24:34
Speaker 1: the ancient Fiffy was now standing as an eight year
24:37
Speaker 1: old in the captain's stable. In the meantime, she had
24:40
Speaker 1: changed her master repeatedly and had much risen in value.
24:44
Speaker 1: My teacher had bought her for three hundred and seventy
24:47
Speaker 1: five dollars as a fifteen year old, and Vaughan had
24:50
Speaker 1: bought her a year later as an eight year old
24:52
Speaker 1: for eight hundred and fifty dollars. She won no more
24:56
Speaker 1: prizes for jumping in spite of her renewed youth, but
24:59
Speaker 1: she changed her master once more and was killed in
25:02
Speaker 1: action in the beginning of the war. I become an
25:06
Speaker 1: officer Autumn nineteen twelve. At last I was given the epaulets.
25:12
Speaker 1: It was a glorious feeling, the finest I have ever
25:14
Speaker 1: experienced when people called me lieutenant. My father bought me
25:18
Speaker 1: a beautiful mayor called Santuza. It was a marvelous animal,
25:23
Speaker 1: as hard as nails. She kept her place in the
25:26
Speaker 1: possession like a lamb. In the course of time, I
25:29
Speaker 1: discovered that she possessed a great talent for jumping, and
25:32
Speaker 1: I made up my mind to train her. She jumped
25:35
Speaker 1: incredible heights. In this enterprise. I got much sympathy and
25:39
Speaker 1: cooperation from my comrade Van Vadel, who won many a
25:43
Speaker 1: prize with his charge of Fandango. We too trained our
25:47
Speaker 1: horses for a jumping competition and a steeplechase in Breslau.
25:51
Speaker 1: Fandango did gloriously. Senduza also did well by taking a
25:56
Speaker 1: great deal of trouble. I hoped to achieve something with her.
26:00
Speaker 1: On the day before she was to be put on
26:02
Speaker 1: the train, I wished once more to jump all the
26:05
Speaker 1: obstacles in our training ground. In doing so, we slipped. Sentuza,
26:10
Speaker 1: heard her shoulder, and I broke my collar bone. I
26:14
Speaker 1: expected that my dear fat mare Sentusa would also be
26:17
Speaker 1: a quick runner, and was extremely surprised when she was
26:20
Speaker 1: beaten by Batel's Thoroughbread. Another time, I had the good
26:24
Speaker 1: fortune to ride a very fine horse at a sports
26:27
Speaker 1: meeting at Breslau. My horse did extremely well and I
26:31
Speaker 1: had hopes of succeeding. After a run of about half
26:35
Speaker 1: the course, I approached the last obstacle at a long distance.
26:39
Speaker 1: I saw that the obstacle in front was bound to
26:42
Speaker 1: be something extraordinary because a great crowd was watching near it.
26:46
Speaker 1: I said to myself, keep your spirits up, you are
26:49
Speaker 1: sure to get into trouble. I approached the obstacle going
26:53
Speaker 1: full speed. The people about waved to me and shouted
26:56
Speaker 1: that I should not go so fast, but I neither
26:59
Speaker 1: heard nor saw. My horse jumped over and on the
27:03
Speaker 1: other side there was a steep slope with the river
27:05
Speaker 1: of eisstrants in front. Before I could say knife, the horse,
27:09
Speaker 1: having jumped, fell with a gigantic leap into the river,
27:13
Speaker 1: and horse and rider disappeared. Of course, I was thrown
27:16
Speaker 1: over the head of the animal. Felix got out of
27:19
Speaker 1: the river on the one side and I on the other.
27:22
Speaker 1: When I came back, the weighing people were surprised that
27:25
Speaker 1: I had put on ten pounds instead of losing two
27:28
Speaker 1: pounds as usual. Happily, no one noticed that I was
27:31
Speaker 1: wet through and through. I had also a very good charger.
27:37
Speaker 1: The unfortunate beast had learned to do everything running, steeplechasing, jumping,
27:42
Speaker 1: army service. There was nothing that the poor beast had
27:45
Speaker 1: not learned. Its name was Bloom, and I had some
27:48
Speaker 1: pleasant successes with him. The last prize I got riding
27:52
Speaker 1: that horse was when I rode for the Kaiser prize
27:55
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen. I was the only one who got
27:59
Speaker 1: over the whole course without a single slip. In doing so,
28:03
Speaker 1: I had an experience which cannot easily be repeated. In
28:07
Speaker 1: galloping over a piece of heathland, I suddenly stood on
28:11
Speaker 1: my head. The horse had stepped into a rabbit hole,
28:15
Speaker 1: and in my fall I broke my collar bone. Notwithstanding
28:19
Speaker 1: the breakage, I rode another forty miles without making a mistake,
28:23
Speaker 1: and arrived keeping a good time. And of chapter one,
28:29
Speaker 1: Chapter two, the Outbreak of War, All the papers contained
28:35
Speaker 1: nothing but fantastic stories about the war. However, for several
28:40
Speaker 1: months we had been accustomed to war talk. We had
28:43
Speaker 1: so often packed our surface trunks that the whole thing
28:46
Speaker 1: had become tedious. No one believed any longer that there
28:50
Speaker 1: would be war. We who were close to the frontier,
28:54
Speaker 1: who were the eyes of the army, to use the
28:56
Speaker 1: words of my commander, believed least that there would be war.
29:01
Speaker 1: On the day before military preparations began, we were sitting
29:04
Speaker 1: with the people of the detached squadron, at a distance
29:07
Speaker 1: of ten kilometers from the frontier, in the officers club.
29:11
Speaker 1: We were eating oysters, drinking champagne, and gambling a little.
29:15
Speaker 1: We were very merry. No one thought of war. It
29:20
Speaker 1: is true that some days before Vedel's mother had startled
29:24
Speaker 1: us a little. She had arrived from Pomerania in order
29:27
Speaker 1: to see her son before the beginning of the war.
29:30
Speaker 1: As she found us in the pleasantest mood, and as
29:33
Speaker 1: she ascertained that we did not think of war, she
29:36
Speaker 1: felt morally compelled to invite us to a very decent luncheon.
29:41
Speaker 1: We were extremely gay and noisy when suddenly the door opened.
29:45
Speaker 1: It disclosed Count Cospop, the administrator of Owls. He looked
29:49
Speaker 1: like a ghost. We greeted our old friend with a
29:52
Speaker 1: loud hurrah. He explained to us the reason of his arrival.
29:57
Speaker 1: He had come personally to the frontier in order to
30:00
Speaker 1: convince himself whether the rumors of an impending world war
30:03
Speaker 1: were true. He assumed quite correctly that the best information
30:08
Speaker 1: could be obtained at the frontier. He was not a
30:11
Speaker 1: little surprised when he saw our peaceful assembly. We learned
30:15
Speaker 1: from him that all the bridges in Silesia were being
30:18
Speaker 1: patrolled by the military, and that steps were being taken
30:21
Speaker 1: to fortify various positions. We convinced him quickly that the
30:26
Speaker 1: possibility of war was absolutely nil. Had continued our festivity.
30:31
Speaker 1: On the next day we were ordered to take the field.
30:36
Speaker 1: We crossed the frontier. To us cavalrymen on the frontier,
30:41
Speaker 1: the word war had nothing unfamiliar. Every one of us
30:45
Speaker 1: knew to the smallest detail what to do and what
30:48
Speaker 1: to leave undone. At the same time, nobody had a
30:52
Speaker 1: very clear idea what the first thing would be. Every
30:56
Speaker 1: soldier was delighted to be able to show his capacity
30:59
Speaker 1: in his personal baths. We young cavalry lieutenants had the
31:03
Speaker 1: most interesting task. We were to study the ground, to
31:07
Speaker 1: work towards the rear of the enemy, and to destroy
31:09
Speaker 1: important objects. All these tasks require real men. Having in
31:15
Speaker 1: my pocket my directions, and having convinced myself of their
31:18
Speaker 1: importance through hard study during at least a year, I
31:22
Speaker 1: rode at the head of a file of soldiers for
31:24
Speaker 1: the first time against the enemy. At twelve o'clock midnight,
31:28
Speaker 1: A river marched the frontier, and I expected to be
31:31
Speaker 1: fired upon on reaching it. To my astonishment, I could
31:35
Speaker 1: pass over the bridge without an incident. On the next morning,
31:39
Speaker 1: without having had any adventures, we reached the church tower
31:43
Speaker 1: of a village of Kilts, which was well known to
31:45
Speaker 1: us through our frontier rides. Everything had happened without seeing
31:49
Speaker 1: anything of the enemy, or rather without being seen by him.
31:54
Speaker 1: The question now was what should I do in order
31:57
Speaker 1: not to be noticed by the villagers. First most idea
32:00
Speaker 1: was to lock up the pope. We fetched him from
32:03
Speaker 1: his house, to his great surprise, and locked him up
32:06
Speaker 1: among the bells in the church tower, took away the
32:09
Speaker 1: ladder and left him sitting up above. I assured him
32:13
Speaker 1: that he would be executed if the population should show
32:16
Speaker 1: any hostile inclinations. A sentinel placed on the tower observed
32:21
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. I had to send reports every day by
32:25
Speaker 1: dispatch writers. Very soon my small troop was converted entirely
32:29
Speaker 1: into dispatch riders and dissolved, so that I had, at
32:32
Speaker 1: last as the only one remaining to bring in my
32:35
Speaker 1: own report. Up to the fifth night, everything had been quiet.
32:40
Speaker 1: During that night, the sentinel came suddenly rushing to the
32:44
Speaker 1: church tower, near which the horses had been put. He
32:47
Speaker 1: called out, the Cossacks are there. The night was as
32:50
Speaker 1: dark as pitch. It rained a little, no stars were visible.
32:55
Speaker 1: One couldn't see a yard ahead. As a precaution, we
32:59
Speaker 1: had previously reach the wall around the churchyard. Through the breach,
33:03
Speaker 1: we took the horses into the open. The darkness was
33:06
Speaker 1: so great that we were in perfect security. After having
33:09
Speaker 1: advanced fifty yards, I myself went, with a sentinel car
33:14
Speaker 1: being in hand, to the place where he pretended he
33:16
Speaker 1: had seen Cossacks gliding along the churchyard wall. I came
33:21
Speaker 1: to the street. When I got there, I experienced a
33:24
Speaker 1: queer feeling, for the street swarmed with cossacks. I looked
33:29
Speaker 1: over the wall behind which the rascals had put the horses.
33:32
Speaker 1: Most of them had lanterns, and they acted very uncautiously
33:36
Speaker 1: and were very loud. I estimated that there were from
33:39
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty of them. One had left his horse
33:42
Speaker 1: and gone to the pope, whom I had led off
33:44
Speaker 1: the day before. Immediately it flashed through my brain, of course,
33:49
Speaker 1: we are betrayed. Therefore we had to be doubly careful.
33:53
Speaker 1: I could not risk a fight because I could not
33:56
Speaker 1: dispose of more than two carbines. Therefore I resolved at
34:00
Speaker 1: robber and police. After having rested a few hours, our
34:05
Speaker 1: visitors rode away. On the next day, I thought it
34:08
Speaker 1: wise to change our quarters. On the seventh day, I
34:12
Speaker 1: was again back in my garrison, and everyone stared at
34:15
Speaker 1: me as if I were a ghost. The staring was
34:18
Speaker 1: not due to my unshaped face, but because there had
34:21
Speaker 1: been a rumor that Vadel and I had fallen at college,
34:25
Speaker 1: the place where it had occurred. The time and all
34:27
Speaker 1: the circumstances of my death had been reported with such
34:30
Speaker 1: a wealth of detail that the report had spread throughout Silesia.
34:35
Speaker 1: My mother had already received visits of condolence. The only
34:39
Speaker 1: thing that had been omitted was an announcement of my
34:42
Speaker 1: death in the newspaper. An amusing incident happened about the
34:46
Speaker 1: same time. A veterinary surgeon had been ordered to take
34:50
Speaker 1: ten Uhlans and to requisition horses on a farm. The
34:54
Speaker 1: farm was situated about two miles from the road. He
34:58
Speaker 1: came back full of excitement and reported to us I
35:01
Speaker 1: was riding over a stubble field, the field where the
35:04
Speaker 1: scarecrows are, when I suddenly saw hostile infantry at a distance.
35:09
Speaker 1: Without a moment's hesitation, I drew my sword and ordered
35:12
Speaker 1: the Uhlans to attack them with their lances. The men
35:15
Speaker 1: were delighted, and at the fastest gallop they rushed across
35:18
Speaker 1: the field When we came near the enemy, I discovered
35:21
Speaker 1: that the hostile infantry consisted of some deer which were
35:25
Speaker 1: grazing in a nearby meadow. At that distance I had
35:28
Speaker 1: mistaken them for soldiers, owing to my short sightedness for
35:32
Speaker 1: a long time. That dear gentlemen had to suffer the
35:35
Speaker 1: pleasantries of the rest of us because of his bold
35:38
Speaker 1: attack to France. We were ordered to take the train
35:43
Speaker 1: in my garrison town. No one had any idea in
35:47
Speaker 1: what direction we were to go. There were many rumors,
35:51
Speaker 1: but most of the talk was very wild. However, in
35:54
Speaker 1: this present case we had the right idea westward. A
35:59
Speaker 1: second class department had been given to four of us
36:02
Speaker 1: we had to take in provisions for a long railway journey.
36:06
Speaker 1: Liquid refreshments, of course, were not lacking. However, already on
36:11
Speaker 1: the first day we discovered that a second class compartment
36:14
Speaker 1: is altogether too narrow for four warlike use. Therefore, we
36:19
Speaker 1: resolved to distribute ourselves. I arranged part of the luggage
36:23
Speaker 1: car and converted it into a bed drawing room. To
36:26
Speaker 1: my great advantage, I had light air and plenty of space.
36:31
Speaker 1: I procured straw at one of the stations and put
36:34
Speaker 1: a ten cloth on top of it. In my improvised
36:37
Speaker 1: sleeping car, I slept as well as I did in
36:39
Speaker 1: my four poster In Osterwo we traveled night and day,
36:43
Speaker 1: first through Silesia and then through Saxony, going westward. All
36:48
Speaker 1: the time, apparently we were going in the direction of Metz.
36:53
Speaker 1: Even the train conductor did not know where he was
36:55
Speaker 1: going to. At every station, even at stations where we
36:59
Speaker 1: did not stop, there were huge crowds of men and
37:02
Speaker 1: women who bombarded us with cheers and flowers. The German
37:06
Speaker 1: nation had been seized by a wild war enthusiasm that
37:10
Speaker 1: was evident. The Uhlans were particularly admired. The men in
37:15
Speaker 1: the train who had passed through the station before us
37:18
Speaker 1: had probably reported that we had met the enemy and
37:21
Speaker 1: we had been at war only for a week. Besides,
37:25
Speaker 1: my regiment had been mentioned in the first official Communica,
37:28
Speaker 1: the first Regiment of Uhlans and the one hundred and
37:31
Speaker 1: fifty fifth Regiment of Infantry had taken Kaush. We were
37:35
Speaker 1: therefore celebrated as heroes and naturally felt by heroes. Vadel
37:40
Speaker 1: had found a Cossack's sword, which he showed to admiring girls.
37:44
Speaker 1: He made a great impression with it. Of course, we
37:48
Speaker 1: asserted that blood was sticking to it, and we invented
37:51
Speaker 1: hair raising tails about this peaceful sword of a police officer.
37:55
Speaker 1: We were very wild and merry until we were disembarked
37:58
Speaker 1: from the train at Bussendorf, near Didenhoffen. A short time
38:03
Speaker 1: before the train arrived, we were held up in a
38:06
Speaker 1: long tunnel. It is uncomfortable enough to stop in the
38:09
Speaker 1: tunnel in peacetime, but the stop suddenly in war is
38:13
Speaker 1: still more uncomfortable. Some excited, high spirited fellow wanted to
38:18
Speaker 1: play a joke and fired a shot. Before long there
38:22
Speaker 1: was general firing in the tunnel. It was surprising that
38:25
Speaker 1: no one was hurt. It has never been found out
38:28
Speaker 1: how the general shooting was brought about. Atmusendorf, we had
38:32
Speaker 1: to get out of the train. The heat was so
38:35
Speaker 1: great that our horses almost collapsed. On the following day
38:38
Speaker 1: we marched unceasingly northward in the direction of Luxembourg. In
38:43
Speaker 1: the meantime I had discovered that my brother had ridden
38:46
Speaker 1: in the same direction with the cavalry division a week before.
38:50
Speaker 1: I discovered his spoor once more, but I did see
38:53
Speaker 1: him until a year later. Arrived in Luxembourg. No one
38:58
Speaker 1: knew what our relations with the little people of that
39:01
Speaker 1: little state. When I saw a Luxembourg prisoner, he told
39:05
Speaker 1: me that he would complain about me to the German
39:08
Speaker 1: Emperor if I did not set him free. Immediately, I
39:11
Speaker 1: thought there was reason in what he said, so I
39:13
Speaker 1: let him go. We passed through the town of Luxembourg
39:17
Speaker 1: and through Esch, and we approached the first fortified towns
39:20
Speaker 1: of Belgium. While advancing our infantry, and indeed our whole
39:24
Speaker 1: division maneuvered exactly as in peacetime. All were extremely excited.
39:30
Speaker 1: It was a good thing that we had to act
39:32
Speaker 1: exactly as we had done at maneuvers. Otherwise we should
39:35
Speaker 1: certainly have done some wild things. To the right and
39:39
Speaker 1: to the left of us, before and behind us, on
39:42
Speaker 1: every road marched troops belonging to different army corps. One
39:46
Speaker 1: had the feeling that everything was in a great disorder. Suddenly,
39:50
Speaker 1: this unspeakable, cuttle muddle was dissolved and became a most
39:54
Speaker 1: wonderfully arranged evolution. I was entirely ignorant about the activities
39:59
Speaker 1: of our flying men, and I got tremendously excited whenever
40:02
Speaker 1: I saw an aviator. Of course, I had not the
40:05
Speaker 1: slightest idea whether it was a German airman or an enemy.
40:09
Speaker 1: I had at that time not even the knowledge that
40:12
Speaker 1: the German machines were marked with crosses and the enemy
40:15
Speaker 1: machines with circles. The consequence was that every aeroplane we
40:19
Speaker 1: saw was fired upon. Our old pilots are still telling
40:23
Speaker 1: of their painful feelings while being shot at by friend
40:26
Speaker 1: and enemy with perfect impartiality. We marched and marched, sending
40:31
Speaker 1: patrols far ahead, until we arrived at our lawn. I
40:35
Speaker 1: had an uneasy feeling when crossing for a second time
40:38
Speaker 1: an enemy frontier. Obscure reports of frontier had already come
40:43
Speaker 1: to my ears. I had been ordered to work in
40:46
Speaker 1: connection with my cavalry division, acting as a connecting link.
40:50
Speaker 1: On that day I had ridden no less than sixty
40:53
Speaker 1: six miles with my men. Not a horse failed us.
40:57
Speaker 1: That was a splendid achievement. At our lawn, I climbed
41:00
Speaker 1: the steeple in accordance with the tactical principles which we
41:03
Speaker 1: had been taught in peacetime. Of course, I saw nothing,
41:07
Speaker 1: for the wicked enemy was still far away. At that
41:11
Speaker 1: time we were very harmless. For instance, I had my
41:15
Speaker 1: men outside the town, and had ridden alone on bicycle
41:18
Speaker 1: right through the town to the church tower and ascended it.
41:22
Speaker 1: When I came down again, I was surrounded by a
41:25
Speaker 1: crowd of angry young men who made hostile eyes and
41:28
Speaker 1: who talked threateningly in undertones. My bicycle had of course
41:32
Speaker 1: been punctured, and I had to go on foot for
41:35
Speaker 1: half an hour. This incident amused me. I should have
41:39
Speaker 1: been delighted had it come to a fight. I felt
41:42
Speaker 1: absolutely sure of myself with a pistol in my hand.
41:46
Speaker 1: Later on I heard that several days previously the inhabitants
41:50
Speaker 1: had behaved very seditiously towards our cavalry and later on
41:53
Speaker 1: towards our hospitals. It had therefore been found necessary to
41:57
Speaker 1: place quite a number of these gentlemen against the wall.
42:02
Speaker 1: In the afternoon, I reached the station to which I
42:04
Speaker 1: had been ordered and learned that close to our lawn
42:08
Speaker 1: my only cousin, Richtovin, had been killed three days before.
42:12
Speaker 1: During the rest of the day, I stayed with the
42:15
Speaker 1: cavalry division. During the night, a causeless alarm took place,
42:20
Speaker 1: and late at night I reached my own regiment. That
42:23
Speaker 1: was a beautiful time. We cavalrymen who had already been
42:27
Speaker 1: in touch with the enemy and had seen something of war,
42:31
Speaker 1: were envied by the men of the other armies. For me,
42:34
Speaker 1: it was the most beautiful time during the whole of
42:37
Speaker 1: the war. I would much like to pass again through
42:40
Speaker 1: the beginning of the war. I hear the whistling of
42:45
Speaker 1: the first bullets. Twenty one twenty two August nineteen fourteen.
42:51
Speaker 1: I had been ordered to find out the strength of
42:53
Speaker 1: the enemy occupying the large forest near Berton. I started
42:58
Speaker 1: with fifteen uhlans and said to myself to day I
43:01
Speaker 1: shall have the first fight with the enemy. But my
43:04
Speaker 1: task was not so easy. In so big a forest,
43:08
Speaker 1: there may be lots of things hidden which one cannot see.
43:12
Speaker 1: I went to the top of a little hill. A
43:15
Speaker 1: few hundred paces in front of me was a huge forest,
43:18
Speaker 1: extending over many thousands of acres. It was a beautiful
43:22
Speaker 1: August morning. The forest seemed so peaceful and still that
43:26
Speaker 1: I almost forgot all my warlike ideas. We approached the
43:30
Speaker 1: margin of the forest, as we could not discover anything
43:34
Speaker 1: suspicion with our field glasses. We had to go near
43:37
Speaker 1: and find out whether we should be fired upon. The
43:40
Speaker 1: men in front were swallowed up by a forest lane.
43:44
Speaker 1: I followed, and at my side was one of my
43:46
Speaker 1: best uhlans. At the entrance to the forest was a
43:50
Speaker 1: lonely forester's cottage. We rode past it. The soil indicated
43:55
Speaker 1: that a short time previously considerable numbers of hostile cavalry
43:59
Speaker 1: must have past. I stopped my men, encouraged them by
44:03
Speaker 1: addressing a few words to them, and felt sure that
44:06
Speaker 1: I could absolutely rely upon every one of my soldiers.
44:10
Speaker 1: Of course, no one thought of anything except of attacking
44:13
Speaker 1: the enemy. It lies in the instinct of every German
44:17
Speaker 1: to rush at the enemy wherever he meets him, particularly
44:21
Speaker 1: if he meets hostile cavalry. In my mind's eye, I
44:25
Speaker 1: saw myself at the head of my little troop saboring
44:28
Speaker 1: a hostile squadron, and was quite intoxicated with joyful expectation.
44:34
Speaker 1: The eyes of my uhlans sparkled. Thus we followed the
44:38
Speaker 1: spoor at a rapid trot. After a sharp ride of
44:41
Speaker 1: an hour through the most beautiful mountain dale, the wood
44:44
Speaker 1: became thinner. We approached the exit. I felt convinced that
44:49
Speaker 1: there we should meet the enemy. Therefore, caution to the
44:53
Speaker 1: right of our narrow path was a steep rocky wall
44:56
Speaker 1: many yards high. To the left was a narrow rivulet,
45:00
Speaker 1: and at the further side a meadow fifty yards wide,
45:03
Speaker 1: surrounded by barbed wire. Suddenly, the trace of horses hoofs
45:07
Speaker 1: disappeared over a bridge into the bushes. My leading men
45:11
Speaker 1: stopped because the exit from the forest was blocked by
45:14
Speaker 1: a barricade. Immediately I recognized that I had fallen into
45:19
Speaker 1: a trap. I saw a movement among the bushes behind
45:22
Speaker 1: the meadow at my left and noticed dismounted hostile cavalry.
45:27
Speaker 1: I estimated that there were fully one hundred rifles in
45:30
Speaker 1: that direction. Nothing could be done. My path right ahead
45:34
Speaker 1: was cut by the barricade. To the right were steep rocks.
45:38
Speaker 1: To the left, the barbed wire surrounded the meadow and
45:41
Speaker 1: prevented me attacking as I had intended. Nothing was to
45:45
Speaker 1: be done except to go back. I knew that my
45:48
Speaker 1: dear Uhlans would be willing to do everything except to
45:51
Speaker 1: run away from the enemy. That spoilt our fun for
45:55
Speaker 1: a second. Later we heard the first shot, which was
45:58
Speaker 1: followed by very intensive rifle fire from the wood. The
46:01
Speaker 1: distance was from fifty to one hundred yards I had
46:04
Speaker 1: told my men that they should join me immediately. When
46:07
Speaker 1: they saw me lifting up my hand, I felt sure
46:10
Speaker 1: we had to go back, so I lifted my arm
46:13
Speaker 1: and beckoned my men to follow. Possibly they misunderstood my gesture.
46:18
Speaker 1: The cavalry men who were following me believed me in danger,
46:22
Speaker 1: and they came rushing along at a great speed to
46:24
Speaker 1: help me to get away. As we were on a
46:27
Speaker 1: narrow forest path, one can imagine the confusion which followed.
46:31
Speaker 1: The horses of the two men ahead rushed away in
46:34
Speaker 1: a panic because the noise of every shot was increased
46:37
Speaker 1: tenfold by the narrowness of a hollow way. The last
46:41
Speaker 1: I saw of them was as they leaped the barricade.
46:44
Speaker 1: I never heard anything of them again. They were no
46:48
Speaker 1: doubt made prisoners. I myself turned my horse and gave
46:52
Speaker 1: him the spurs, probably for the first time during his life.
46:56
Speaker 1: I had the greatest difficulty to make the Uhlans who
46:58
Speaker 1: rushed towards me stand that they should not advance any further,
47:02
Speaker 1: that we were to turn round and get away. My
47:05
Speaker 1: orderly rode at my side. Suddenly his horse was hit
47:09
Speaker 1: and fell. I jumped over them, and horses were rolling
47:13
Speaker 1: all around me. In short, it was a wild disorder.
47:17
Speaker 1: The last I saw my servant, he was lying under
47:20
Speaker 1: his horse, apparently not wounded, but pinned down by the
47:23
Speaker 1: weight of the animal. The enemy had beautifully surprised us.
47:28
Speaker 1: He had probably observed us from the very beginning, and
47:31
Speaker 1: had intended to trap us and to catch us unawares,
47:34
Speaker 1: as is the character of the French. I was delighted
47:38
Speaker 1: when two days later I saw my servant standing before me.
47:42
Speaker 1: He wore only one boot, for he had left the
47:44
Speaker 1: other one under the body of his horse. He told
47:47
Speaker 1: me how he had escaped. At least two squadrons of
47:51
Speaker 1: French curissirs had issued from the forest in order to
47:54
Speaker 1: plunder the fallen horses and the brave Ulans. Not being wounded,
47:58
Speaker 1: he had jumped up find the rocks that had fallen
48:01
Speaker 1: down exhausted among the bushes. About two hours later, when
48:06
Speaker 1: the enemy had again hidden himself, he had continued his flight.
48:10
Speaker 1: So he had joined me after some days, but he
48:13
Speaker 1: could tell me little about the fate of his comrades,
48:15
Speaker 1: who had been left behind a ride with loan. The
48:20
Speaker 1: Battle of Verton was proceeding, my comrade alone, and I
48:24
Speaker 1: had once more to ascertain what had become of the enemy.
48:28
Speaker 1: We rode after the enemy during the whole of the day,
48:31
Speaker 1: reached him at last, and were able to write a
48:33
Speaker 1: very decent report in the evening. The great question was
48:38
Speaker 1: shall we go on riding throughout the night in order
48:40
Speaker 1: to join our troops, or shall we economize our strength
48:44
Speaker 1: and take a rest so that we shall be fresh
48:46
Speaker 1: the next day. The splendid thing about cavalrymen on patrol
48:50
Speaker 1: is that they are given complete liberty of action. We
48:53
Speaker 1: resolved to pass the night near the enemy and to
48:56
Speaker 1: ride on the next morning. According to our strategical notions,
49:00
Speaker 1: the enemy was retiring and we were following him. Consequently,
49:05
Speaker 1: we could pass the night with fair security. Not far
49:10
Speaker 1: from the enemy, there was a wonderful monastery with large stables,
49:14
Speaker 1: so both Lone and I had quart us for ourselves
49:16
Speaker 1: and our men. Of course, in the evening, when we
49:19
Speaker 1: entered our new domicile, the enemy was so near that
49:23
Speaker 1: he could have shot us through the windows. The monks
49:26
Speaker 1: were extremely amiable. They gave us as much to eat
49:29
Speaker 1: and drink as we cared to have, and we had
49:32
Speaker 1: a very good time. The saddles were taken off the
49:35
Speaker 1: horses and they were very happy when, for the first
49:38
Speaker 1: time in three days and three nights, a dead weight
49:41
Speaker 1: of nearly three hundred pounds was taken from their backs.
49:45
Speaker 1: We settled down as if we were on maneuvers and
49:48
Speaker 1: as if we were in the house of a delightful
49:50
Speaker 1: host and friend at the same time. It should be
49:53
Speaker 1: observed that three days later we hanged several of our
49:57
Speaker 1: hosts to the lanyards because they could not overcome the
49:59
Speaker 1: design to take a hand in the war. But that
50:02
Speaker 1: evening they were really extremely amiable. We got into our
50:07
Speaker 1: night shirts, jumped into bed, posted a sentinel, and let
50:10
Speaker 1: the Lord look after us. In the middle of the night,
50:14
Speaker 1: somebody suddenly flung open the door and shouted, Sir, the
50:17
Speaker 1: French are there. I was too sleepy and too heavy
50:20
Speaker 1: to be able to reply. Lone, who was similarly incapacitated,
50:25
Speaker 1: gave the most intelligent answer, How many are they? The
50:29
Speaker 1: soldier stammered, full of excitement, We have shot dead too,
50:32
Speaker 1: but we cannot say how many there are, or it
50:35
Speaker 1: is pitch dark. I heard Lone reply, in a sleepy tone,
50:39
Speaker 1: all right. When Moore arrived called me again. Half a
50:42
Speaker 1: minute later. Both of us were snoring again. The sun
50:47
Speaker 1: was already high in the horizon when we woke up
50:50
Speaker 1: from a refreshing sleep. The next morning, we took an
50:53
Speaker 1: apple breakfast and then continued our journey. As a matter
50:57
Speaker 1: of fact, the French had passed by our castle during
50:59
Speaker 1: the night, and our sentinels had fired on them, as
51:03
Speaker 1: it was a very dark night. Nothing further followed. Soon
51:07
Speaker 1: we passed through a pretty valley. We rode over the
51:10
Speaker 1: old battlefield of our division and discovered, to our surprise
51:14
Speaker 1: that it was peopled not with German soldiers but with
51:17
Speaker 1: French Red crossmen. Here and there were French soldiers. They
51:22
Speaker 1: looked as surprised at seeing us as we did at
51:25
Speaker 1: seeing them. Nobody thought of shooting. We cleared out as
51:29
Speaker 1: rapidly as possible, and gradually it dawned upon us that
51:33
Speaker 1: our troops, instead of advancing, had retired. Fortunately the enemy
51:38
Speaker 1: had retired at the same time in the opposite direction,
51:41
Speaker 1: otherwise I should now be somewhere in captivity. We passed
51:47
Speaker 1: through the village of Rebelmont, where on the previous day
51:50
Speaker 1: we had seen our infantry in occupation. We encountered one
51:54
Speaker 1: of the inhabitants and asked him what had become of
51:56
Speaker 1: our soldiers. He looked very happyard me that the Germans
52:01
Speaker 1: had departed. Late in the afternoon, I reached my regiment
52:06
Speaker 1: and was quite satisfied with the course of events during
52:09
Speaker 1: the last twenty four hours and of chapter two Chapter
52:14
Speaker 1: three Boredom before Verdune, I am a restless spirit. Consequently,
52:23
Speaker 1: my activity in front of her Dunn can only be
52:25
Speaker 1: described as boorsome. At the beginning, I was in the
52:29
Speaker 1: trenches at a spot where nothing happened. Then I became
52:33
Speaker 1: a dispatch bearer and hoped to have some adventures. But
52:36
Speaker 1: there I was mistaken. The fighting men immediately degraded me
52:41
Speaker 1: and considered me a base hog. I was not really
52:45
Speaker 1: at the base, but I was not allowed to advance
52:47
Speaker 1: further than within fifteen hundred yards behind the front trenches. There,
52:52
Speaker 1: below the ground, I had a bomb proof heated habitation.
52:57
Speaker 1: Now and then I had to go to the front trenches.
53:00
Speaker 1: That meant great physical exertion, for one had to trudge
53:04
Speaker 1: up hill and downhill, crisscrossed through an unending number of
53:07
Speaker 1: trenches and mier holes, until at last one arrived at
53:10
Speaker 1: a place where men were firing. After having paid a
53:14
Speaker 1: short visit to the fighting men. My position seemed to
53:17
Speaker 1: me a very stupid one. At that time the digging
53:21
Speaker 1: business was beginning. It did not yet become clear to
53:25
Speaker 1: us what it means to dig approaches and endless trenches.
53:29
Speaker 1: Of course, we knew the names of the various ditches
53:32
Speaker 1: and holes through the lessons which we had received at
53:34
Speaker 1: the war Academy. However, the digging was considered to be
53:38
Speaker 1: the business of the military engineers. Other troops were supposed
53:43
Speaker 1: not to take a hand in it. Here near Combray,
53:46
Speaker 1: everyone was digging industriously. Every soldier had a spade and
53:51
Speaker 1: a pick and took all imaginable trouble in order to
53:54
Speaker 1: get as deeply into the ground as possible. It was
53:57
Speaker 1: very strange that in many places the French were only
54:01
Speaker 1: five yards ahead of us. One could hear them speak
54:04
Speaker 1: and see them spoke cigarettes, and now and then they
54:08
Speaker 1: threw us a piece of paper. We conversed with them,
54:10
Speaker 1: but nevertheless we tried to annoy them in every possible way,
54:15
Speaker 1: especially with hang grenades. Five hundred yards in front of
54:19
Speaker 1: us and five hundred yards behind the trenches. The dense
54:22
Speaker 1: forests of the Corte Loraine had been cut down by
54:25
Speaker 1: the vast number of shells and bullets which were fired unceasingly.
54:29
Speaker 1: It seemed unbelievable that in the front men could live. Nevertheless,
54:34
Speaker 1: the men in the front trenches were not in as
54:37
Speaker 1: bad a position as the men at the base. After
54:41
Speaker 1: a morning visit to the front trenches, which usually took
54:43
Speaker 1: place at the earliest hours of the day, the more
54:46
Speaker 1: tedious business began. I had to attend to the telephone.
54:51
Speaker 1: On days when I was off duty, I indulged in
54:54
Speaker 1: my favorite pastime game shooting. The forest of La Chose
54:59
Speaker 1: gave me an opportunities. When going for a ride, I
55:03
Speaker 1: had noticed that there were wild pigs about, and I
55:06
Speaker 1: tried to find out where I could shoot them at night.
55:09
Speaker 1: Beautiful nights with a full moon and snow came to
55:12
Speaker 1: my aid. With the assistance to my servant, I built
55:15
Speaker 1: a shelter seat in a tree at a spot where
55:18
Speaker 1: the pigs passed and waited there at night. Thus I
55:22
Speaker 1: passed many a night sitting on a branch of a tree,
55:25
Speaker 1: and on the next morning found that I had become
55:27
Speaker 1: an icicle. However, I got my reward. There was a
55:32
Speaker 1: sow which was particularly interesting. Every night she swam across
55:37
Speaker 1: the lake broke into a potato field, always at the
55:40
Speaker 1: same spot, and then she swam back again. Of course,
55:44
Speaker 1: I very much wished to improve my acquaintance with the animal,
55:48
Speaker 1: so I took a seat on the other shore of
55:49
Speaker 1: the lake. In accordance with our previous arrangement. Andy pig
55:54
Speaker 1: appeared at midnight for her supper. I shot her while
55:57
Speaker 1: she was still swimming, and she would have been drowned
56:00
Speaker 1: had I not succeeded at the last moment in seizing
56:02
Speaker 1: her by the leg. At another time, I was riding
56:06
Speaker 1: with my servant along a narrow path. Suddenly I saw
56:10
Speaker 1: several wild pigs crossing it. Immediately I jumped from the horse,
56:14
Speaker 1: grasped my servant's carban, and rushed several hundred yards ahead.
56:19
Speaker 1: At the end of the procession came a mighty boar.
56:21
Speaker 1: I had never seen such a beast and was surprised
56:24
Speaker 1: at its gigantic size. Now it ornaments my room and
56:29
Speaker 1: reminds me of my encounter. In this manner, I passed
56:33
Speaker 1: several months. When one fine day our division became busy.
56:38
Speaker 1: We intended a small attack. I was delighted for now,
56:42
Speaker 1: at last I should be able to do something as
56:44
Speaker 1: a connecting link. But there came another disappointment. I was
56:49
Speaker 1: given quite a different job, and now I had enough
56:52
Speaker 1: of it. I sent a letter to my commanding general,
56:55
Speaker 1: an evil tongue's report that I told him, my dear excellency,
56:59
Speaker 1: I have not gone to war in order to collect
57:01
Speaker 1: cheese and eggs, but for another purpose. At first the
57:05
Speaker 1: people above wanted to snarl at me, but then they
57:08
Speaker 1: fulfilled my wish. Thus I joined the Flying Service at
57:12
Speaker 1: the end of May nineteen fifteen. My greatest wish was
57:16
Speaker 1: fulfilled end of chapter three, Chapter four in the air.
57:24
Speaker 1: The next morning, at seven o'clock, I was to fly
57:27
Speaker 1: for the first time as an observer. I was naturally
57:31
Speaker 1: very excited, for I had no idea what it would
57:34
Speaker 1: be like. Everyone whom I had asked about his feelings
57:37
Speaker 1: told me a different tale. The night before, I went
57:41
Speaker 1: to bed earlier than usual to be thoroughly refreshed. The
57:44
Speaker 1: next morning, we drove over to the flying ground and
57:48
Speaker 1: I got into a flying machine for the first time.
57:52
Speaker 1: The drop from the propeller was a beastly nuisance. I
57:55
Speaker 1: found it quite impossible to make myself understood by the piloting.
58:00
Speaker 1: Was carried away by the wind. If I took up
58:03
Speaker 1: a piece of paper, it disappeared. My safety helmet slid off,
58:08
Speaker 1: my muffler dropped off, my jacket was not sufficiently buttoned.
58:12
Speaker 1: In short, I felt very uncomfortable. Before I knew what
58:17
Speaker 1: was happening. The pilot went ahead at full speed and
58:20
Speaker 1: the machine started rolling. We went faster and faster. I
58:24
Speaker 1: clutched the sides of the car. Suddenly the shaking was over.
58:28
Speaker 1: The machine was in the air, and the earth dropped
58:31
Speaker 1: away from under me. I had been told the name
58:34
Speaker 1: of the place to which we were to fly. I
58:37
Speaker 1: was to direct my pilot. At first we flew right ahead.
58:42
Speaker 1: Then my pilot turned to the right, then to the left.
58:45
Speaker 1: But I had lost all sense of direction above our
58:47
Speaker 1: own aerodrome, I had not the slightest notion where I was.
58:52
Speaker 1: I began very cautiously to look over the side at
58:55
Speaker 1: the country. The men looked ridiculously small, The houses seemed
59:00
Speaker 1: to come out of a child's toy box. Everything seemed pretty.
59:04
Speaker 1: Cologne was in the background. The cathedral looked like a
59:08
Speaker 1: little toy. It was a glorious feeling to be so
59:11
Speaker 1: high above the earth, to be master of the air.
59:15
Speaker 1: I didn't care a bit where I was, and I
59:17
Speaker 1: felt extremely sad when my pilot thought it was time
59:20
Speaker 1: to go down again. I should have liked best to
59:24
Speaker 1: start immediately on another flight. I have never had any
59:28
Speaker 1: trouble in the air such as vertigo. The celebrated American
59:32
Speaker 1: swings are to me more disgusting. One does not feel
59:36
Speaker 1: secure in them. But in a flying machine one possesses
59:39
Speaker 1: a feeling of complete security. One sits in an aeroplane
59:44
Speaker 1: as in an easy chair. Vertigo is impossible. No one
59:49
Speaker 1: exists who has been turned giddy by flying. At the
59:52
Speaker 1: same time, flying affects one's nerves. When one raises full
59:57
Speaker 1: speed through the air, and particularly when one goes down again,
1:00:01
Speaker 1: when the aeroplane suddenly dips, when the engine stops running,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: and when the tremendous noise is followed by an equally
1:00:08
Speaker 1: tremendous silence, then I would frantically clutch the sides and
1:00:11
Speaker 1: think that I was sure to fall to the ground. However,
1:00:15
Speaker 1: everything happened in such a matter of fact and natural way,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: and the landing when we again touched Terra Firma, was
1:00:21
Speaker 1: so simple that I could not have such a feeling
1:00:24
Speaker 1: as fear. I was full of enthusiasm, and should have
1:00:28
Speaker 1: liked to remain in an aeroplane all day long. I
1:00:31
Speaker 1: counted the hours to the time when we should start
1:00:33
Speaker 1: out again as an observer with Mackison. On the tenth
1:00:39
Speaker 1: of June nineteen fifteen, I came to Grosenheie. Thence I
1:00:44
Speaker 1: was to be sent to the front. I was anxious
1:00:46
Speaker 1: to go forward as quickly as possible. I feared that
1:00:50
Speaker 1: I might come too late, that the World War might
1:00:53
Speaker 1: be over. I should have had to spend three months
1:00:56
Speaker 1: to become a pilot. By that time the three months
1:00:59
Speaker 1: had gone by, peace might have been concluded. Therefore, it
1:01:04
Speaker 1: never occurred to me to become a pilot. I imagined that,
1:01:07
Speaker 1: owing to my training as a cavalryman, I might do
1:01:11
Speaker 1: well as an observer. I was very happy when, after
1:01:15
Speaker 1: a fortnight's flying experience, I was sent out, especially as
1:01:19
Speaker 1: I was sent to the only spot where there was
1:01:21
Speaker 1: still a chance of a war of movement. I was
1:01:23
Speaker 1: sent to Russia. Mackenson was advancing gloriously. He had broken
1:01:29
Speaker 1: through the Russian position at Gorlie, and I joined his
1:01:32
Speaker 1: army when we were taking raw Ruska. I spent a
1:01:35
Speaker 1: day at the aviation base and then I was sent
1:01:38
Speaker 1: to the celebrated sixty ninth Squadron. Being quite a beginner,
1:01:42
Speaker 1: I felt very foolish. My pilot was a big man,
1:01:46
Speaker 1: First Lieutenant Zumer. He is now a cripple of the
1:01:50
Speaker 1: other men of the section. I am the only survivor.
1:01:54
Speaker 1: Now came my most beautiful time. Life in the flying
1:01:58
Speaker 1: Corps is very much like life in the cavalry. Every day,
1:02:03
Speaker 1: morning and afternoon I had to fly into reconnoiter and
1:02:06
Speaker 1: I have brought back valuable information many a time with
1:02:11
Speaker 1: Hulp in Russia summer nineteen fifteen. During June, July and
1:02:17
Speaker 1: August nineteen fifteen, I remained with a flying squadron which
1:02:21
Speaker 1: participated in Mackison's advance from Gorlis to Bresla. Tausvisk I
1:02:26
Speaker 1: had joined it as quite a juvenile observer and had
1:02:29
Speaker 1: not the slightest idea of anything. As a cavalryman, my
1:02:33
Speaker 1: business had consisted in reconnoitering, so the aeroplane service as
1:02:38
Speaker 1: an observer was in my line, and it amused me
1:02:41
Speaker 1: vastly to take part in the gigantic reconnoitering flights which
1:02:44
Speaker 1: we undertook nearly every day for an observer. It is
1:02:49
Speaker 1: important to find a pilot with a strong character. One
1:02:52
Speaker 1: fine day we were told Count Hulp will join us. Immediately,
1:02:56
Speaker 1: I thought, that is the man I want. Hulk made
1:03:01
Speaker 1: his appearance, not as one would imagine in his sixty
1:03:04
Speaker 1: horse par Mercedes or in a first class sleeping car.
1:03:07
Speaker 1: He came on foot. After traveling by a railway for
1:03:11
Speaker 1: days and days, he had arrived in the vicinity of Yaroslav.
1:03:15
Speaker 1: Here he got out of the train, for there was
1:03:18
Speaker 1: once more and unending stoppage. He told his servant to
1:03:21
Speaker 1: travel along with the luggage while he would go on foot.
1:03:25
Speaker 1: He marched along, and after an hour's walking, looked back,
1:03:29
Speaker 1: but the train did not follow him. So he walked
1:03:32
Speaker 1: and walked and walked, without being overtaken by the train
1:03:36
Speaker 1: until after a thirty mile walk, he arrived in rawar Uska,
1:03:40
Speaker 1: his objective. Twenty four hours later, his orderly appeared with
1:03:45
Speaker 1: the luggage. His thirty mile walk proved no difficulty to
1:03:49
Speaker 1: that sportsman. His body was so well trained that he
1:03:52
Speaker 1: did not feel the tramp he had undertaken. Count Holp
1:03:56
Speaker 1: was not only a sportsman on land. Flying also was
1:04:00
Speaker 1: to him a sport which gave him the greatest pleasure.
1:04:03
Speaker 1: He was a pilot of rare talent and peculiarity, and
1:04:07
Speaker 1: that is, after all, the principal thing. He towered head
1:04:11
Speaker 1: and shoulders above the enemy. We went on many a
1:04:14
Speaker 1: beautiful reconnoitering flight. I do not know how far into Russia.
1:04:19
Speaker 1: Although hot was so young, I had never a feeling
1:04:22
Speaker 1: of insecurity with him. On the contrary, he was always
1:04:26
Speaker 1: a support to me in critical moments. When I looked
1:04:30
Speaker 1: around and saw his determined face, I had always twice
1:04:33
Speaker 1: as much courage as I had had before. My last
1:04:37
Speaker 1: flight with him nearly led the trouble. We had not
1:04:40
Speaker 1: had definite orders to fly. The glorious thing in the
1:04:44
Speaker 1: flying service is that one feels that one is a
1:04:47
Speaker 1: perfectly free man in one's own master as soon as
1:04:50
Speaker 1: one is up in the air. We had to change
1:04:54
Speaker 1: our flying base, and we were not quite certain in
1:04:57
Speaker 1: which meadow we were to land. In order not to
1:05:00
Speaker 1: expose our machine to too much risk and landing, we
1:05:03
Speaker 1: flew in the direction of breastlet Tauvisk. The Russians were
1:05:07
Speaker 1: retiring everywhere. The whole countryside was burning. It was a
1:05:12
Speaker 1: terribly beautiful picture. We intended to ascertain the direction of
1:05:16
Speaker 1: the enemy columns, and in doing so, flew over the
1:05:19
Speaker 1: burning town of his Naeka. A gigantic smoke cloud, which
1:05:23
Speaker 1: went up to about six thousand feet, prevented us continuing
1:05:27
Speaker 1: our flight, because we flew at an altitude of only
1:05:30
Speaker 1: forty five hundred feet in order to see better. For
1:05:33
Speaker 1: a moment, Hulk reflected. I asked him what he intended
1:05:37
Speaker 1: to do, and advised him to fly around the smoke cloud,
1:05:41
Speaker 1: which would have involved a roundabout way of five minutes.
1:05:45
Speaker 1: Hulk did not intend to do this. On the contrary,
1:05:49
Speaker 1: the greater the danger was, the more the thing attracted him. Therefore,
1:05:54
Speaker 1: straight through I enjoyed it too to be together with
1:05:58
Speaker 1: such a daring fellow. Our venturesomeness nearly cost us deer.
1:06:03
Speaker 1: As soon as the tail end of the machine had
1:06:05
Speaker 1: disappeared in smoke, the aeroplane began to reel. I could
1:06:09
Speaker 1: not see a thing, for the smoke made my eyes water.
1:06:12
Speaker 1: The air was much warmer, and beneath me I saw
1:06:15
Speaker 1: nothing but a huge sea of fire. Suddenly the machine
1:06:19
Speaker 1: lost its balance and fell, turning round and round. I
1:06:23
Speaker 1: managed to grasp a stay and hung on to it.
1:06:26
Speaker 1: Otherwise I should have been thrown out of the machine.
1:06:30
Speaker 1: The first thing I did was to look at Hulk,
1:06:32
Speaker 1: and immediately I regained my courage, for his face showed
1:06:36
Speaker 1: an iron confidence. The only thought which I had was
1:06:40
Speaker 1: it is stupid, after all, to die so unnecessarily a
1:06:43
Speaker 1: hero's death. Later on, I asked Hulk what had been
1:06:47
Speaker 1: his thoughts at the moment. He told me he had
1:06:50
Speaker 1: never experienced so unpleasant a feeling. We fell down to
1:06:55
Speaker 1: an altitude of fifteen hundred feet above the burning town.
1:06:58
Speaker 1: Either through the skill of me my pilot, or by
1:07:01
Speaker 1: a higher will, perhaps by both, we suddenly dropped out
1:07:05
Speaker 1: of the smoke cloud. Our good albatross found itself again,
1:07:09
Speaker 1: and once more flew straight ahead as if nothing had happened.
1:07:13
Speaker 1: We had now had enough of it, and instead of
1:07:16
Speaker 1: going to a new base, intended to return to our
1:07:18
Speaker 1: old quarter as quickly as possible. After all, we were
1:07:22
Speaker 1: still above the Russians, and only at an altitude of
1:07:25
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred feet. Five minutes later, I heard Hulk behind
1:07:30
Speaker 1: me exclaiming, the motor is giving out. I must add
1:07:33
Speaker 1: that Hulk had not as much knowledge of motors as
1:07:36
Speaker 1: he had of horseflesh, and I had not the slightest
1:07:39
Speaker 1: idea of mechanics. The only thing which I knew was
1:07:42
Speaker 1: that we should have to land among the Russians if
1:07:44
Speaker 1: the motor went on strike. So one peril had followed
1:07:48
Speaker 1: the other. I convinced myself that the Russians beneath us
1:07:52
Speaker 1: were still marching with energy. I could see them quite
1:07:55
Speaker 1: clearly from our low altitude. Besides, it was not necessary
1:07:59
Speaker 1: to look for The Russians shot at us with machine
1:08:02
Speaker 1: guns with the utmost diligence. The firing sounded like chestnuts
1:08:06
Speaker 1: roasting near a fire. Presently, the motor stopped running altogether,
1:08:11
Speaker 1: for it had been hit. So we went lower and lower.
1:08:15
Speaker 1: We just managed to glide over a forest and landed
1:08:18
Speaker 1: at last in an abandoned artillery position, which the evening
1:08:21
Speaker 1: before had still been occupied by Russians, as I had reported.
1:08:26
Speaker 1: I told Hope my impressions. We jumped out of our
1:08:29
Speaker 1: box and tried to rush into the forest nearby, where
1:08:32
Speaker 1: we might have defended ourselves. I had with me a
1:08:35
Speaker 1: pistol in six cartridges, Hulk had nothing. When we reached
1:08:40
Speaker 1: the wood, we stopped, and I saw with my glasses
1:08:42
Speaker 1: that a soldier was running towards our aeroplane. I was
1:08:46
Speaker 1: horrified to see that he wore not a spiked helmet,
1:08:49
Speaker 1: but a cat so I felt sure that it was
1:08:52
Speaker 1: a Russian. When the man came nearer, Hulk shouted with joy,
1:08:56
Speaker 1: for he was a grenadier of the Prussian Guards. Our
1:09:00
Speaker 1: troops had once more stormed the position at the break
1:09:02
Speaker 1: of day and had broken through into the enemy batteries.
1:09:07
Speaker 1: On that occasion, Hulk lost his little favorite, his Doggie.
1:09:11
Speaker 1: He took the little animal with him in every flight.
1:09:14
Speaker 1: The dog would lie always quietly on Hulk's fur and
1:09:17
Speaker 1: the fuselage. He was still with us when we were
1:09:20
Speaker 1: in the forest. Soon after, when we had talked with
1:09:23
Speaker 1: the guardsmen, German troops passed us. They were the staffs
1:09:27
Speaker 1: of the Guards and Prince idol Friedrich, with his adjutants
1:09:30
Speaker 1: and his orderly officers. The Prince supplied us with horses,
1:09:34
Speaker 1: so that we two cavalrymen were sitting once more on
1:09:37
Speaker 1: oak driven motors. Unfortunately, Doggie was lost while we were riding,
1:09:42
Speaker 1: Probably he followed other troops by mistake. Later in the
1:09:46
Speaker 1: evening we arrived in our old flying base on a cart.
1:09:50
Speaker 1: The machine was smashed Russia Osten from the two seater
1:09:56
Speaker 1: to the twin engine fighter. German enterprise in Russia came
1:10:02
Speaker 1: gradually to a stop, and suddenly I was transferred to
1:10:05
Speaker 1: a large battle plane at Austin on the twenty first
1:10:07
Speaker 1: of August nineteen fifteen. There I met an old acquaintance
1:10:12
Speaker 1: friend Zumer. Besides, I was attracted by the tempting main
1:10:16
Speaker 1: large battle plane. I had a very good time during
1:10:20
Speaker 1: this part of my service. I saw little of the war,
1:10:24
Speaker 1: but my experiences were invaluable to me, for I passed
1:10:27
Speaker 1: my apprenticeship as a battle flyer. We flew a great deal.
1:10:32
Speaker 1: We had rarely a fight in the air, and we
1:10:34
Speaker 1: had no successes. We had seized a hotel on the
1:10:38
Speaker 1: Austin shore, and there we bathed every afternoon. Unfortunately, the
1:10:43
Speaker 1: only frequenters of the water place were soldiers. Wrapped up
1:10:47
Speaker 1: in our many colored bathing gowns. We sat on the
1:10:49
Speaker 1: terraces of Austin and drank our coffee in the afternoon.
1:10:54
Speaker 1: One fine day, we were sitting as usual on the
1:10:56
Speaker 1: shore drinking coffee. Suddenly we heard bugle. We were told
1:11:01
Speaker 1: that an English squadron was approaching. Of course, we did
1:11:04
Speaker 1: not allow ourselves to be alarmed and to be disturbed,
1:11:08
Speaker 1: but continued drinking our coffee. Suddenly somebody called out, there
1:11:12
Speaker 1: they are. Indeed we could see on the horizon, though
1:11:16
Speaker 1: not very distinctly, some smoking chimneys, and later on could
1:11:20
Speaker 1: make out ships. Immediately we fetched our telescopes and observed them.
1:11:25
Speaker 1: There was indeed quite an imposing number of vessels. It
1:11:29
Speaker 1: was not quite clear to us what they intended to do,
1:11:32
Speaker 1: but soon we were to know better. We went up
1:11:35
Speaker 1: to the roof of whence we could see more. Suddenly
1:11:38
Speaker 1: we heard a whistling in the air. Then there came
1:11:41
Speaker 1: a big bang and a shell hit that part of
1:11:43
Speaker 1: the beach where a little before we had been bathing.
1:11:46
Speaker 1: I have never rushed as rapidly into the Hero's cellar
1:11:49
Speaker 1: as they did at that moment. The English squadron shot
1:11:53
Speaker 1: perhaps three or four times at us, and then it
1:11:55
Speaker 1: began bombarding the harbor and railway station. Of course, they
1:11:59
Speaker 1: hit nothing, but they gave a terrible fright to the Belgians.
1:12:03
Speaker 1: One shell fell right in the beautiful Palace hotel on
1:12:06
Speaker 1: the shore. That was the only damage that was done. Happily,
1:12:11
Speaker 1: they destroyed only English capital, for it belonged to englishmen.
1:12:16
Speaker 1: In the evening we flew again with energy. On one
1:12:20
Speaker 1: of our four flights, we had gone very far across
1:12:22
Speaker 1: the sea with our battle plane. It had two motors,
1:12:26
Speaker 1: and we were experimenting with a new steering gear, which
1:12:29
Speaker 1: we were told would enable us to fly in a
1:12:31
Speaker 1: straight line with only a single motor working. When we
1:12:35
Speaker 1: were fairly far out, I saw beneath us, not on
1:12:38
Speaker 1: the water, but below the surface, a ship. It is
1:12:42
Speaker 1: a funny thing. If the sea is quiet, one could
1:12:45
Speaker 1: look down from above to the bottom of the sea.
1:12:48
Speaker 1: Of course, it is not possible where the sea is
1:12:50
Speaker 1: twenty five miles deep, but one can see clearly through
1:12:54
Speaker 1: several hundred yards of water. I had not made a
1:12:57
Speaker 1: mistake in believing that the ship was traveling not on
1:13:00
Speaker 1: the surface, but below the surface. Yet it seemed at
1:13:04
Speaker 1: first that it was traveling above water. I drew Zumer's
1:13:08
Speaker 1: attention to my discovery, and we went lower in order
1:13:11
Speaker 1: to see more clearly. I am too little of a
1:13:14
Speaker 1: naval expert to say what it was, but it was
1:13:17
Speaker 1: clear to me that it was bound to be a submarine.
1:13:21
Speaker 1: But of what nationality? That is a difficult question, which,
1:13:25
Speaker 1: in my opinion, can be solved only by a naval expert,
1:13:29
Speaker 1: and not always by him. One can scarcely distinguish colors
1:13:33
Speaker 1: under water, and there is no flag. Besides, a submarine
1:13:37
Speaker 1: does not carry such things. We had with us a
1:13:41
Speaker 1: couple of bombs, and I debated with myself whether I
1:13:44
Speaker 1: should throw them or not. The submarine had not seen us,
1:13:47
Speaker 1: for it was partly submerged. We might have flown above
1:13:50
Speaker 1: it without danger, and we might have waited until they
1:13:53
Speaker 1: found it necessary to come to the surface for air.
1:13:56
Speaker 1: Then we could have dropped our eggs herein life, no doubt,
1:14:01
Speaker 1: a very critical point for our sister arm When we
1:14:04
Speaker 1: had fooled around the apparition beneath us for quite a while,
1:14:08
Speaker 1: I suddenly noticed that the water was gradually disappearing from
1:14:11
Speaker 1: our cooling apparatus. I did not like that, and I
1:14:15
Speaker 1: drew my colleagues attention to the fact. He pulled a
1:14:18
Speaker 1: long face and hastened to get home. However, we were
1:14:21
Speaker 1: approximately twelve miles from the shore, and they had to
1:14:24
Speaker 1: be flown over. The motor began running more slowly, and
1:14:28
Speaker 1: I was quietly preparing myself for a sudden cold immersion.
1:14:32
Speaker 1: But lo, and behold, we got through our giant apple
1:14:36
Speaker 1: barge barged along with a single motor and the new
1:14:39
Speaker 1: steering apparatus, and we reached the shore and managed to
1:14:42
Speaker 1: land in the harbor without any special difficulty. It is
1:14:46
Speaker 1: a good thing to be lucky. Had we not tried
1:14:48
Speaker 1: the new steering apparatus on that day, there would not
1:14:52
Speaker 1: have been any hope for us. We should certainly have
1:14:55
Speaker 1: been drowned a drop of blood for the father land.
1:15:01
Speaker 1: I have never been really wounded at the critical moment.
1:15:05
Speaker 1: I have probably bent my head or pulled in my
1:15:08
Speaker 1: chest often I have been surprised that they did not
1:15:12
Speaker 1: hit me. Once a bullet went through both my fur
1:15:15
Speaker 1: lined boots. Another time a bullet went through my muffler.
1:15:19
Speaker 1: Another time one went along my arm through the fur
1:15:22
Speaker 1: and the leather jacket. But I have never been touched.
1:15:26
Speaker 1: One fine day, we started with our large battle plane
1:15:29
Speaker 1: in order to delight the English with our bombs. We
1:15:32
Speaker 1: reached our objective the first bomb fell. It is very
1:15:37
Speaker 1: interesting to ascertain the effect of a bomb. At least
1:15:41
Speaker 1: one always likes to see it exploding. Unfortunately, my large battleplane,
1:15:46
Speaker 1: which was well qualified for carrying bombs, had a stupid
1:15:49
Speaker 1: peculiarity which prevented me from seeing the effect of a
1:15:52
Speaker 1: bomb throw, for immediately after the throw, the machine came
1:15:57
Speaker 1: between my eye and the object and covered it completely
1:15:59
Speaker 1: with its planes. This always made me wild, because one
1:16:03
Speaker 1: does not like to be deprived of one's amusement. If
1:16:07
Speaker 1: you hear a bang down below and see the delightful
1:16:10
Speaker 1: grayish whitish cloud of the explosion in the neighborhood of
1:16:13
Speaker 1: the object aimed at, you were always very pleased. Therefore,
1:16:17
Speaker 1: I waved a friend, Zoomer, that he should bend a
1:16:19
Speaker 1: little to the side. While waving to him, I forgot
1:16:23
Speaker 1: that the infamous object on which I was traveling my
1:16:26
Speaker 1: apple barge, had two propellers which turned to the right
1:16:29
Speaker 1: and left of my observer seat. I meant to show
1:16:32
Speaker 1: him where approximately the bomb had hit, and bang, my
1:16:35
Speaker 1: finger was caught. I was somewhat surprised when I discovered
1:16:39
Speaker 1: that my little finger had been damaged. Zumer did not
1:16:42
Speaker 1: notice anything having been hit. On the hand, I did
1:16:46
Speaker 1: not care to throw any more bombs. I quickly got
1:16:49
Speaker 1: rid of the lot and we hurried home. My love
1:16:53
Speaker 1: for the large battle plane, which after all had not
1:16:56
Speaker 1: been very great, suffered seriously in consequence of my experience.
1:17:01
Speaker 1: I had to sit quiet for seven days, and was
1:17:03
Speaker 1: debarred from flying. Only my beauty was slightly damaged. But
1:17:07
Speaker 1: after all I can say with pride that I also
1:17:10
Speaker 1: have been wounded in the war. My first flight in
1:17:15
Speaker 1: the air first September nineteen fifteen, Zoomer and I were
1:17:22
Speaker 1: very anxious to have a fight in the air. Of course,
1:17:25
Speaker 1: we flew our large battle plane. The title of our
1:17:28
Speaker 1: barge alone gave us so much courage that we thought
1:17:31
Speaker 1: it impossible for any opponent to escape us. We flew
1:17:35
Speaker 1: every day from five to six hours, without ever seeing
1:17:38
Speaker 1: an Englishman. I became quite discouraged, but one fine morning
1:17:43
Speaker 1: we again went out to hunt. Suddenly I discovered a
1:17:47
Speaker 1: farm and aeroplane which was reconnoitering. Without taking notice of it.
1:17:51
Speaker 1: My heart beat furiously when Zuomer flew towards it. I
1:17:55
Speaker 1: was curious to see what was going to happen. I
1:17:58
Speaker 1: had never witnessed a fight in the air, and had
1:18:00
Speaker 1: about as vague an idea of it as it was
1:18:03
Speaker 1: possible to have. Before I knew what was happening, both
1:18:07
Speaker 1: the Englishmen and I rushed by one another. I had
1:18:10
Speaker 1: fired four shots at most when the Englishman was suddenly
1:18:14
Speaker 1: in our rear, firing into us like anything. I must say,
1:18:18
Speaker 1: I never had any sense of danger, because I had
1:18:20
Speaker 1: no idea how the final result of such a fight
1:18:23
Speaker 1: would come about. We turned and turned around one another,
1:18:26
Speaker 1: until at last, to our great surprise, the Englishman turned
1:18:30
Speaker 1: away from us and flew off. I was greatly disappointed,
1:18:33
Speaker 1: and so was my pilot. Both of us were in
1:18:37
Speaker 1: very bad spirits. When we reached home. He reproached me
1:18:40
Speaker 1: for having shot badly, and I reproached him for not
1:18:43
Speaker 1: having enabled me to shoot well. In short, our aeroplanic relations,
1:18:48
Speaker 1: which previously had been faultless, suffered severely. We looked at
1:18:52
Speaker 1: our machine and discovered that it had received quite a
1:18:56
Speaker 1: respectable number of hits. On the same day, we went
1:18:59
Speaker 1: on the chase for a second time, but again we
1:19:02
Speaker 1: had no success. I felt very sad. I had imagined
1:19:06
Speaker 1: that things would be very different in a battle squadron.
1:19:10
Speaker 1: I had always believed that one shot would cause the
1:19:12
Speaker 1: enemy to fall, But soon I became convinced that a
1:19:15
Speaker 1: flying machine can stand a great deal of punishment. Finally,
1:19:19
Speaker 1: I felt assured that I should never bring down a
1:19:21
Speaker 1: hostile aeroplane. However much shooting I did, we did not
1:19:26
Speaker 1: lack courage. Zumer was a wonderful flyer, and I was
1:19:30
Speaker 1: quite a good shot. We stood before a riddle. We
1:19:34
Speaker 1: were not the only ones to be puzzled. Many are
1:19:37
Speaker 1: nowadays in the same position in which we were. Then.
1:19:41
Speaker 1: After all, the flying business must really be thoroughly understood
1:19:47
Speaker 1: in the Champagne Battle. Our pleasant days at Austen were
1:19:51
Speaker 1: soon passed, for the Champagne Battle began, and we flew
1:19:55
Speaker 1: to the front in order to take part in it
1:19:57
Speaker 1: in our large battle plane. Soon we discovered that our
1:20:01
Speaker 1: packing case was a capacious aeroplane, but that it could
1:20:05
Speaker 1: never be turned into a good battle plane. I flew
1:20:08
Speaker 1: once with Osteroff, who had a smaller flier than the
1:20:11
Speaker 1: Apple barge. About three miles behind the front, we encountered
1:20:15
Speaker 1: a farm and two cedar. He allowed us to approach him,
1:20:19
Speaker 1: and for the first time in my life I saw
1:20:22
Speaker 1: an aerial opponent from quite close by. Osteroth flew with
1:20:26
Speaker 1: great skills, side by side with the enemy, so that
1:20:29
Speaker 1: I could easily fire at him. Our opponent probably did
1:20:33
Speaker 1: not notice us, for only when I had trouble with
1:20:36
Speaker 1: my gun did he begin to shoot it us. When
1:20:39
Speaker 1: I ate exhausted my supply of one hundred bullets. I
1:20:42
Speaker 1: thought I could not trust my eyes. When I suddenly
1:20:45
Speaker 1: noticed that my opponent was going down in curious spirals.
1:20:50
Speaker 1: I followed him with my eyes and tapped Osteroth's head
1:20:53
Speaker 1: to draw his attention. Our opponent fell and fell, and
1:20:57
Speaker 1: dropped at last into a large crater. There he was,
1:21:01
Speaker 1: his machine standing on its head, the tail pointing towards
1:21:05
Speaker 1: the sky. According to the map, he had fallen three
1:21:08
Speaker 1: miles behind the front. We had therefore brought him down
1:21:12
Speaker 1: on enemy ground. Otherwise I should have one more victory
1:21:16
Speaker 1: to my credit. I was very proud of my success.
1:21:20
Speaker 1: After all, the chief thing is to bring a fellow down.
1:21:24
Speaker 1: It does not matter at all whether one is credited
1:21:27
Speaker 1: for it or not. How I met Bolka friend Zumer
1:21:34
Speaker 1: got a Foker monoplane. Therefore I had to sail through
1:21:38
Speaker 1: the world alone. The Champagne battle was raging, the French
1:21:42
Speaker 1: flyingmen were coming to the fore. We were to be
1:21:45
Speaker 1: combined in a battle squadron, and took train on the
1:21:47
Speaker 1: first of October nineteen fifteen. In the dining car. At
1:21:52
Speaker 1: the table next to me was sitting a young and
1:21:55
Speaker 1: insignificant looking lieutenant. There was no reason to take any
1:21:59
Speaker 1: note of him, except for the fact that he was
1:22:01
Speaker 1: the only man who had succeeded in shooting down a
1:22:04
Speaker 1: hostile flying man not once, but four times. His name
1:22:09
Speaker 1: had been mentioned in the dispatches. I thought a great
1:22:13
Speaker 1: deal of him because of his experience. Although I had
1:22:16
Speaker 1: taken the greatest trouble, I had not brought an enemy
1:22:19
Speaker 1: down up to that time, at least I had not
1:22:22
Speaker 1: been credited with the success. I would have liked so
1:22:26
Speaker 1: much to find out how Lieutenant Polka managed this business,
1:22:30
Speaker 1: so I asked him, tell me, how do you manage it?
1:22:33
Speaker 1: He seemed very amused and laughed, although I had asked
1:22:37
Speaker 1: him quite seriously. Then he replied, well, it is quite simple.
1:22:42
Speaker 1: I fly close to my man, came well, and then
1:22:45
Speaker 1: of course he falls down. I shook my head and
1:22:49
Speaker 1: told him that I did the same thing, but my opponents,
1:22:52
Speaker 1: unfortunately did not come down. The difference between him and
1:22:56
Speaker 1: me was that he flew a foker and I a
1:22:59
Speaker 1: large battle place. I took great trouble to get more
1:23:03
Speaker 1: closely acquainted with that nice, modest fellow, whom I badly
1:23:06
Speaker 1: wanted to teach me as business. We often played cards together,
1:23:10
Speaker 1: went for walks, and I asked him questions. At last
1:23:14
Speaker 1: I formed a resolution that I also would learn to
1:23:17
Speaker 1: fly a folker. Perhaps then my chances would improve. My
1:23:22
Speaker 1: whole aim and ambition became now concentrated upon learning how
1:23:26
Speaker 1: to manipulate the sticks myself. Hitherto I had been nothing
1:23:30
Speaker 1: but an observer. Happily, I soon found an opportunity to
1:23:34
Speaker 1: learn piloting on an old machine in the Champagne. I
1:23:38
Speaker 1: threw myself into the work with body and soul, and
1:23:41
Speaker 1: after twenty five training flights, I stood before the examination
1:23:46
Speaker 1: and flying alone. End of Chapter four. Chapter five, My
1:23:52
Speaker 1: first solo flight, tenth October nineteen fifteen. There were some
1:23:59
Speaker 1: moments in one's life which tickle one's nurse particularly, and
1:24:03
Speaker 1: the first solo flight is among them. One fine evening,
1:24:07
Speaker 1: my teacher Zumer told me, now go and fly by yourself.
1:24:12
Speaker 1: I must say. I felt like replying, I am afraid,
1:24:16
Speaker 1: But this is a word which should never be used
1:24:18
Speaker 1: by a man who defends his country. Therefore, whether I
1:24:22
Speaker 1: liked it or not, I had to make the best
1:24:24
Speaker 1: of it and get into my machine. Zumer explained to
1:24:28
Speaker 1: me once more, every movement in theory I scarcely listened
1:24:33
Speaker 1: to his explanations, for I was firmly convinced that I
1:24:36
Speaker 1: should forget half of what he was telling me. I
1:24:40
Speaker 1: started the machine. The aeroplane went at the proscribed speed,
1:24:45
Speaker 1: and I could not help noticing that I was actually flying.
1:24:49
Speaker 1: After all, I did not feel timorous, but rather related.
1:24:53
Speaker 1: I did not care for anything. I should not have
1:24:56
Speaker 1: been frightened no matter what happened. With contempted I made
1:25:00
Speaker 1: a large curve to the left, stopped the machine near
1:25:03
Speaker 1: a tree, exactly where I had been ordered to, and
1:25:06
Speaker 1: looked forward to see what would happen. Now came the
1:25:10
Speaker 1: most difficult thing, the landing. I remembered exactly what movements
1:25:15
Speaker 1: I had to make. I acted mechanically, and the machine
1:25:18
Speaker 1: moved quite differently from what I had expected. I lost
1:25:22
Speaker 1: my balance, made some wrong movements, stood on my head,
1:25:25
Speaker 1: and I succeeded in converting my aeroplane into a battered
1:25:29
Speaker 1: school bus. I was very sad, looked at the damage
1:25:32
Speaker 1: which I had done to the machine, which after all
1:25:35
Speaker 1: was not very great, and had to suffer from other
1:25:38
Speaker 1: people's jokes. Two days later, I went with passion at
1:25:42
Speaker 1: the flying, and suddenly I could handle the apparatus. A
1:25:47
Speaker 1: fotnight later, I had to take my first examination. Heir
1:25:51
Speaker 1: von t was my examiner. I described the figure eight
1:25:55
Speaker 1: several times exactly as I had been told to do,
1:25:58
Speaker 1: landed several times whistle success in accordance with orders received,
1:26:02
Speaker 1: and felt very proud of my achievements. However, to my
1:26:06
Speaker 1: great surprise, I was told that I had not passed.
1:26:11
Speaker 1: There was nothing to be done but to try once
1:26:13
Speaker 1: more to pass the initial examination my training time at Dobritz.
1:26:20
Speaker 1: In order to pass my examinations, I had to go
1:26:23
Speaker 1: to Berlin. I made use of the opportunity to go
1:26:26
Speaker 1: to Berlin as observer in a giant plane. I was
1:26:30
Speaker 1: ordered to go by aeroplane to Dubritz near Berlin on
1:26:33
Speaker 1: the fifteenth of November nineteen fifteen. In the beginning, I
1:26:38
Speaker 1: took a great interest in the giant plane, but funnily enough,
1:26:43
Speaker 1: the gigantic machine made it clear to me that only
1:26:46
Speaker 1: the smallest aeroplane would be of any use for me
1:26:49
Speaker 1: in battle. A big aerial barge is too clumsy for fighting.
1:26:54
Speaker 1: Agility is needed, and after all, fighting is my business.
1:26:59
Speaker 1: The difference between a large battle plane and a giant
1:27:02
Speaker 1: plane is that a giant plane is considerably larger than
1:27:05
Speaker 1: a large battle plane, and that it is more suitable
1:27:08
Speaker 1: for use as a bomb carrier than a fighter. I
1:27:12
Speaker 1: went through my examinations and Dorbrits together with a dear fellow,
1:27:16
Speaker 1: First Lieutenant von Lichner. We get on very well with
1:27:19
Speaker 1: one another, had the same inclinations and the same ideas
1:27:23
Speaker 1: as to our future activity. Our aim was the fly
1:27:27
Speaker 1: fokers and to be included in a battle squadron on
1:27:30
Speaker 1: the Western Front. A year later we succeeded in working
1:27:34
Speaker 1: together for a short time. A deadly bullet hit my
1:27:37
Speaker 1: dear friend when bringing down his third aeroplane. We passed
1:27:42
Speaker 1: many merry hours in door Brits. One of the things
1:27:45
Speaker 1: which we had to do was to land in strange quarters.
1:27:48
Speaker 1: I used this opportunity to combine the necessary with the agreeable.
1:27:53
Speaker 1: My favorite landing place outside of our aerodrome was the
1:27:56
Speaker 1: Bukau estate, where I was well known. I was there
1:28:00
Speaker 1: invited to shoot wild pigs. The matter could be combined
1:28:04
Speaker 1: only with difficulty with the service. For on fine evenings
1:28:08
Speaker 1: I wished both to fly and to shoot tigs. So
1:28:11
Speaker 1: I arranged for a place of landing in the neighborhood
1:28:14
Speaker 1: of Bucou whence I could easily reach my friends. I
1:28:18
Speaker 1: took with me a second pilot who served as an observer,
1:28:21
Speaker 1: and sent him back in the evening. During the night,
1:28:25
Speaker 1: I shot pigs, and on the next morning was fetched
1:28:27
Speaker 1: by my pilot. If I had not been fetched with
1:28:31
Speaker 1: the aeroplane, I should have been in a hole, for
1:28:33
Speaker 1: I should have had to march on foot a distance
1:28:36
Speaker 1: of about six miles. So I required a man who
1:28:40
Speaker 1: would fetch me in any weather. It is not easy
1:28:43
Speaker 1: to find a man who will fetch you under any circumstances. Once,
1:28:48
Speaker 1: when I had passed the night trying to shoot tigs,
1:28:50
Speaker 1: a tremendous snowfall set in. One could not see fifty
1:28:55
Speaker 1: yards ahead. My pilot was to fetch me at eight sharp.
1:28:59
Speaker 1: I hope that for once he would not come. But
1:29:02
Speaker 1: suddenly I heard a humming noise. One could not see
1:29:05
Speaker 1: a thing, and five minutes later my beloved bird was
1:29:09
Speaker 1: squatting before me on the ground. Unfortunately some of his
1:29:13
Speaker 1: bones had got Then I become a pilot. On Christmas
1:29:19
Speaker 1: Day nineteen fifteen, I passed my third examination. In connection
1:29:25
Speaker 1: with it, I flew to Schwerin, where the Folker works
1:29:27
Speaker 1: are situated, and had a look at them. As observer,
1:29:31
Speaker 1: I took with me my mechanic and from Schweren I
1:29:33
Speaker 1: flew with him to Breslau, from Breslau to Schwitness, from
1:29:37
Speaker 1: Thence to Leuben, and then returned to Berlin. During my
1:29:41
Speaker 1: tour I landed in lots of different places in between
1:29:44
Speaker 1: visiting relatives and friends. Being a trained observer, I did
1:29:48
Speaker 1: not find it difficult to find my way. In March
1:29:53
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen, I joined the second Battle Squadron before Verdun
1:29:57
Speaker 1: and learned air fighting. As a pilot, I learned how
1:30:01
Speaker 1: to handle a fighting aeroplane. I flew then a two seater.
1:30:06
Speaker 1: In the official communique of the twenty sixth of April
1:30:09
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen, I am referred to for the first time,
1:30:13
Speaker 1: although my name is not mentioned, only my deeds appear
1:30:17
Speaker 1: in it. I had built into my machine a machine gun,
1:30:20
Speaker 1: which I had arranged very much in the same way
1:30:23
Speaker 1: in which it is done in the NUPA machines. I
1:30:26
Speaker 1: was very proud of my idea. People laughed at the
1:30:29
Speaker 1: way I had fitted it up because the whole thing
1:30:32
Speaker 1: looked very primitive. Of course, I swore by my new
1:30:36
Speaker 1: arrangement and very soon I had an opportunity of ascertaining
1:30:40
Speaker 1: its practical value. I encountered a hostile NUPA machine which
1:30:45
Speaker 1: was apparently guided by a man who also was a beginner,
1:30:49
Speaker 1: for he acted extremely foolishly. When I flew towards him,
1:30:53
Speaker 1: he ran away, Apparently he had trouble with his gun.
1:30:57
Speaker 1: I had no idea of fighting him, but thought, what
1:31:00
Speaker 1: will happen if I now start shooting. I flew after him,
1:31:04
Speaker 1: approached him as closely as possible, and then began firing
1:31:08
Speaker 1: a short series of well aimed shots with my machine gun.
1:31:11
Speaker 1: The nupah reared up in the air and turned over
1:31:14
Speaker 1: and over. At first, both my observer and I believed
1:31:18
Speaker 1: that this was one of the numerous tricks which French
1:31:21
Speaker 1: flyers habitually indulged in. However, his tricks did not cease
1:31:27
Speaker 1: turning over and over. The machine went lower and lower.
1:31:30
Speaker 1: At last, my observer patted me on the head and
1:31:33
Speaker 1: called out to me, I congratulate you. He is falling.
1:31:37
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, he fell into the forest
1:31:40
Speaker 1: behind Fort Dueimond and disappeared among the trees. It became
1:31:44
Speaker 1: clear to me that I had shot him down, but
1:31:47
Speaker 1: on the other side of the front. I flew home
1:31:50
Speaker 1: and reported merely I had an aerial fight and had
1:31:53
Speaker 1: shot down a newpap. The next day I read of
1:31:56
Speaker 1: my action in the official communicay. Of of course I
1:32:00
Speaker 1: was very proud of my success, but that NUPA does
1:32:03
Speaker 1: not figure among the fifty two aeroplanes which I have
1:32:06
Speaker 1: brought down. The communicated the twenty sixth of April stated
1:32:11
Speaker 1: two hostile flying machines had been shot down by aerial
1:32:14
Speaker 1: fighting above Fleure, south and west of Duemm. Hulk's death
1:32:20
Speaker 1: thirtieth of April nineteen sixteen. As a young pilot, I
1:32:26
Speaker 1: once flew over Fort Duemm at a moment when it
1:32:29
Speaker 1: was exposed to a violent drum fire. I noticed that
1:32:32
Speaker 1: a German folker was attacking three quadran machines. It was
1:32:36
Speaker 1: my misfortune that a strong west wind was blowing that
1:32:40
Speaker 1: was not favorable to me. The foker was driven over
1:32:44
Speaker 1: the town of her Dunn. In the course of the fight,
1:32:47
Speaker 1: I drew the attention of my observer to the struggle.
1:32:50
Speaker 1: He thought that the German fighting man must be a
1:32:53
Speaker 1: very smart fellow. We wondered whether it could be Bolka,
1:32:56
Speaker 1: and intended to inquire. When we came down. I saw
1:33:00
Speaker 1: to my horror that the German machine, which previously had attacked,
1:33:04
Speaker 1: had fallen back upon the defensive. The strength of the
1:33:08
Speaker 1: French fighting men had been increased to at least ten
1:33:10
Speaker 1: and their combined assaults forced the German machine to go
1:33:14
Speaker 1: lower and lower. I could not fly to the Germans aided.
1:33:18
Speaker 1: I was too far away from the battle. Besides, my
1:33:21
Speaker 1: heavy machine could not overcome the strong wind against me.
1:33:25
Speaker 1: The Folker fought with despair. His opponents had rushed him
1:33:29
Speaker 1: down to an altitude of only about eighteen hundred feet.
1:33:33
Speaker 1: Suddenly he was once more attacked by his opponents, and
1:33:35
Speaker 1: he disappeared, plunging into a small cloud. I breathed more easily,
1:33:40
Speaker 1: for in my opinion, the cloud had saved him. When
1:33:44
Speaker 1: I arrived at the aerodrome, I reported what I had seen,
1:33:48
Speaker 1: and was told that the Folker was Count Hulk, my
1:33:51
Speaker 1: old comrade in the Eastern theater of war. Count Hulk
1:33:55
Speaker 1: had dropped straight down, shot through the head. His death
1:33:59
Speaker 1: the affected me, for he was my model. I tried
1:34:03
Speaker 1: to imitate his energy, and he was a man among men.
1:34:06
Speaker 1: Also as a character and of chapter five, Chapter six,
1:34:13
Speaker 1: I fly in a thunderstorm. Our activity before Verdune was
1:34:19
Speaker 1: disturbed in the summer of nineteen sixteen by frequent thunderstorms.
1:34:24
Speaker 1: Nothing is more disagreeable for flying men than to have
1:34:27
Speaker 1: to go through a thunderstorm. In the Battle of Lussamme,
1:34:30
Speaker 1: a whole English flying squadron came down behind our lines
1:34:34
Speaker 1: and became prisoners of war because they had been surprised
1:34:37
Speaker 1: by a thunderstorm. I had never yet made an attempt
1:34:41
Speaker 1: to get through thunderclouds, but I could not suppress my
1:34:44
Speaker 1: desire to make the experiment. During the whole day thunder
1:34:48
Speaker 1: was in the air. From my base at Mont, I
1:34:50
Speaker 1: had flown over to the fortress of Mets nearby in
1:34:53
Speaker 1: order to look after various things. During my return journey,
1:34:57
Speaker 1: I had an adventure. It was at the aerodrome of
1:35:01
Speaker 1: Metz and intended to return to my own quarters. When
1:35:04
Speaker 1: I pulled my machine out of the hangar, the first
1:35:07
Speaker 1: storms of an approaching thunderstorm became noticeable. Clouds which looked
1:35:11
Speaker 1: like gigantic pitch black wall approached from the north. Older
1:35:16
Speaker 1: experienced pilots urged me not to fly. However, I had
1:35:20
Speaker 1: promised to return, and I should have considered myself a
1:35:23
Speaker 1: coward if I had failed to come back because of
1:35:26
Speaker 1: a silly thunderstorm. Therefore, I meant to try. When I started,
1:35:32
Speaker 1: the rain began falling. I had to throw away my goggles,
1:35:36
Speaker 1: otherwise I should not have seen anything. The trouble was
1:35:40
Speaker 1: that I had to travel over the mountains of the Moselle,
1:35:43
Speaker 1: where the thunderstorm was just raging. I said to myself
1:35:46
Speaker 1: that probably I should be lucky and get through, and
1:35:50
Speaker 1: rapidly approached the black cloud, which reached down to the earth.
1:35:54
Speaker 1: I flew at the lowest possible altitude. I was compelled
1:35:58
Speaker 1: absolutely to leap over houses trees with my machine. Very
1:36:02
Speaker 1: soon I knew no longer where I was. The gale
1:36:06
Speaker 1: seized my machine as if it were a piece of
1:36:09
Speaker 1: paper and drove it along. My heart sank within me.
1:36:13
Speaker 1: I could not land among the hills. I was compelled
1:36:16
Speaker 1: to go on. I was surrounded by an inky blackness
1:36:20
Speaker 1: beneath me. The trees bent down in the gale. Suddenly
1:36:24
Speaker 1: I saw right in front of me a wooded height.
1:36:27
Speaker 1: I could not avoid it. My albatross managed to take it.
1:36:31
Speaker 1: I was able to fly only in a straight line. Therefore,
1:36:35
Speaker 1: I had to take every obstacle that I encountered. My
1:36:39
Speaker 1: flight became a jumping competition purely and simply. I had
1:36:43
Speaker 1: to jump over trees, villages, spires, and steeples, where I
1:36:47
Speaker 1: had to keep within a few yards of the ground.
1:36:49
Speaker 1: Otherwise I should have seen nothing at all. The lightning
1:36:53
Speaker 1: was playing around me. At that time. I did not
1:36:57
Speaker 1: know that lightning cannot touch flying machines. I felt certain
1:37:01
Speaker 1: of my death, for it seemed to me inevitable that
1:37:04
Speaker 1: the gale would throw me at any moment into a
1:37:06
Speaker 1: village or a forest. Had the motor stopped working, I
1:37:10
Speaker 1: should have been done. For Suddenly I saw that on
1:37:14
Speaker 1: the horizon the darkness had become less thick. Over there,
1:37:18
Speaker 1: the thunderstorm had passed. I would be saved if I
1:37:21
Speaker 1: were able to get so far. Concentrating all my energy,
1:37:26
Speaker 1: I steered towards the light. Suddenly I got out of
1:37:29
Speaker 1: the thundercloud. The rain was still falling in torrents. Still
1:37:34
Speaker 1: I felt saved in pouring rain, I landed at my aerodrome.
1:37:39
Speaker 1: Everyone was waiting for me, for Metz had reported my
1:37:42
Speaker 1: start and had told them that I had been swallowed
1:37:45
Speaker 1: up by a thundercloud. I shall never again fly through
1:37:49
Speaker 1: a thunderstorm, unless the Fatherland should demand this. Now, when
1:37:54
Speaker 1: I look back, I realized that it was all very beautiful.
1:37:59
Speaker 1: Notwithstanding the danger. During my flight, I experienced glorious moments
1:38:03
Speaker 1: which I would not care to have missed my first
1:38:07
Speaker 1: time in a foker. From the beginning of my career
1:38:12
Speaker 1: as a pilot, I had only a single ambition, the
1:38:15
Speaker 1: ambition to fly in a single cedar battle plane. After
1:38:20
Speaker 1: worrying my commander for a long time, I at last
1:38:23
Speaker 1: obtained permission to mount a foker. The revolving motor was
1:38:27
Speaker 1: a novelty to me. Besides, it was a strange feeling
1:38:31
Speaker 1: to be quite alone during the flight. The folk are
1:38:35
Speaker 1: belonged jointly to a friend of mine who has died
1:38:37
Speaker 1: long ago, and to myself. I flew in the morning
1:38:41
Speaker 1: and he in the afternoon. Both he and I were
1:38:45
Speaker 1: afraid that the other fellow would smash the box. On
1:38:49
Speaker 1: the second day we flew towards the enemy. When I
1:38:52
Speaker 1: flew in the morning, no Frenchman was to be seen.
1:38:55
Speaker 1: In the afternoon, it was his turn. He started but
1:39:00
Speaker 1: did not return. There was no news from him. Late
1:39:04
Speaker 1: in the evening, the infantry reported an aerial battle between
1:39:07
Speaker 1: a newpoe and a German folker, in the course of
1:39:10
Speaker 1: which the German machine had apparently landed at the Morholm.
1:39:14
Speaker 1: Evidently the occupant was friend Ryman. For all the other
1:39:17
Speaker 1: flying men had returned. We regretted the fate of our
1:39:21
Speaker 1: brave comrade. Suddenly, in the middle of the night we
1:39:25
Speaker 1: heard over the telephone that a German flying officer had
1:39:28
Speaker 1: made an unexpected appearance in the front trenches at the Morholm.
1:39:32
Speaker 1: It appeared that this was Ryman. His motor had been
1:39:36
Speaker 1: smashed by a shot. He had been forced to land
1:39:39
Speaker 1: as he was not able to reach our own lines.
1:39:42
Speaker 1: He had come to the ground in no man's land.
1:39:45
Speaker 1: He had rapidly set fire to the machine, and had
1:39:48
Speaker 1: then quickly hidden himself in the mine crater. During the
1:39:51
Speaker 1: night he had slunk into our trenches. Thus ended our
1:39:55
Speaker 1: joint enterprise with a foker. A few days later I
1:39:59
Speaker 1: was given another folker. This time I felt under a
1:40:03
Speaker 1: moral obligation to attend to its destruction myself. I was
1:40:07
Speaker 1: flying for the third time when starting the motor suddenly
1:40:12
Speaker 1: stopped working. I had to land right away in a field,
1:40:15
Speaker 1: and in a moment the beautiful machine was converted into
1:40:18
Speaker 1: a mass of scrap metal. It was a miracle that
1:40:21
Speaker 1: I was not hurt. End of Chapter six, Chapter seven
1:40:28
Speaker 1: Bombing in Russia. In June, we were suddenly ordered to train.
1:40:35
Speaker 1: No one knew where we were going, but we had
1:40:37
Speaker 1: an idea, and we were not over much surprised when
1:40:40
Speaker 1: our commander told us that we were going to Russia.
1:40:43
Speaker 1: We had traveled through the whole of Germany with a
1:40:46
Speaker 1: perambulating hotel which consisted of dining at sleeping cars, and
1:40:50
Speaker 1: arrived at last at Kovol. There we remained in our
1:40:54
Speaker 1: railway cars. There are many advantages to dwelling in a train.
1:40:59
Speaker 1: One is always ready to travel on and need not
1:41:02
Speaker 1: change one's quarters. In the heat of the Russian summer,
1:41:06
Speaker 1: a sleeping car is the most horrible instrument of martyrdom imaginable. Therefore,
1:41:12
Speaker 1: I agreed with some friends of mine, Gerstenburg and Shield,
1:41:15
Speaker 1: to take quarters in the forest nearby. We erected a
1:41:19
Speaker 1: tent and lived like gypsies. We had a lovely time
1:41:24
Speaker 1: in Russia. Our battle squadron did a great deal of
1:41:27
Speaker 1: bomb throwing. Our occupation consisted of annoying the Russians. We
1:41:32
Speaker 1: dropped our eggs on their finest railway establishments. One day,
1:41:37
Speaker 1: our whole squadron went out to bomb a very important
1:41:40
Speaker 1: railway station. The place was called Manuvites and was situated
1:41:45
Speaker 1: about twenty miles behind the front. That was not very far.
1:41:50
Speaker 1: The Russians had planned an attack and the station was
1:41:53
Speaker 1: absolutely crammed with colossal trains. Trains stood close to one another,
1:41:58
Speaker 1: miles of rails were covered with them. One could easily
1:42:02
Speaker 1: see that from above there was an object for bombing
1:42:05
Speaker 1: that was worthwhile. One can become enthusiastic over anything. For
1:42:10
Speaker 1: a time I was delighted with bomb throwing. It gave
1:42:14
Speaker 1: me a tremendous pleasure to bomb those fellows from above.
1:42:18
Speaker 1: Frequently I took part in two expeditions on a single day.
1:42:22
Speaker 1: On the day mentioned our objects was Manuvites. Everything was ready,
1:42:27
Speaker 1: the aeroplanes were ready to start. Every pilot tried his motor,
1:42:31
Speaker 1: for it is a painful thing to be forced to
1:42:33
Speaker 1: land against one's will on the wrong side of the
1:42:36
Speaker 1: front line. Especially in Russia. The Russians hated the flyers.
1:42:41
Speaker 1: If they caught a flying man, they would certainly kill him.
1:42:45
Speaker 1: That is the only risk one ran in Russia, for
1:42:48
Speaker 1: the Russians had no aviators or practically none. If a
1:42:52
Speaker 1: Russian flying man turned up, he was sure to have
1:42:55
Speaker 1: bad luck and would be shot down. The anti aircraft
1:42:59
Speaker 1: guns used by Russia were sometimes quite good, but they
1:43:03
Speaker 1: were too few in number compared with flying in the West.
1:43:06
Speaker 1: Flying in the East is absolutely a holiday. The aeroplanes
1:43:11
Speaker 1: rolled heavily to the starting point. They carried bombs to
1:43:14
Speaker 1: the very limit of their capacity. Sometimes I dragged three
1:43:19
Speaker 1: hundred pounds of bombs with a normal sea machine. Besides,
1:43:23
Speaker 1: I had with me a very heavy observer, who apparently
1:43:26
Speaker 1: had not suffered in any way from the food scarcity.
1:43:29
Speaker 1: I had also with me a couple of machine guns.
1:43:33
Speaker 1: I was never able to make a proper use of
1:43:35
Speaker 1: them in Russia. It is a pity that my collection
1:43:37
Speaker 1: of trophies contains not a single Russian. Flying with a
1:43:42
Speaker 1: heavy machine, which is carrying a great dead weight is
1:43:45
Speaker 1: no fun, especially during the midday summer heat in Russia.
1:43:49
Speaker 1: The barches sway in a very disagreeable manner. Of course,
1:43:53
Speaker 1: heavily laden though they are, they do not fall down.
1:43:58
Speaker 1: The one hundred and fifty horse power motors prevent it.
1:44:01
Speaker 1: At the same time, it is no pleasant sensation to
1:44:05
Speaker 1: carry such a large quantity of explosives and benzene. At
1:44:09
Speaker 1: last we get into a quiet atmosphere. Now comes the
1:44:13
Speaker 1: enjoyment of bombing. It is splendid to be able to
1:44:16
Speaker 1: fly in a straight line and to have a definite
1:44:19
Speaker 1: object in definite orders. After having thrown one's bombs, one
1:44:24
Speaker 1: has the feeling that he has achieved something, while frequently,
1:44:27
Speaker 1: after searching for an enemy to give battle to, one
1:44:30
Speaker 1: comes home with a sense of failure at not having
1:44:33
Speaker 1: brought a hostile machine to the ground. Then a man
1:44:36
Speaker 1: is apt to say to himself, you have acted stupidly.
1:44:41
Speaker 1: It gave me a good deal of pleasure to throw bombs.
1:44:44
Speaker 1: After a while, my observer learned how to fly perpendicularly
1:44:48
Speaker 1: over the objects to be bombed, and to make use
1:44:50
Speaker 1: of the right moment for laying his egg with the
1:44:52
Speaker 1: assistance of his aiming telescope. The run to Manubtes is
1:44:57
Speaker 1: very pleasant, and I have made it repeatedly. We passed
1:45:01
Speaker 1: over gigantic forests which were probably inhabited by Elks and Lynxes,
1:45:06
Speaker 1: but the villages looked miserable. The only substantial village in
1:45:10
Speaker 1: the whole neighborhood was Manubytes. It was surrounded by innumerable
1:45:14
Speaker 1: tents and countless barracks had been run up near the
1:45:17
Speaker 1: railway station. We could not make out the red cross.
1:45:22
Speaker 1: Another flying squadron had visited the place before us. That
1:45:26
Speaker 1: could be told by the smoking houses and barracks. They
1:45:29
Speaker 1: had not done badly. The exit of the station had
1:45:32
Speaker 1: obviously been blocked by a lucky hit. The engine was
1:45:36
Speaker 1: still steaming. The engine driver had probably dived into a shelter.
1:45:41
Speaker 1: On the other side of the station, an engine was
1:45:43
Speaker 1: just coming out. Of course, I felt tempted to hit it.
1:45:48
Speaker 1: We flew towards the engine and dropped a bomb a
1:45:50
Speaker 1: few hundred yards in front of it. We had the
1:45:53
Speaker 1: desired result. The engine stopped. We turned and continued throwing
1:45:58
Speaker 1: bomb after bomb on the station and carefully taking aim
1:46:01
Speaker 1: through our aiming telescope. We had plenty of time for
1:46:05
Speaker 1: nobody interfered with us. It is true that an enemy
1:46:09
Speaker 1: aerodrome was in the neighborhood, but there was no trace
1:46:12
Speaker 1: of hostile pilots. A few anti aircraft guns were busy,
1:46:17
Speaker 1: but they shot not in our direction, but in another one.
1:46:20
Speaker 1: We reserved a bomb, hoping to make particularly good use
1:46:24
Speaker 1: of it on our way home. Suddenly we noticed an
1:46:27
Speaker 1: enemy flying machine starting from its hangar. The question was
1:46:32
Speaker 1: whether it would attack us. I did not believe in
1:46:35
Speaker 1: an attack. It was more likely that the flying man
1:46:38
Speaker 1: was seeking security in the air, for when bombing machines
1:46:42
Speaker 1: are about, the air is the safest place. We went
1:46:46
Speaker 1: home by roundabout ways and looked for camps. It was
1:46:49
Speaker 1: particularly amusing to pepper the gentleman down below with machine guns.
1:46:54
Speaker 1: Half savage tribes from Asia are even more startled when
1:46:57
Speaker 1: fired at from above than are cultured in Englishmen. It
1:47:01
Speaker 1: is particularly interesting to shoot at hostile cavalry. An aerial
1:47:05
Speaker 1: attack upsets them completely. Suddenly the lot of them rush
1:47:09
Speaker 1: away in all directions of the compass. I should not
1:47:13
Speaker 1: like to be the commander of a squadron of Cossacks
1:47:16
Speaker 1: which has been fired at with machine guns from aeroplanes.
1:47:20
Speaker 1: By and by we could recognize the German lines. We
1:47:23
Speaker 1: had to dispose of our last bomb, and we resolved
1:47:26
Speaker 1: to make a present of it to a Russian observation balloon.
1:47:29
Speaker 1: To the only observation balloon they possessed we could quite
1:47:33
Speaker 1: comfortably descend to with a few hundred yards of the ground,
1:47:37
Speaker 1: in order to attack it. At first the Russians began
1:47:40
Speaker 1: to haul it in very rapidly. When the bomb had
1:47:43
Speaker 1: been dropped, the hauling stopped. I did not believe that
1:47:47
Speaker 1: I had hit it. I rather imagined that the Russians
1:47:50
Speaker 1: had left their chief in the air and had run away.
1:47:53
Speaker 1: At last, we reached our front in our trenches and
1:47:55
Speaker 1: were surprised to find when we got home that we
1:47:58
Speaker 1: had been shot at from below. At least one of
1:48:01
Speaker 1: the plains had a hole in it. Another time, and
1:48:04
Speaker 1: in the same neighborhood, we were ordered to meet an
1:48:07
Speaker 1: attack of the Russians who intended to cross the river Stockhole.
1:48:11
Speaker 1: We came to the danger spot laden with bombs and
1:48:13
Speaker 1: carrying a large number of cartridges for our machine guns.
1:48:18
Speaker 1: On arrival at the stockhold, we were surprised to see
1:48:20
Speaker 1: that hostile cavalry was already crossing. They were passing over
1:48:24
Speaker 1: a single bridge. Immediately, it was clear to us that
1:48:28
Speaker 1: one might do a tremendous lot of harm to the
1:48:30
Speaker 1: enemy by hitting the bridge. Dense masses of men were crossing.
1:48:35
Speaker 1: We went as low as possible and could clearly see
1:48:38
Speaker 1: the hostile cavalry crossing by way of the bridge with
1:48:41
Speaker 1: great rapidity. The first bomb fell near the bridge. The
1:48:45
Speaker 1: second and third followed immediately. They created a tremendous disorder.
1:48:51
Speaker 1: The bridge had not been hit. Nevertheless, traffic across it
1:48:55
Speaker 1: had completely ceased. Men and animals were rushing away in
1:48:59
Speaker 1: all directions. We had thrown only three bombs, but the
1:49:03
Speaker 1: success had been excellent. Besides, a whole squadron of aeroplanes
1:49:07
Speaker 1: was following us. Lastly, we could do other things. My
1:49:11
Speaker 1: observer fired energetically into the crowd down below with his
1:49:14
Speaker 1: machine gun, and we enjoyed it tremendously. Of course, I
1:49:19
Speaker 1: cannot say what real success we had. The Russians have
1:49:23
Speaker 1: not told us. Still, I imagined that I alone had
1:49:27
Speaker 1: caused the Russian attack to fail. Perhaps the official account
1:49:30
Speaker 1: of the Russian War Office will give me details. After
1:49:33
Speaker 1: the war. At last, the August sun was almost unbearably
1:49:39
Speaker 1: hot on the sandy flying ground at Kovo. While we
1:49:43
Speaker 1: were chatting among ourselves, one of my comrades said, today
1:49:47
Speaker 1: the great Bolka arrives on a visit to us, or
1:49:50
Speaker 1: rather to his brother. In the evening, the great man
1:49:53
Speaker 1: came to hand. He was vastly admired by all, and
1:49:57
Speaker 1: he told us many interesting things about his journy to Turkey.
1:50:01
Speaker 1: He was just returning from Turkey and was on his
1:50:03
Speaker 1: way to headquarters. He imagined that he would go to
1:50:06
Speaker 1: the Song to continue his work. He was to organize
1:50:10
Speaker 1: a flying squadron. He was empowered to select from the
1:50:13
Speaker 1: flying Corps those men who seemed to him particularly qualified
1:50:17
Speaker 1: for his purpose. I did not dare to ask him
1:50:21
Speaker 1: to be taken on. I did not feel bored by
1:50:24
Speaker 1: the fighting in Russia. On the contrary, we made extensive
1:50:27
Speaker 1: and interesting flights. We bombed the Russians at their stations. Still,
1:50:33
Speaker 1: the idea of fighting again on the Western front attracted me.
1:50:37
Speaker 1: There was nothing finer for a young cavalry officer than
1:50:40
Speaker 1: the chase of the air. The next morning, Bolka was
1:50:44
Speaker 1: to leave us quite early. Somebody knocked at my door,
1:50:48
Speaker 1: and before me stood the great man with the Andre
1:50:51
Speaker 1: pour le Marie. I knew him, as I have previously mentioned,
1:50:55
Speaker 1: but still I had never imagined that he came to
1:50:57
Speaker 1: look me up in order to ask me to become
1:51:00
Speaker 1: his pupil. I almost fell upon his neck when he
1:51:03
Speaker 1: inquired whether I cared to go with him to the
1:51:05
Speaker 1: Some three days later, I sat in the railway train
1:51:10
Speaker 1: and traveled through the whole of Germany, straight away to
1:51:13
Speaker 1: the new field of my activity. At last my greatest
1:51:16
Speaker 1: wish was fulfilled. From now onwards began the finest time
1:51:20
Speaker 1: of my life. At that time I did not dare
1:51:24
Speaker 1: to hope that I should be as successful as I
1:51:26
Speaker 1: have been. When I left my quarters in the east,
1:51:30
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine called out after me. See
1:51:33
Speaker 1: that you do not come back without the entre pour
1:51:36
Speaker 1: les Marie and of chapter seven, Chapter eight, my first
1:51:41
Speaker 1: English victim. Seventeenth September nineteen fifteen, we were all at
1:51:48
Speaker 1: the butts trying our machine guns. On the previous day
1:51:52
Speaker 1: we had received our new aeroplanes, and the next morning
1:51:55
Speaker 1: Bolka was to fly with us. We were all beginners.
1:52:00
Speaker 1: One of us had a success so far. Consequently, everything
1:52:03
Speaker 1: that Bulka told us was to us gospel truth. Every
1:52:08
Speaker 1: day during the last few days he had, as he said,
1:52:11
Speaker 1: shot one or two Englishmen for breakfast. The next morning,
1:52:15
Speaker 1: the seventeenth of September, was a gloriously fine day. It
1:52:19
Speaker 1: was therefore only to be expected that the English would
1:52:23
Speaker 1: be very active. Before we started, Bulka repeated to us
1:52:27
Speaker 1: as instructions, and for the first time we flew as
1:52:30
Speaker 1: a squadron commanded by the great Man, whom we followed blindly.
1:52:35
Speaker 1: We had just arrived at the front when we recognized
1:52:37
Speaker 1: a hostile flying squadron that was proceeding in the direction
1:52:41
Speaker 1: of CAMBRAI. Bolka was of course the first to see it,
1:52:45
Speaker 1: for he saw a great deal more than ordinary mortals.
1:52:49
Speaker 1: Soon we understood the position, and every one of us
1:52:52
Speaker 1: strove to follow Bolka closely. It was clear to all
1:52:56
Speaker 1: of us that we should pass our first examination under
1:52:59
Speaker 1: the eyes of our below leeder. Slowly we approached the
1:53:03
Speaker 1: hostile squadron. It could not escape us. We had intercepted it,
1:53:08
Speaker 1: for we were between the front and our opponents. If
1:53:11
Speaker 1: they wished to go back, they had to pass us.
1:53:14
Speaker 1: We counted the hostile machines. They were seven in number,
1:53:18
Speaker 1: we were only five. All the Englishmen flew large bomb
1:53:22
Speaker 1: carrying two seaters. In a few seconds the dance would begin.
1:53:28
Speaker 1: Boca had come very near the first english machine, but
1:53:31
Speaker 1: he did not yet shoot. I followed. Close to me
1:53:34
Speaker 1: were my comrades. The Englishman nearest to me was traveling
1:53:38
Speaker 1: in a large boat painted with dark colors. I did
1:53:42
Speaker 1: not reflect very long, but took my aim and shot
1:53:45
Speaker 1: he also fired, and so did I, and both of
1:53:48
Speaker 1: us missed our aim. A struggle began, and a great
1:53:51
Speaker 1: point for me was to get to the rear of
1:53:53
Speaker 1: the fellow. Because I could only shoot forward with my gun.
1:53:56
Speaker 1: He was differently placed, for his machine gun was movable,
1:54:00
Speaker 1: it could fire in all directions. Apparently he was no beginner,
1:54:04
Speaker 1: for he knew exactly that his last hour had arrived
1:54:07
Speaker 1: at the moment when I got at the back of him.
1:54:10
Speaker 1: At that time I had not yet a conviction he
1:54:13
Speaker 1: must fall, which I have now on such occasions. But
1:54:17
Speaker 1: on the contrary, I was curious to see whether he
1:54:19
Speaker 1: would fall. There is a great difference between the two feelings.
1:54:24
Speaker 1: When one is shot down one's first, second, or third opponent,
1:54:28
Speaker 1: then one begins to find out how the trick is done.
1:54:31
Speaker 1: My englishman twisted in turn to going crisscross. I did
1:54:35
Speaker 1: not think for a moment that the hostile squadron contained
1:54:38
Speaker 1: other Englishmen who might conceivably come to the aid of
1:54:41
Speaker 1: their comrade. I was animated by a single thought, the
1:54:45
Speaker 1: man in front of me must come down, whatever happens.
1:54:49
Speaker 1: At last, a favorable moment arrived. My opponent had apparently
1:54:53
Speaker 1: lost sight of me. Instead of twisting and turning, he
1:54:56
Speaker 1: flew straight along. In a fraction of a second, I
1:55:00
Speaker 1: was at his back with my excellent machine. I gave
1:55:03
Speaker 1: him a short series of shots with my machine gun.
1:55:06
Speaker 1: I had gone so close that I was afraid I
1:55:08
Speaker 1: might dash into the Englishman. Suddenly, I nearly yelled with joy,
1:55:13
Speaker 1: for the propeller of the enemy machine had stopped turning.
1:55:16
Speaker 1: I had shot his engine to pieces. The enemy was
1:55:19
Speaker 1: compelled to land, for it was impossible for him to
1:55:21
Speaker 1: reach his own lines. The English machine was curiously swinging
1:55:26
Speaker 1: to and fro. Probably something had happened to the pilot.
1:55:30
Speaker 1: The observer was no longer visible. His machine gun was
1:55:33
Speaker 1: apparently deserted. Obviously, I had hit the observer and he
1:55:38
Speaker 1: had fallen from his seat. The Englishman landed close to
1:55:41
Speaker 1: the flying ground of one of our squadrons. I was
1:55:44
Speaker 1: so excited that I'd landed also, and my eagerness was
1:55:47
Speaker 1: so great that I nearly smashed up my machine. The
1:55:51
Speaker 1: English flying machine and my own stood close together. I
1:55:55
Speaker 1: rushed to the English machine and saw that a lot
1:55:58
Speaker 1: of soldiers were running towards my enemy. When I arrived,
1:56:01
Speaker 1: I discovered that my assumption had been correct. I had
1:56:05
Speaker 1: shot the engine to pieces, and both the pilot and
1:56:08
Speaker 1: observer were severely wounded. The observer died at once, and
1:56:12
Speaker 1: the pilot while being transported to the nearest dressing station.
1:56:16
Speaker 1: I honored the fallen enemy by placing a stone on
1:56:19
Speaker 1: his beautiful grave. When I came home, Bolka and my
1:56:23
Speaker 1: other comrades were already at breakfast. They were surprised that
1:56:27
Speaker 1: I had not turned up. I reported proudly that I
1:56:30
Speaker 1: had shot down an Englishman. All were full of joy,
1:56:33
Speaker 1: for I was not the only victor. As usual, Bolca
1:56:37
Speaker 1: had shot down an opponent for breakfast, and every one
1:56:40
Speaker 1: of the other men also had downed it enemy. For
1:56:43
Speaker 1: the first time. I would mention that since that time,
1:56:47
Speaker 1: no English squadron ventured as far as Cabray, as long
1:56:50
Speaker 1: as Bulkas squadron was there the Battle of the Somme.
1:56:56
Speaker 1: During my whole life, I have not found a happier
1:56:59
Speaker 1: hunting ground than in the course of the Somme Battle.
1:57:02
Speaker 1: In the morning, as soon as I had got up,
1:57:05
Speaker 1: the first Englishman arrived, and the last did not disappear
1:57:08
Speaker 1: until long after sunset. Bolca once said that this was
1:57:13
Speaker 1: the El Dorado of the flying men. There was a
1:57:16
Speaker 1: time when within two months Bolka's bag of machines increased
1:57:20
Speaker 1: from twenty to forty. We beginners had not at that
1:57:24
Speaker 1: time the experience of our master, and we were quite
1:57:27
Speaker 1: satisfied when we did not get a hiding. It was
1:57:30
Speaker 1: an exciting period. Every time we went up we had
1:57:33
Speaker 1: a fight. Frequently we fought really big battles in the air.
1:57:37
Speaker 1: There were sometimes from forty to sixty English machines, but
1:57:41
Speaker 1: unfortunately the Germans were often in the minority. With them.
1:57:45
Speaker 1: Quality was more important than quantity. Still, the Englishman is
1:57:50
Speaker 1: a smart fellow that we must allow. Sometimes the English
1:57:54
Speaker 1: came down to a very low altitude and visited Volca
1:57:57
Speaker 1: in his quarters, upon which they threw their bombs. They
1:58:01
Speaker 1: absolutely challenged us to battle and never refused fighting. We
1:58:05
Speaker 1: had a delightful time with our chasing squadron. The spirit
1:58:08
Speaker 1: of our leader animated all his pupils. We trusted him blindly.
1:58:13
Speaker 1: There was no possibility that one of us would be
1:58:15
Speaker 1: left behind. Such a thought was incomprehensible to us. Animated
1:58:20
Speaker 1: by that spirit, we gaily diminished the number of our enemies.
1:58:25
Speaker 1: On the day when Bulka fell, the squadron had brought
1:58:28
Speaker 1: down forty opponents. By now the number has been increased
1:58:32
Speaker 1: by more than one hundred. Bolka's spirit lived still among
1:58:35
Speaker 1: his capable successors. Bulka's death twenty eighth October nineteen sixteen,
1:58:44
Speaker 1: one day we were flying, once more, guided by Bolka,
1:58:47
Speaker 1: against the enemy. We always had a wonderful feeling of
1:58:50
Speaker 1: security when he was with us, after all, he was
1:58:54
Speaker 1: the one and only. The weather was very gusty and
1:58:58
Speaker 1: there were many clouds. There were no aeroplanes about, except
1:59:01
Speaker 1: fighting ones. From a long distance, we saw two impertinent
1:59:06
Speaker 1: Englishmen in the air who actually seemed to enjoy the
1:59:09
Speaker 1: terrible weather. We were six and they were two. If
1:59:13
Speaker 1: they had been twenty, and if Bolka had given us
1:59:15
Speaker 1: the signal to attack, we should not have been at
1:59:18
Speaker 1: all surprised. The struggle began in the usual way. Bulka
1:59:23
Speaker 1: tackled the one and I the other. I had to
1:59:26
Speaker 1: let go because one of the German machines got in
1:59:28
Speaker 1: my way. I looked around and noticed Bulka settling his
1:59:32
Speaker 1: victim about two hundred yards away from me. It was
1:59:35
Speaker 1: the usual thing. Boca would shoot down his enemy and
1:59:39
Speaker 1: I had to look on close to Bolka flew a
1:59:42
Speaker 1: good friend of his It was an interesting struggle. Both
1:59:46
Speaker 1: men were shooting. It was probable that the Englishman would
1:59:49
Speaker 1: fall at any moment. Suddenly I noticed an unnatural movement
1:59:53
Speaker 1: of the two German flying machines. Immediately I thought collision.
1:59:58
Speaker 1: I had not yet seen a collie in the air.
2:00:01
Speaker 1: I had imagined that it would look quite different. In reality,
2:00:05
Speaker 1: what happened was not a collision. The two machines merely
2:00:08
Speaker 1: touched one another. However, if two machines go at the
2:00:12
Speaker 1: tremendous pace of flying machines, the slightest contact has the
2:00:16
Speaker 1: effect of a violent concussion. Bulka drew away from his
2:00:20
Speaker 1: victim and descended in large curves. He did not seem
2:00:23
Speaker 1: to be falling, but when I saw him descending below me,
2:00:27
Speaker 1: I noticed that part of his planes had broken off.
2:00:30
Speaker 1: I could not see what happened afterwards, but in the
2:00:33
Speaker 1: clouds he lost an entire plane. Now his machine was
2:00:37
Speaker 1: no longer steerable. It fell, accompanied all the time by
2:00:40
Speaker 1: Bolka's faithful friend. When we reached home we found the
2:00:44
Speaker 1: report Bolka is dead had already arrived. We could scarcely
2:00:49
Speaker 1: realize it. The greatest pain was, of course, felt by
2:00:52
Speaker 1: the man who had the misfortune to be involved in
2:00:55
Speaker 1: the accident. It is a strange thing that everybody who
2:00:59
Speaker 1: met Bolka imagined that he alone was his two friends.
2:01:03
Speaker 1: I have made the acquaintance of about forty men, each
2:01:06
Speaker 1: of whom imagined that he alone was Vocal's intimate. Each
2:01:11
Speaker 1: imagined that he had the monopoly of Bolka's affections. Men
2:01:15
Speaker 1: whose names were unknown to Bolca believed that he was
2:01:18
Speaker 1: particularly fond of them. This is a curious phenomenon which
2:01:22
Speaker 1: I have never noticed in anyone else. Bolca had not
2:01:26
Speaker 1: a personal enemy. He was equally polite to everybody, making
2:01:30
Speaker 1: no differences. The only one who was perhaps more intimate
2:01:34
Speaker 1: with him than the others, was the very man who
2:01:36
Speaker 1: had the misfortune to be in the accident which caused
2:01:39
Speaker 1: his death. Nothing happens without God's will. That is the
2:01:44
Speaker 1: only consolation which any of us can put to our
2:01:47
Speaker 1: souls during this war. My eighth victim in Bulka's time
2:01:55
Speaker 1: eight was quite a respectable number. Those who hear nowadays
2:01:59
Speaker 1: of the colossal bags made by certain aviators must feel
2:02:02
Speaker 1: convinced that it has become easier to shoot down a machine.
2:02:07
Speaker 1: I can assure those who hold that opinion that the
2:02:09
Speaker 1: flying business is becoming more difficult from month to month,
2:02:13
Speaker 1: and even from week to week. Of course, with the
2:02:16
Speaker 1: increasing number of aeroplanes, one gains increased opportunities for shooting
2:02:20
Speaker 1: down one's enemies, but at the same time the possibility
2:02:24
Speaker 1: of being shot down oneself increases. The armament of our
2:02:29
Speaker 1: enemies is steadily improving, and their number is increasing. When
2:02:33
Speaker 1: Immlman shot down his first victim, he had the good
2:02:36
Speaker 1: fortune to find an opponent who carried not even the
2:02:39
Speaker 1: machine gun. Such little innocence one finds nowadays only at
2:02:43
Speaker 1: the training ground for beginners. On the ninth of November
2:02:47
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen, I flew towards the enemy with my little
2:02:51
Speaker 1: comrade Immelman, who then was eighteen years old. We were
2:02:55
Speaker 1: both in Volca's squadron of chasing aeroplanes. We had previously
2:02:59
Speaker 1: met one of another and had got on very well.
2:03:02
Speaker 1: Comradeship is a most important thing. We went to work.
2:03:07
Speaker 1: I had already bagged seven enemies and IMMMU five at
2:03:11
Speaker 1: that time. This was quite a lot. Soon after our
2:03:15
Speaker 1: arrival at the front, we saw a squadron of bombing aeroplanes.
2:03:19
Speaker 1: They were coming along with impertinent assurance. They arrived in
2:03:23
Speaker 1: enormous numbers, as was usual during the Psalm battle. I
2:03:26
Speaker 1: think there were about forty or fifty machines approaching. I
2:03:30
Speaker 1: cannot give the exact answer. They had selected an object
2:03:34
Speaker 1: for their bombs not far from our aerodrome. I reached
2:03:37
Speaker 1: them when they had almost attained their objective. I approached
2:03:41
Speaker 1: the last machine. My first few shots incapacitated the hostile
2:03:46
Speaker 1: machine gunner. Possibly they had tickled the pilot two. At
2:03:50
Speaker 1: any rate, he resolved to land with his bombs. I
2:03:53
Speaker 1: fired a few more shots to accelerate his progress downwards.
2:03:57
Speaker 1: He fell close to our flying ground at Leginocorps. While
2:04:01
Speaker 1: I was fighting my opponent, Immlmann, had tackled another Englishman
2:04:04
Speaker 1: and had brought him down in the same locality. Both
2:04:08
Speaker 1: of us flew quickly home in order to have a
2:04:10
Speaker 1: look at the machines we had downed. We jumped into
2:04:13
Speaker 1: a motor car, drove in the direction where our victims lay,
2:04:17
Speaker 1: and had to run along a distance through the fields.
2:04:20
Speaker 1: It was very hot, therefore I unbuttoned all my garments,
2:04:23
Speaker 1: even the collar and the shirt. I took off my jacket,
2:04:27
Speaker 1: left my cap in the car, but took with me
2:04:29
Speaker 1: a big stick. My boots were miry up to the knees.
2:04:33
Speaker 1: I'd looked like a tramp. I arrived in the vicinity
2:04:37
Speaker 1: of my victim. In the meantime, a lot of people had,
2:04:40
Speaker 1: of course, gathered around. At one spot, there was a
2:04:44
Speaker 1: group of officers. I approached them, gaded them, and asked
2:04:48
Speaker 1: the first one whom I met, whether he could tell
2:04:51
Speaker 1: me anything about the aspect of the aerial battle. It
2:04:55
Speaker 1: is always interesting to find out how a fight in
2:04:58
Speaker 1: the air looks to the people down below. Oh. I
2:05:01
Speaker 1: was told that the English machine had thrown bombs and
2:05:04
Speaker 1: that the aeroplane that had come down was still carrying
2:05:06
Speaker 1: its bombs. The officer who gave me this information took
2:05:11
Speaker 1: my arm, went with me to the other officers, asked
2:05:14
Speaker 1: my name and introduced me to them. I did not
2:05:17
Speaker 1: like it, for my attire was rather disarranged. On the
2:05:21
Speaker 1: other hand, all the officers looked as stick and stand
2:05:24
Speaker 1: as on parade. I was introduced to a personage who
2:05:27
Speaker 1: impressed me rather strangely. I noticed a general's trousers, but
2:05:32
Speaker 1: order at the neck, an unusually youthful face, and undefiable epaulets.
2:05:37
Speaker 1: In short, the personage seemed extraordinary to me. During our conversation,
2:05:43
Speaker 1: I buttoned my trousers and collar and adopted a somewhat
2:05:46
Speaker 1: military attitude. I had no idea who the officer was.
2:05:51
Speaker 1: I took my leave and went home again. In the evening,
2:05:54
Speaker 1: the telephone rang and I was told that the undefinable
2:05:57
Speaker 1: somebody with whom I had been talking had been His
2:06:00
Speaker 1: Royal Highness, the Grand Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha. I
2:06:04
Speaker 1: was ordered to go to him. It was known that
2:06:07
Speaker 1: the English had intended to throw bombs on his headquarters.
2:06:11
Speaker 1: Apparently I had helped to keep the aggressors away from him. Therefore,
2:06:15
Speaker 1: I was given the Saxe Coburg Gotha Medal for bravery.
2:06:19
Speaker 1: I always enjoy this adventure when I look at the medal,
2:06:25
Speaker 1: Major Hawker. I was extremely proud when one fine day
2:06:29
Speaker 1: I was informed that the airman whom I had brought
2:06:32
Speaker 1: down on the twenty third of November nineteen sixteen was
2:06:35
Speaker 1: the English Immelman. In view of the character of our fight,
2:06:39
Speaker 1: it was clear to me that I had been tackling
2:06:41
Speaker 1: a flying champion. One day, I was blithely flying to
2:06:45
Speaker 1: give chase when I noticed three Englishmen who also had
2:06:48
Speaker 1: apparently gone hunting. I noticed that they were augling me,
2:06:52
Speaker 1: and as I felt much inclination to have a fight,
2:06:55
Speaker 1: I did not want to disappoint them. I was flying
2:06:59
Speaker 1: at a lower alderton. Consequently, I had to wait until
2:07:03
Speaker 1: one of my English friends tried to drop on me.
2:07:06
Speaker 1: After a short while on the three came sailing along
2:07:09
Speaker 1: and attempted to tackle me in the rear. After firing
2:07:12
Speaker 1: five shots, he had to stop for I had swerved
2:07:14
Speaker 1: in a sharp curve. The Englishman tried to catch me
2:07:18
Speaker 1: up in the rear, while I tried to get behind him.
2:07:21
Speaker 1: So we circled round and round like madmen after one another,
2:07:25
Speaker 1: at an altitude of about ten thousand feet. First we
2:07:28
Speaker 1: circled twenty times to the left and then thirty times
2:07:31
Speaker 1: to the right. Each tried to get behind and above
2:07:34
Speaker 1: the other. Soon I discovered I was not meeting a beginner.
2:07:39
Speaker 1: He had not the slightest intention of breaking off the fight.
2:07:42
Speaker 1: He was traveling in a machine which turned beautifully. However,
2:07:46
Speaker 1: my own was better at rising than his, and I
2:07:49
Speaker 1: succeeded at last in getting above and beyond my English
2:07:52
Speaker 1: waltzing partner. When we had got down to about six
2:07:55
Speaker 1: thousand feet without having achieved anything. In particular, my opponent
2:08:00
Speaker 1: ought to have discovered that it was time for him
2:08:02
Speaker 1: to take his leave. The wind was favorable to me,
2:08:05
Speaker 1: for it drove us more and more towards the German position.
2:08:08
Speaker 1: At last we were above Bompong, about half a mile
2:08:11
Speaker 1: behind the German front. The impertinent fellow was full of cheek,
2:08:15
Speaker 1: and when we had got down to about three thousand feet,
2:08:18
Speaker 1: he merrily waved to me as if he would say, well,
2:08:21
Speaker 1: how do you do. The circles which we made around
2:08:24
Speaker 1: one another were so narrow that their diameter was probably
2:08:28
Speaker 1: no more than two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet.
2:08:31
Speaker 1: I had time to take a good look at my opponent.
2:08:34
Speaker 1: I looked down into his carriage and could see every
2:08:36
Speaker 1: movement of his head. If he had not had his
2:08:38
Speaker 1: cap on, I would have noticed what kind of a
2:08:41
Speaker 1: face he was making. My Englishman was a good sportsman,
2:08:45
Speaker 1: but by and by the thing became a little too
2:08:48
Speaker 1: hot for him. He had to decide whether he would
2:08:50
Speaker 1: land on German ground or whether he would fly back
2:08:53
Speaker 1: to the English lines. Of course, he tried the latter,
2:08:57
Speaker 1: after having endeavored in vain to escape me by loopings
2:09:00
Speaker 1: and such like tricks. At that time his first bullets
2:09:03
Speaker 1: were flying around me. For hitherto neither of us had
2:09:06
Speaker 1: been able to do any shooting. When he had come
2:09:09
Speaker 1: down to about three hundred feet, he tried to escape
2:09:11
Speaker 1: by flying in a zigzag course, during which, as is
2:09:15
Speaker 1: well known, it is difficult for an observer to shoot.
2:09:18
Speaker 1: That was my most favorable moment. I followed him at
2:09:21
Speaker 1: an altitude of from two hundred fifty feet to one
2:09:24
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty feet, firing all the time. The Englishman
2:09:28
Speaker 1: could not help falling, but the jamming of my gun
2:09:31
Speaker 1: nearly robbed me of my success. My opponent fell shot
2:09:35
Speaker 1: through the head one hundred and fifty feet behind our line.
2:09:39
Speaker 1: His machine gun was dug out of the ground and
2:09:41
Speaker 1: in ornaments the entrance of my dwelling. End of chapter eight,
2:09:46
Speaker 1: Chapter nine, I get the entre pour le moie. I
2:09:51
Speaker 1: had brought down my sixteenth victim, and they had come
2:09:54
Speaker 1: to the head of the list of all the flying chasers.
2:09:57
Speaker 1: I had obtained the aim which I had set myself
2:10:00
Speaker 1: in the previous year. My friend Linker, with whom I
2:10:03
Speaker 1: was training, had asked me, what is your object? What
2:10:06
Speaker 1: will you obtain by flying? I replied jokingly, I would
2:10:10
Speaker 1: like to be the first of the chasers. That must
2:10:12
Speaker 1: be very fine that I should succeed in this. I
2:10:16
Speaker 1: did not believe myself. Other people also did not expect
2:10:20
Speaker 1: my success. Bocal Is supposed to have said not to
2:10:23
Speaker 1: me personally. I have only heard the report when asked
2:10:26
Speaker 1: which of the fellows is likely to become a good chaser,
2:10:29
Speaker 1: that is the man pointing his finger in my direction.
2:10:33
Speaker 1: Boca and Nimmelmann were given the Entre pour le mariee
2:10:36
Speaker 1: when they had brought down their eighth aeroplane. I had
2:10:39
Speaker 1: doubt twice that number. The question was what would happen
2:10:43
Speaker 1: to me? I was very curious. It was rumored that
2:10:47
Speaker 1: I was to be given command of a chasing squadron.
2:10:50
Speaker 1: One day a telegram arrived which stated Lieutenant fon Richthoven
2:10:55
Speaker 1: is appointed commander of the eleventh chasing Squadron. I must
2:10:59
Speaker 1: say annoyed. I had learned to work so well with
2:11:03
Speaker 1: my comrades a Bulca's squadron, and now I had to
2:11:05
Speaker 1: begin all over again, working hand in hand with different people.
2:11:10
Speaker 1: It was a beastly nuisance. Besides, I should have preferred
2:11:13
Speaker 1: the Entre pour le marie Two days later, when we
2:11:17
Speaker 1: were sitting sociably together we men of Bolca's squadron, celebrating
2:11:21
Speaker 1: my departure, a telegram from headquarters arrived. It stated that
2:11:25
Speaker 1: his Majesty had graciously condescended to give me the entre
2:11:29
Speaker 1: pour le marite. Of course, my joy was tremendous. I
2:11:33
Speaker 1: had never imagined that it would be so delightful to
2:11:36
Speaker 1: command a chasing squadron, even in my dreams. I had
2:11:40
Speaker 1: not imagined that there would ever be a Rixthoven's squadron
2:11:43
Speaker 1: of aeroplanes les poutit bourget. It occurred to me to
2:11:48
Speaker 1: have my packing case painted all over in staring red.
2:11:52
Speaker 1: The result was that everyone got to know my red bird.
2:11:56
Speaker 1: My opponents also seemed to have heard of the colored transformation.
2:12:00
Speaker 1: During a fight on quite a different section of the front,
2:12:03
Speaker 1: I had the good fortune to shoot into a Vicker's
2:12:05
Speaker 1: two seater, which peacefully photographed the German artillery position. My friend,
2:12:10
Speaker 1: the photographer had not the time to defend himself. He
2:12:14
Speaker 1: had to make haste to get down upon firm ground,
2:12:16
Speaker 1: for his machine began to give suspicious indications of fire.
2:12:20
Speaker 1: When we airman noticed that phenomenon in an enemy plane
2:12:24
Speaker 1: we say he stinks. As it turned out it was
2:12:27
Speaker 1: really so. When the machine was coming to earth, it
2:12:31
Speaker 1: burst into flames. I felt some human pity for my
2:12:34
Speaker 1: opponent and had resolved not to cause him to fall down,
2:12:38
Speaker 1: but merely to compel him to land. I did so
2:12:40
Speaker 1: particularly because I had the impression that my opponent was wounded,
2:12:45
Speaker 1: for he did not fire a single shot. When I
2:12:48
Speaker 1: had got down to an altitude of about fifteen hundred feet,
2:12:51
Speaker 1: engine trouble compelled me to land without making any curves.
2:12:55
Speaker 1: The result was very comical. My enemy, with his burning machine,
2:12:59
Speaker 1: land that smoothly, while I his victor, came down next
2:13:03
Speaker 1: to him in the barbed wire of our trenches, and
2:13:05
Speaker 1: my machine overturned. The two Englishmen, who were not a
2:13:10
Speaker 1: little surprised at my collapse, greeted me like sportsmen. As
2:13:13
Speaker 1: mentioned before, they had not fired a shot, and they
2:13:16
Speaker 1: could not understand why I had landed so clumsily. They
2:13:20
Speaker 1: were the first two Englishmen whom I had brought down alive. Consequently,
2:13:25
Speaker 1: it gave me particular pleasure to talk to them. I
2:13:28
Speaker 1: asked them whether they had previously seen my machine in
2:13:30
Speaker 1: the air, and one of them replied, oh, yes, I
2:13:33
Speaker 1: know your machine very well. We call it les potit
2:13:37
Speaker 1: rouget English and French Flying. February nineteen seventeen. I was
2:13:45
Speaker 1: trying to compete with Bolcas squadron. Every evening we compared
2:13:49
Speaker 1: our bags. However, Bolka's pupils are smart rascals. I cannot
2:13:54
Speaker 1: get ahead of them. The utmost one can do is
2:13:57
Speaker 1: to draw a level with them. Bulka section has an
2:14:01
Speaker 1: advantage over my squadron of one hundred aeroplanes downed. I
2:14:05
Speaker 1: must allow them to retain it. Everything depends on whether
2:14:08
Speaker 1: we have for opponents those French tricksters or those daring
2:14:12
Speaker 1: rascals the English. I prefer the English frequently. Their daring
2:14:17
Speaker 1: can only be described as stupidity. In their eyes, it
2:14:20
Speaker 1: may be plucked and daring. The great thing in air
2:14:24
Speaker 1: fighting is that the decisive factor does not lie in
2:14:27
Speaker 1: trick flying, but solely in the personal ability and energy
2:14:31
Speaker 1: of the aviator. A flying man may be able to
2:14:34
Speaker 1: loop and do all the stunts imaginable, and yet he
2:14:37
Speaker 1: may not succeed in shooting down the single enemy. In
2:14:40
Speaker 1: my opinion, the aggressive spirit is everything, and that spirit
2:14:45
Speaker 1: is very strong in us Germans. Hence we shall always
2:14:48
Speaker 1: retain the domination of the air. The French have a
2:14:52
Speaker 1: different character. They like to put traps and to attack
2:14:56
Speaker 1: their opponents unawares. That cannot easily be done in the air.
2:15:01
Speaker 1: Only a beginner can be caught, and one cannot set
2:15:04
Speaker 1: traps because an aeroplane cannot hide itself. The invisible aeroplane
2:15:09
Speaker 1: has not yet been discovered. Sometimes, however, the Gaelic blood
2:15:13
Speaker 1: asserts itself. The Frenchman will then attack. But the French
2:15:17
Speaker 1: attacking spirit is like bottled lemonade. It lacks tenacity. The Englishmen,
2:15:23
Speaker 1: on the other hand, one notices that they are of
2:15:26
Speaker 1: Germanic blood. Sportsmen easily take to flying, and Englishmen see
2:15:31
Speaker 1: in flying nothing but a sport. They take a perfect
2:15:34
Speaker 1: delight in looping the loop, flying on their back, and
2:15:37
Speaker 1: indulging in other stunts for the benefit of our soldiers
2:15:40
Speaker 1: in the trenches. All these tricks may impress people who
2:15:44
Speaker 1: attend to sports meeting, but the public of the battlefield
2:15:47
Speaker 1: is not as appreciative of these things. It demands higher
2:15:51
Speaker 1: qualifications than trick flying. Therefore, the blood of English pilots
2:15:56
Speaker 1: will have to flow in streams. Shot down middle of
2:16:01
Speaker 1: March nineteen seventeen, I have had an experience, which might
2:16:06
Speaker 1: perhaps be described as being shot down at the same time.
2:16:11
Speaker 1: I call shot down only when one falls down. Today
2:16:15
Speaker 1: I got into trouble, but I escaped with the whole skin.
2:16:19
Speaker 1: I was flying with the squadron and noticed an opponent
2:16:21
Speaker 1: who was also flying in a squadron. It happened above
2:16:25
Speaker 1: the German artillery position in the neighborhood of Lens. I
2:16:29
Speaker 1: had to fly quite a distance to get there. It
2:16:31
Speaker 1: tickles one's nerves to fly towards the enemy, especially when
2:16:35
Speaker 1: one can see him from a long distance, and when
2:16:37
Speaker 1: several minutes must elapse before one can start fighting. I
2:16:41
Speaker 1: imagined that at such a moment, my face turns a
2:16:44
Speaker 1: little pale, But unfortunately I have never had a mirror
2:16:48
Speaker 1: with me. I like that feeling, for it is a
2:16:50
Speaker 1: wonderful nerve stimulant. One observes the enemy from afar, one
2:16:55
Speaker 1: has recognized that his squadron is really an enemy formation.
2:17:00
Speaker 1: One counts the number of the hostile machines and considers
2:17:03
Speaker 1: whether the conditions are favorable or unfavorable. A factor of
2:17:07
Speaker 1: enormous importance is whether the wind forces me away from
2:17:10
Speaker 1: or towards our front. For instance, I once shot down
2:17:14
Speaker 1: an Englishman. I fired the fatal shot above the English position. However,
2:17:18
Speaker 1: the wind was so strong that his machine came down
2:17:21
Speaker 1: close to the German captive balloons. We Germans had five machines,
2:17:26
Speaker 1: our opponents were three times as numerous. The English flew
2:17:30
Speaker 1: about like midges. It is not easy to disperse a
2:17:34
Speaker 1: swarm of machines which fly together in good order. It
2:17:37
Speaker 1: is impossible for a single machine to do it. It
2:17:40
Speaker 1: is extremely difficult for several aeroplanes, particularly if the difference
2:17:44
Speaker 1: in number is as great as it was in this case. However,
2:17:48
Speaker 1: one feels such a superiority over the enemy that one
2:17:52
Speaker 1: does not doubt of success for a moment. The aggressive spirit,
2:17:56
Speaker 1: the offensive is the chief thing everywhere in war, and
2:18:00
Speaker 1: the air is no exception. However, the enemy had the
2:18:03
Speaker 1: same idea. I noticed that at once, as soon as
2:18:08
Speaker 1: they observed us, they turned round and attacked us. Now
2:18:11
Speaker 1: we five had to look sharp. If one of them
2:18:14
Speaker 1: should fall, there might be a lot of trouble for
2:18:16
Speaker 1: all of us. We went close together and allowed the
2:18:19
Speaker 1: foreign gentleman to approach us. I watched whether one of
2:18:23
Speaker 1: the fellows would hurriedly take leave of his colleagues. There
2:18:26
Speaker 1: one of them is stupid enough to depart alone. I
2:18:29
Speaker 1: can reach him, and I say to myself that man
2:18:32
Speaker 1: is lost, shouting aloud, I am after him. I have
2:18:35
Speaker 1: come up to him, or at least I'm getting very
2:18:37
Speaker 1: near to him. He starts shooting prematurely, which shows that
2:18:41
Speaker 1: he is nervous, so I say to myself, go on shooting.
2:18:44
Speaker 1: You won't hit me. He shot with the kind of
2:18:47
Speaker 1: ammunition which ignites, so I could see his shots passing me.
2:18:51
Speaker 1: I felt as if I were sitting in front of
2:18:53
Speaker 1: a gigantic watering pot. This sensation was not pleasant. Still,
2:18:58
Speaker 1: the English usually shoot with their beastly, and so we
2:19:00
Speaker 1: must try and get accustomed to it. One can get
2:19:03
Speaker 1: accustomed to anything. At the moment, I think, I laughed aloud.
2:19:07
Speaker 1: But soon I got a lesson. When I had approached
2:19:10
Speaker 1: the Englishman quite closely, when I had come to a
2:19:13
Speaker 1: distance of about three hundred feet, I got ready for firing, aimed,
2:19:17
Speaker 1: and gave a few trial shots. The machine guns were
2:19:20
Speaker 1: in order. The decision would be there before long. In
2:19:23
Speaker 1: my mind's eye, I saw my enemy dropping. My former
2:19:27
Speaker 1: excitement was gone. In such a position, one thinks quite
2:19:31
Speaker 1: calmly and collectedly, and weighs the probabilities of hitting and
2:19:35
Speaker 1: of being hit. Altogether, the fight itself is the least
2:19:39
Speaker 1: exciting part of the business. As a rule, he who
2:19:42
Speaker 1: gets excited in fighting is sure to make mistakes. He
2:19:46
Speaker 1: will never get his enemy down. Besides, calmness is, after
2:19:50
Speaker 1: all a matter of habit at any rate. In this case,
2:19:54
Speaker 1: I did not make a mistake. I approached my man
2:19:57
Speaker 1: up to fifty yards. Then I fared some well aimed
2:20:00
Speaker 1: shots and thought that I was bound to be successful.
2:20:03
Speaker 1: That was my idea. But suddenly I heard a tremendous bang.
2:20:07
Speaker 1: When I had scarcely fired ten cartridges, presently again something
2:20:12
Speaker 1: hit by machine. It became clear to me that I
2:20:15
Speaker 1: had been hit, or rather my machine. At the same time,
2:20:18
Speaker 1: I noticed a fearful benzine's stench, and I observed that
2:20:21
Speaker 1: the motor was running slack. The Englishman noticed it too,
2:20:25
Speaker 1: for he started shooting with redoubled energy, while I had
2:20:28
Speaker 1: to stop it. I went right down. Instinctively, I switched
2:20:32
Speaker 1: off the engine, and indeed it was high time to
2:20:35
Speaker 1: do this. When a pilot's benzine tank has been perforated,
2:20:39
Speaker 1: and when the infernal liquid is squirting around his legs,
2:20:42
Speaker 1: the danger of fire is very great. In front is
2:20:45
Speaker 1: an explosive engine of more than one hundred and fifty
2:20:48
Speaker 1: horse power, which is red hot. If a single drop
2:20:51
Speaker 1: of benzine should fall on it, the whole machine would
2:20:54
Speaker 1: be in flames. I left in the air a thin
2:20:57
Speaker 1: white cloud. I knew its meaning from my enemy. Its
2:21:00
Speaker 1: appearance is the first sign of a coming explosion. I
2:21:04
Speaker 1: was at an altitude of nine thousand feet and had
2:21:07
Speaker 1: to travel a long distance to get down. By the
2:21:10
Speaker 1: kindness of providence, my engine stopped running. I have no
2:21:14
Speaker 1: idea with what rapidity I went downward at any rate.
2:21:17
Speaker 1: The speed was so great that I could not put
2:21:20
Speaker 1: my head out of the machine without being pressed back
2:21:22
Speaker 1: by the rush of bear Soon I lost sight of
2:21:25
Speaker 1: my enemy. I had only time to see what my
2:21:28
Speaker 1: four comrades were doing. While I was dropping to the ground.
2:21:32
Speaker 1: They were still fighting. Their machine guns and those of
2:21:35
Speaker 1: their opponents could be heard. Suddenly I noticed the rocket.
2:21:39
Speaker 1: Is it a signal of the enemy. No, it cannot be.
2:21:42
Speaker 1: The light is too great for a rocket. Evidently a
2:21:45
Speaker 1: machine is on fire. What machine? The burning machine looks
2:21:49
Speaker 1: exactly as if it were one of our own. No,
2:21:52
Speaker 1: praise the Lord it is one of the enemies who
2:21:55
Speaker 1: can have shot him down. Immediately afterwards, a second machine
2:21:59
Speaker 1: drops out and falls perpendicularly to the ground, turning, turning,
2:22:04
Speaker 1: turning exactly as I did. But suddenly it recovers its
2:22:07
Speaker 1: balance it flies straight towards me. It also is an albatross,
2:22:12
Speaker 1: no doubt. It had the same experience as I had.
2:22:16
Speaker 1: I had fallen to an altitude of perhaps one thousand
2:22:19
Speaker 1: feet and had to look out for a landing. Now,
2:22:22
Speaker 1: such a sudden landing usually leads the breakages, and as
2:22:25
Speaker 1: these are occasionally serious, it was time to look out.
2:22:29
Speaker 1: I found a meta. It was not very large, but
2:22:32
Speaker 1: it just sufficed if I used due caution. Besides, it
2:22:36
Speaker 1: was favorably situated on the high road Nishennen Littard. There
2:22:40
Speaker 1: I meant to land everything when as desired, and my
2:22:43
Speaker 1: first thought was what has become of the other fellow.
2:22:46
Speaker 1: He landed a few kilometers from the spot where I
2:22:49
Speaker 1: had come to the ground. I had ample time to
2:22:53
Speaker 1: inspect the damage. My machine had been hit a number
2:22:56
Speaker 1: of times. The shot which caused me to give up
2:22:59
Speaker 1: the fight had go go on through both benzine tanks.
2:23:02
Speaker 1: I had not a drop of Benzene left and the
2:23:04
Speaker 1: engine itself had also been damaged by shots. It was
2:23:08
Speaker 1: a pity, for it had worked so well. I'd let
2:23:11
Speaker 1: my legs dangle out of the machine and probably made
2:23:14
Speaker 1: a very silly face. In a moment, I was surrounded
2:23:17
Speaker 1: by a large crowd of soldiers. Then came an officer.
2:23:21
Speaker 1: He was quite out of breath. He was terribly excited,
2:23:25
Speaker 1: no doubt something fearful had happened to him. He rushed
2:23:28
Speaker 1: towards me gasper air and asked, I hope that nothing
2:23:31
Speaker 1: has happened to you. I have followed the whole affair
2:23:34
Speaker 1: and am terribly excited. Good Lord, it looked awful. I
2:23:38
Speaker 1: assured him that I felt quite well, jumped down from
2:23:41
Speaker 1: the side of my machine and introduced myself to him.
2:23:45
Speaker 1: Of course, he did not understand a particle of my name. However,
2:23:49
Speaker 1: he invited me to go in his motor car to
2:23:51
Speaker 1: hand in Littard, where he was quartered. He was an
2:23:54
Speaker 1: engineer officer. We were sitting in the motor and were
2:23:57
Speaker 1: commencing our ride. My host was still extraordinarily excited. Suddenly
2:24:03
Speaker 1: he jumped up and asked, good Lord, but where is
2:24:05
Speaker 1: your chauffeur. At first, I did not quite understand what
2:24:09
Speaker 1: he meant. Probably I looked puzzled. Then it dawned upon
2:24:13
Speaker 1: me that he thought I was the observer of a
2:24:15
Speaker 1: two seater, and that he asked after the fate of
2:24:18
Speaker 1: my pilot. I pulled myself together and said, in the
2:24:21
Speaker 1: driest tones, I always drive myself. Of course, the word
2:24:26
Speaker 1: drive is absolutely taboo among the flying men. An aviator
2:24:30
Speaker 1: does not dry. He flies in the eyes of the
2:24:34
Speaker 1: kind gentleman. I had obviously lost cast when he discovered
2:24:37
Speaker 1: that I drove my own aeroplane. The conversation began to slacken.
2:24:43
Speaker 1: We arrived in his quarters. I was still dressed in
2:24:46
Speaker 1: my dirty and oily leather jacket and had round my
2:24:49
Speaker 1: neck a thick rap. On our journey, he had, of
2:24:52
Speaker 1: course asked me a tremendous number of questions. Altogether, he
2:24:56
Speaker 1: was far more excited than I was. When we got
2:24:59
Speaker 1: to his digging, he forced me to lie down on
2:25:01
Speaker 1: the sofa, or at least he tried to force me,
2:25:03
Speaker 1: because he argued I was bound to be terribly done
2:25:06
Speaker 1: up through my fight. I assured him that this was
2:25:09
Speaker 1: not my first aerial battle, but he did not apparently
2:25:13
Speaker 1: give me much credence. Probably I did not look very martial.
2:25:18
Speaker 1: After we had been talking for some time, he asked me,
2:25:21
Speaker 1: of course, the celebrated question, have you ever brought down
2:25:24
Speaker 1: a machine? As I said before, He had probably not
2:25:28
Speaker 1: understood my name, so I answered nonchalantly, Oh, yes, I
2:25:32
Speaker 1: have done so now. And then he replied, indeed, perhaps
2:25:36
Speaker 1: you have shot down too. I answered no, not two,
2:25:40
Speaker 1: but twenty four. He smiled, repeated his question and gave
2:25:44
Speaker 1: me to understand that when he was speaking about shooting
2:25:47
Speaker 1: down an aeroplane, he meant not shooting at an aeroplane,
2:25:51
Speaker 1: but shooting into an aeroplane in such a manner that
2:25:54
Speaker 1: it would fall to the ground and remain there. I
2:25:57
Speaker 1: immediately assured him that I entirely shared his conception of
2:26:00
Speaker 1: the meaning of the words shooting down. Now I had
2:26:04
Speaker 1: completely lost cast with him. He was convinced that I
2:26:08
Speaker 1: was a fearful liar. He left me sitting where I
2:26:11
Speaker 1: was and told me that a meal would be served
2:26:13
Speaker 1: in an hour. If I liked, I could join in.
2:26:17
Speaker 1: I accepted his invitation and slept soundly for an hour.
2:26:21
Speaker 1: Then we went to the Officer's Club. Arrived at the club,
2:26:24
Speaker 1: I was glad to find that I was wearing the
2:26:27
Speaker 1: Andre poor le Marie. Unfortunately, I had no uniform jacket
2:26:31
Speaker 1: underneath my greasy leather, but only a waistcoat. I apologized
2:26:35
Speaker 1: for being so badly dressed. Suddenly, my good chief discovered
2:26:39
Speaker 1: on me the Audre poor le Marie. He was speechless
2:26:43
Speaker 1: with surprise and assured me that he did not know
2:26:46
Speaker 1: my name. I gave him my name once more. Now
2:26:50
Speaker 1: it seemed to dawn upon him that he had heard
2:26:52
Speaker 1: my name before. He feasted me with oysters and champagne,
2:26:56
Speaker 1: and I did gloriously until at last my orderly arrived
2:26:59
Speaker 1: and fetched me with my car. I learned from him
2:27:02
Speaker 1: that Comrade Lupert had once more justified his nickname. He
2:27:06
Speaker 1: was generally called the bullet Catcher, for his machine suffered
2:27:09
Speaker 1: badly in every fight. Once it was hit sixty four times.
2:27:14
Speaker 1: Yet he had not been wounded. This time. He had
2:27:17
Speaker 1: received the glancing shot on the chest, and he was
2:27:20
Speaker 1: by this time in hospital. I flew his machine to Port. Unfortunately,
2:27:25
Speaker 1: this excellent officer, who promised to become another Bulka, died
2:27:29
Speaker 1: a few weeks later, a hero's death for the fatherland.
2:27:33
Speaker 1: In the evening, I could assure my kind host of
2:27:35
Speaker 1: lenin Littard that I had increased my bag to twenty
2:27:39
Speaker 1: five and of chapter nine, Chapter ten, A Flying Man's Adventure,
2:27:45
Speaker 1: and of March nineteen seventeen. The name Siegfried Position is
2:27:50
Speaker 1: probably known to every young man in Germany. During the
2:27:54
Speaker 1: time when we withdrew towards the Siegfried Line, the activity
2:27:58
Speaker 1: in the air was, of course very great. We allowed
2:28:02
Speaker 1: our enemies to occupy the territory which we had evacuated,
2:28:05
Speaker 1: but we did not allow them to occupy the air
2:28:08
Speaker 1: as well. The Chaser squadron, which Bolca had trained, looked
2:28:11
Speaker 1: after the English flying men. The English had hitherto fought
2:28:15
Speaker 1: a war of position in the air, and they ventured
2:28:17
Speaker 1: to abandon it for a war of movement only with
2:28:20
Speaker 1: the utmost caution. That was the time when Prince Frederick
2:28:23
Speaker 1: Charles gave his life for the fatherland. In the course
2:28:27
Speaker 1: of a hunting expedition of the Bolka Chaser Squadron, Lieutenant
2:28:31
Speaker 1: Voss had defeated an Englishman in an aerial duel. He
2:28:34
Speaker 1: was forced to go down to the ground and landed
2:28:37
Speaker 1: in neutral territory between the lines, in no man's land.
2:28:41
Speaker 1: In this particular case, we had abandoned a stretch of territory,
2:28:45
Speaker 1: but the enemy had not yet occupied it. Only English
2:28:48
Speaker 1: and German patrols were about in the unoccupied zone. The
2:28:52
Speaker 1: English flying machine was standing between the two lines. Our
2:28:56
Speaker 1: good Englishmen probably believed that the ground was already in
2:29:00
Speaker 1: English possession, and he was justified in thinking so. Lieutenant
2:29:04
Speaker 1: Voss was of a different opinion. Without a moment's hesitation,
2:29:08
Speaker 1: he landed close to his victim with great rapidity. He
2:29:12
Speaker 1: transferred the Englishman's machine guns and other useful things to
2:29:15
Speaker 1: his own aeroplane, took a match, and in a few
2:29:18
Speaker 1: minutes the English machine stood in flames. Then he waved
2:29:22
Speaker 1: smilingly from his victorious aeroplane to the English who were
2:29:25
Speaker 1: rushing along from all sides, and was off my first
2:29:30
Speaker 1: double event. The second of April nineteen seventeen was a
2:29:36
Speaker 1: very warm day for my squadron. From my quarters, I
2:29:39
Speaker 1: could clearly hear the drum fire of the guns, which
2:29:42
Speaker 1: was again particularly violent. I was still in bed when
2:29:46
Speaker 1: my orderly rushed into the room and exclaimed, Sir the
2:29:49
Speaker 1: Englisher here, sleepy as I was. I looked out of
2:29:53
Speaker 1: the window, and really there were my dear friends circling
2:29:56
Speaker 1: over the flying ground. I jumped out of my bed
2:29:59
Speaker 1: and in my clothes in a jiffy. My red bird
2:30:02
Speaker 1: had been pulled out and was ready for starting. My mechanics.
2:30:06
Speaker 1: Knew that I should probably not allow such a favorable
2:30:08
Speaker 1: moment to go by unutilized. Everything was ready. I snatched
2:30:13
Speaker 1: up my furs and then went off. I was the
2:30:16
Speaker 1: last to start. My comrades were much nearer to the enemy.
2:30:20
Speaker 1: I feared that my prey would escape me, that I
2:30:22
Speaker 1: should have to look on from a distance while the
2:30:24
Speaker 1: others were fighting. Suddenly, one of the impertinent fellows tried
2:30:28
Speaker 1: to drop down upon me. I allowed him to come near,
2:30:32
Speaker 1: and then we started a merry quadrille. Sometimes my opponent
2:30:36
Speaker 1: flew on us back, and sometimes he did other tricks.
2:30:39
Speaker 1: He had a double seated chaser. I was his master,
2:30:42
Speaker 1: and very soon I recognized that he could not escape me.
2:30:47
Speaker 1: During an interval in the fighting, I convinced myself that
2:30:50
Speaker 1: we were alone. It followed that the victory would accrue
2:30:53
Speaker 1: to him who was commas, who shot best, and who
2:30:56
Speaker 1: with the clearest brain. In a moment of danger, a
2:31:00
Speaker 1: short time I got him beneath me without seriously hurting
2:31:03
Speaker 1: him with my gun. We were at least two kilometers
2:31:06
Speaker 1: from the front. I thought he intended to land, But
2:31:09
Speaker 1: there I had made a mistake. Suddenly, when he was
2:31:12
Speaker 1: only a few yards above the ground, he once more
2:31:15
Speaker 1: went off on a straight course. He tried to escape me.
2:31:19
Speaker 1: That was too bad. I attacked him again, and I
2:31:22
Speaker 1: went so low that I feared I should touch the
2:31:24
Speaker 1: roofs of the houses of the village beneath me. The
2:31:27
Speaker 1: Englishman defended himself up to the last moment. At the
2:31:31
Speaker 1: very end, I felt that my engine had been hit.
2:31:34
Speaker 1: Still I did not let go. He had to fall.
2:31:37
Speaker 1: He rushed at full speed right into a block of houses.
2:31:41
Speaker 1: There was little left to be done. This was once
2:31:44
Speaker 1: more a case of splendid daring. He defended himself to
2:31:48
Speaker 1: the last. However, in my opinion, he showed more foolhardiness
2:31:52
Speaker 1: than courage. This was one of the cases where one
2:31:55
Speaker 1: must differentiate between energy and idiocy. He had to come
2:32:00
Speaker 1: down in any case, but he paid for his stupidity
2:32:02
Speaker 1: with his life. I was delighted with the performance of
2:32:06
Speaker 1: my red machine during its morning work, and returned to
2:32:08
Speaker 1: our quarters. My comrades were still in the air, and
2:32:12
Speaker 1: they were very surprised when as we met at breakfast,
2:32:14
Speaker 1: I told them that I had scored my thirty second machine.
2:32:18
Speaker 1: A very young lieutenant had bagged his first airplane. We
2:32:22
Speaker 1: were all very merry and prepared everything for further battles.
2:32:26
Speaker 1: I then went and groomed myself. I had not had
2:32:29
Speaker 1: time to do it previously. I was visited by a
2:32:33
Speaker 1: dear friend, Lieutenant Voss, a Volcice squadron. We chat it.
2:32:38
Speaker 1: Voss had down on the previous day his twenty third machine.
2:32:42
Speaker 1: He was next to me on the list and is
2:32:44
Speaker 1: at present my most redoubtable competitor. When he started to
2:32:47
Speaker 1: fly home, I offered to accompany him part of the way.
2:32:51
Speaker 1: We went on a roundabout way over the fronts. The
2:32:54
Speaker 1: weather had turned so bad that we could not hope
2:32:57
Speaker 1: to find any more game. Beneath us there were dense clouds.
2:33:01
Speaker 1: Boss did not know the country, and he began to
2:33:04
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable. When we passed above Arris, I bet my brother,
2:33:08
Speaker 1: who also was in my squadron and who had lost
2:33:10
Speaker 1: his way. He joined us. Of course, he recognized me
2:33:14
Speaker 1: at once by the color of my machine. Suddenly we
2:33:17
Speaker 1: saw a squadron approaching from the other side. Immediately the
2:33:21
Speaker 1: thought occurred to me, now comes number thirty three. Although
2:33:25
Speaker 1: there were nine Englishmen, and although they were on their
2:33:28
Speaker 1: own territory, they preferred to avoid battle. I thought that
2:33:32
Speaker 1: perhaps it would be better for me to repaint my machine. Nevertheless,
2:33:37
Speaker 1: we caught them up. The important thing in aeroplanes is
2:33:40
Speaker 1: that they are speedy. I am nearest to the enemy
2:33:43
Speaker 1: and attacked the man to the rear. To my greatest delight,
2:33:46
Speaker 1: I noticed that he accepted battle, and my pleasure was
2:33:49
Speaker 1: increased when I discovered that his comrades deserted him. So
2:33:53
Speaker 1: I had once more a single fight. It was a
2:33:56
Speaker 1: fight similar to the one which I had had in
2:33:58
Speaker 1: the morning. My opponent did not make matters easy for me.
2:34:03
Speaker 1: He knew the fighting business, and it was particularly awkward
2:34:06
Speaker 1: for me that he was a good shot. To my
2:34:08
Speaker 1: great regret, that was quite clear to me. A favorable
2:34:12
Speaker 1: wind came to my aid. It drove both of us
2:34:15
Speaker 1: into the German lines. My opponent discovered that the matter
2:34:19
Speaker 1: was not so simple as he had imagined, so he
2:34:21
Speaker 1: plunged and disappeared into a cloud. He had nearly saved himself.
2:34:26
Speaker 1: I plunged after him and dropped out of the cloud,
2:34:29
Speaker 1: and as luck would have it, found myself close behind him.
2:34:33
Speaker 1: I fired, and he fired without any tangible result. At
2:34:37
Speaker 1: last I hit him. I noticed the ribbon of white
2:34:40
Speaker 1: benzene vapor. He had to land, for his engine had
2:34:43
Speaker 1: come to a stop. He was a stubborn fellow. He
2:34:46
Speaker 1: was bound to recognize that he had lost the game.
2:34:49
Speaker 1: If he continued shooting, I could kill him, for meanwhile
2:34:52
Speaker 1: we had dropped to an altitude of about nine hundred feet. However,
2:34:57
Speaker 1: the Englishman defended himself exactly as did his fellow countrymen
2:35:00
Speaker 1: in the morning. He thought until he landed. When he
2:35:04
Speaker 1: had come to the ground, I flew over him at
2:35:06
Speaker 1: an altitude of about thirty five feet, in order to
2:35:09
Speaker 1: ascertain whether I had killed him or not. What did
2:35:12
Speaker 1: the rascal do? He took his machine gun and shot
2:35:15
Speaker 1: holes into my machine. Afterwards, Voss told me that if
2:35:19
Speaker 1: it had happened to him, he would have shot the
2:35:22
Speaker 1: airman on the ground. As a matter of fact, I
2:35:25
Speaker 1: ought to have done so, for he had not surrendered.
2:35:28
Speaker 1: He was one of the few fortunate fellows who escaped
2:35:31
Speaker 1: with their lives. I felt very merry, flew home and
2:35:35
Speaker 1: celebrated my thirty third aeroplane. End of chapter ten. Chapter eleven,
2:35:43
Speaker 1: My record day. The weather was glorious. We were ready
2:35:48
Speaker 1: for starting. I had as a visitor a gentleman who
2:35:51
Speaker 1: had never seen a fight in the air or anything
2:35:53
Speaker 1: resembling it, and he had just assured me that it
2:35:55
Speaker 1: would tremendously interest him to witness an aerial battle. Mind
2:36:00
Speaker 1: knew our machines and laughed heartily at our visitor's eagerness.
2:36:04
Speaker 1: Friend Shaeffer thought that we might give him some fun.
2:36:07
Speaker 1: We placed him before a telescope, and off we went.
2:36:11
Speaker 1: The day began well. We had scarcely flown to an
2:36:14
Speaker 1: altitude of six thousand feet when an English squadron of
2:36:17
Speaker 1: five machines was seen coming our way. We attacked them
2:36:21
Speaker 1: by a rush, as if we were cavalry, and the
2:36:23
Speaker 1: hostile squadron lay destroyed on the ground. None of our
2:36:27
Speaker 1: men was even wounded. Of our enemies, three had plunged
2:36:30
Speaker 1: to the ground, and two had come down in flames.
2:36:33
Speaker 1: The good fellow down below was not a little surprised.
2:36:37
Speaker 1: He had imagined that the affair would look quite different,
2:36:40
Speaker 1: that it would be far more dramatic. He thought the
2:36:43
Speaker 1: whole encounter had looked quite harmless until suddenly some machines
2:36:46
Speaker 1: came falling down, looking like rockets. I have gradually become
2:36:51
Speaker 1: accustomed to seeing machines falling down, but I must say
2:36:54
Speaker 1: it impressed me very deeply when I saw the first
2:36:57
Speaker 1: Englishman fall, and I have often seen the event again
2:37:00
Speaker 1: in my dreams. As the day had begun so propiteously,
2:37:04
Speaker 1: we sat down and had a decent breakfast. All of
2:37:08
Speaker 1: us were as hungry as wolves. In the meantime, our
2:37:11
Speaker 1: machines were again made ready for starting. Fresh cartridges were got,
2:37:15
Speaker 1: and then we went off again. In the evening we
2:37:18
Speaker 1: could send off the proud report six German machines have
2:37:22
Speaker 1: destroyed thirteen hostile aeroplanes. Bulca's squadron had only once been
2:37:27
Speaker 1: able to make a similar report. At that time, we
2:37:31
Speaker 1: had shot down eight machines. Today one of us had
2:37:34
Speaker 1: brought low four of his opponents. The hero was a
2:37:37
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Bulf, a delicate looking little fellow in whom nobody
2:37:41
Speaker 1: could have suspected a redoubtable hero. My brother had destroyed
2:37:45
Speaker 1: two Schaeffer two, Fesner two, and I three. We went
2:37:50
Speaker 1: to bed in the evening tremendously proud, but also terribly tired.
2:37:55
Speaker 1: On the following day we read with noisy approval about
2:37:58
Speaker 1: our deeds of the previous day in the official communice.
2:38:02
Speaker 1: On the next day we down eight hostile machines. A
2:38:07
Speaker 1: very amusing thing occurred. One of the Englishmen whom we
2:38:10
Speaker 1: had shot down and whom we had made a prisoner,
2:38:13
Speaker 1: was talking with us. Of course, he inquired after the
2:38:16
Speaker 1: red aeroplane. It is not unknown even among the troops
2:38:20
Speaker 1: in the trenches, and is called by them lydiab Larusha.
2:38:24
Speaker 1: In the squadron to which he belonged, there was a
2:38:26
Speaker 1: rumor that the red machine was occupied by a girl,
2:38:30
Speaker 1: by a kind of gen dart. He was intensely surprised
2:38:33
Speaker 1: when I assured him that the supposed girl was standing
2:38:36
Speaker 1: in front of him. He did not intend to make
2:38:38
Speaker 1: a joke. He was actually convinced that only a girl
2:38:42
Speaker 1: could sit in the extravagantly painted machine. Moritz, the most
2:38:48
Speaker 1: beautiful being in all creation is the genuine Danish hound,
2:38:52
Speaker 1: my little lapdog, my Moritz. I bought him in Austin
2:38:55
Speaker 1: from a brave Belgian for five marks. His mother was
2:38:59
Speaker 1: a beautiful animal, and one of his fathers also was
2:39:01
Speaker 1: pure bread. I am convinced of that I could select
2:39:05
Speaker 1: one of the litter, and I chose the prettiest. Zumer
2:39:08
Speaker 1: took another puppy and called it Max. Max came to
2:39:12
Speaker 1: a sudden end he was run over by a motor car.
2:39:15
Speaker 1: Mritz flourished exceedingly. He slept with me in my bed
2:39:19
Speaker 1: and received a most excellent education. He never left me
2:39:23
Speaker 1: while I was in Austin and obtained my entire affection.
2:39:27
Speaker 1: Month by month, Maurritz grew and gradually my tender little
2:39:30
Speaker 1: lapdog became a colossal big beast. Once I even took
2:39:34
Speaker 1: him with me, he was my first observer. He behaved
2:39:38
Speaker 1: very sensibly. He seemed much interested in everything and looked
2:39:42
Speaker 1: at the world from above. Only my mechanics were dissatisfied.
2:39:46
Speaker 1: When they had to clean the machine afterwards, Maritz was
2:39:50
Speaker 1: very merry. Maritz is more than a year old, and
2:39:54
Speaker 1: he is still as childlike as if he were still
2:39:56
Speaker 1: in his teens. He is very fond of playing billiards.
2:40:00
Speaker 1: In doing this, he has destroyed many billiard balls and
2:40:03
Speaker 1: particularly many a billiard cloth. He has a great passion
2:40:07
Speaker 1: for the chase. My mechanics are highly satisfied with his
2:40:10
Speaker 1: sporting inclinations, for he has caught for them many a
2:40:14
Speaker 1: nice hair. I do not much approve of his hunting proclivities.
2:40:18
Speaker 1: Constantly he gets a whacking if I catch him at it.
2:40:21
Speaker 1: He has a silly peculiarity. He likes to accompany the
2:40:25
Speaker 1: flying machines at the start. Frequently. The normal death of
2:40:28
Speaker 1: a flying man's dog is death from the propeller. One
2:40:32
Speaker 1: day he rushed in front of a flying machine which
2:40:34
Speaker 1: had been started. The aeroplane caught him up, and a
2:40:37
Speaker 1: beautiful propeller was smashed to bits. Marits howled terribly, and
2:40:41
Speaker 1: a measure which I had hitherto admitted, was taken. I
2:40:44
Speaker 1: had always refused to have his ears cut. One of
2:40:47
Speaker 1: his ears was cut off by the propeller. A long
2:40:50
Speaker 1: ear and a short ear do not go well together.
2:40:55
Speaker 1: Maritz has taken a very sensible view of the World
2:40:57
Speaker 1: War and of our enemies. When in the summer of
2:41:00
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen he saw for the first time Russian natives,
2:41:04
Speaker 1: the train had stopped and Maritz was being taken for
2:41:06
Speaker 1: a walk, he chased the Russian crowd with loud barking.
2:41:10
Speaker 1: He has no great opinion of Frenchmen, although he is
2:41:13
Speaker 1: after all of Belgium. Once, when I had settled in
2:41:17
Speaker 1: new quarters. I ordered the people to clean the house.
2:41:20
Speaker 1: When I came back in the evening, nothing had been done.
2:41:23
Speaker 1: I got angry and asked the Frenchman to come and
2:41:25
Speaker 1: see me. When he opened the door, Maritz greeted him
2:41:29
Speaker 1: rather brusquely. Immediately I understood why no cleaning had been done.
2:41:35
Speaker 1: The English attack our aerodrome. Nights in which the full
2:41:39
Speaker 1: moon is shining are most suitable for night flying. During
2:41:43
Speaker 1: the full moon nights of the month of April, our
2:41:46
Speaker 1: English friends were particularly industrious. This was during the Battle
2:41:50
Speaker 1: of Eras. Probably they had found out that we had
2:41:53
Speaker 1: comfortably installed ourselves on a beautiful, large flying ground at Duay.
2:41:58
Speaker 1: One night, when we were in the officers mess the
2:42:01
Speaker 1: telephone started ringing and we were told the English are coming.
2:42:05
Speaker 1: There was a great hullabaloo. We had bomb proof shelters.
2:42:09
Speaker 1: They had been got ready by our excellent Simon. Simon
2:42:12
Speaker 1: is our architect, surveyor and builder. We dived down into
2:42:16
Speaker 1: shelter and we heard, actually at first a very gentle humming,
2:42:20
Speaker 1: and then the noise of engines. The searchlights had apparently
2:42:23
Speaker 1: got noticed at the same time as we, for they
2:42:26
Speaker 1: started getting ready the nearest enemy was still too far
2:42:30
Speaker 1: away to be attacked. We were colossally merry. The only
2:42:34
Speaker 1: thing we feared was that the english would not succeed
2:42:37
Speaker 1: in finding our aerodrome. To find some fixed spot at
2:42:40
Speaker 1: night is by no means easy. It was particularly difficult
2:42:44
Speaker 1: to find us because our aerodrome was not situated on
2:42:48
Speaker 1: an important highway or near water or a railway by
2:42:51
Speaker 1: which one could be guided during one's flight at night.
2:42:54
Speaker 1: The Englishmen were apparently flying at a great altitude. At
2:42:58
Speaker 1: first they circled around our own entire establishment. We began
2:43:02
Speaker 1: to think that they had given up and were looking
2:43:04
Speaker 1: for another objective. Suddenly we noticed that the nearest one
2:43:08
Speaker 1: had switched off his engine, so he was coming lower.
2:43:12
Speaker 1: Wolf said, now the matter is becoming serious. We had
2:43:16
Speaker 1: two carbines and began shooting at the Englishman. We could
2:43:19
Speaker 1: not see him, still, the noise of our shooting was
2:43:22
Speaker 1: a sedative to our nerves. Suddenly he was taken up
2:43:25
Speaker 1: by the searchlights. There was shouting all over the flying ground.
2:43:30
Speaker 1: Our friend was sitting in a prehistoric packing case. We
2:43:33
Speaker 1: could clearly recognize the type. He was half a mile
2:43:36
Speaker 1: away from us and was flying straight towards us. He
2:43:39
Speaker 1: went lower and lower. At last he had come down
2:43:42
Speaker 1: to an altitude of about three hundred feet. Then he
2:43:46
Speaker 1: started his engine again and came straight towards the spot
2:43:49
Speaker 1: where we were standing. Wolf thought that he took an
2:43:52
Speaker 1: interest in the other side of our establishment. And before
2:43:55
Speaker 1: long the first bomb fell, and it was followed by
2:43:58
Speaker 1: a number of other missiles. Our friend amused us with
2:44:01
Speaker 1: very pretty fireworks. They could have frightened only a coward.
2:44:05
Speaker 1: Broadly speaking, I find that bomb throwing at night has
2:44:09
Speaker 1: only a moral effect. Those who are easily frightened are
2:44:13
Speaker 1: strongly affected when bombs fall at night. The others don't care.
2:44:18
Speaker 1: We were much amused that the Englishman's performance, and thought
2:44:21
Speaker 1: the english would come quite often on a visit. The
2:44:24
Speaker 1: flying Piano dropped its bombs at last from an altitude
2:44:27
Speaker 1: of one hundred and fifty feet That was rather impertinent
2:44:30
Speaker 1: or in a moonlit night. I think I can hit
2:44:32
Speaker 1: a wild pig at one hundred and fifty feet with
2:44:35
Speaker 1: a rifle. Why then, should I not succeed in hitting
2:44:38
Speaker 1: the Englishmen. It would have been a novel. They did
2:44:41
Speaker 1: down an Englishman from the ground from above. I had
2:44:45
Speaker 1: already had the honor of downing a number of Englishmen,
2:44:48
Speaker 1: but I have never tried to tackle an aviator from below.
2:44:51
Speaker 1: When the Englishman had gone, we went back to the
2:44:54
Speaker 1: mess and discussed among ourselves how we should receive the
2:44:57
Speaker 1: English should they pay us another visit on the follow night.
2:45:01
Speaker 1: In the course of the next day, our orderlies and
2:45:03
Speaker 1: other fellows were made to work with great energy. They
2:45:07
Speaker 1: had to ramp into the ground piles, which were to
2:45:09
Speaker 1: be used as a foundation for machine guns. During the
2:45:12
Speaker 1: coming night, we went to the butts and tried the
2:45:15
Speaker 1: English machine guns which we had taken from the enemy,
2:45:18
Speaker 1: arranged the sites for night shooting, and were very curious
2:45:22
Speaker 1: as to what was going to happen. I will not
2:45:24
Speaker 1: betray the number of our machine guns. Anyhow, they were
2:45:28
Speaker 1: to be sufficient for the purpose. Every one of my
2:45:31
Speaker 1: officers was armed with one. We were again sitting at mess.
2:45:36
Speaker 1: Of course, we were discussing the problem of night flyers.
2:45:39
Speaker 1: Suddenly and orderly rushed in, shouting, they are there, they
2:45:43
Speaker 1: are there, and disappeared in the next bomb proof in
2:45:46
Speaker 1: his scanty attire. We all rushed to our machine guns.
2:45:50
Speaker 1: Some of the men who were known to be good
2:45:52
Speaker 1: shots had also been given a machine gun. All the
2:45:55
Speaker 1: rest were provided with carbines. The whole squadron was armed
2:45:59
Speaker 1: to the teeth to give a warm reception to our
2:46:01
Speaker 1: kindly visitors. The first Englishman arrived exactly as on the
2:46:06
Speaker 1: previous evening, at a very great altitude. He went then
2:46:09
Speaker 1: down to one hundred and fifty feet, and, to our
2:46:12
Speaker 1: greatest joy, began making for the place where our barracks were.
2:46:15
Speaker 1: He got into the glare of the searchlight when he
2:46:18
Speaker 1: was only three hundred yards away. Someone fired the first shot,
2:46:22
Speaker 1: and all the rest of us joined in. A rush
2:46:25
Speaker 1: of cavalry, or of storing troops, could not have been
2:46:28
Speaker 1: met more efficiently than the attack of that single impertinent individual.
2:46:32
Speaker 1: Flying at one hundred and fifty feet. Quick firing from
2:46:35
Speaker 1: many guns received him. Of course, he could not hear
2:46:39
Speaker 1: the noise of the machine guns. The roar of his
2:46:41
Speaker 1: motor prevented that. However, he must have seen the flashes
2:46:45
Speaker 1: of our guns. Therefore, I thought it tremendously plucky that
2:46:48
Speaker 1: our man did not swerve, but continued going straight ahead
2:46:52
Speaker 1: in accordance with his plan. At the moment he was
2:46:55
Speaker 1: perpendicularly above us, we jumped quickly into our bomb proof.
2:46:59
Speaker 1: It would have been too silly for flying men to
2:47:01
Speaker 1: die by a rotten bomb. As soon as he had
2:47:04
Speaker 1: passed over our heads, we rushed out again and fired
2:47:07
Speaker 1: after him with our machine guns and rifle. Frend Shaeffer
2:47:11
Speaker 1: asserted that he had hit the men. Schaefer is quite
2:47:14
Speaker 1: a good shot. Still in this case, I did not
2:47:17
Speaker 1: believe him. Besides, every one of us had as good
2:47:20
Speaker 1: a chance at making hit as he had. We had
2:47:23
Speaker 1: achieved something, for the enemy had dropped his bombs rather aimlessly,
2:47:27
Speaker 1: owing to our shooting one of them, it is true,
2:47:30
Speaker 1: had exploded only a few yards from the Petit Rouge,
2:47:33
Speaker 1: but had not hurt him. During the night, the fun
2:47:37
Speaker 1: recommenced several times. I was already in bed, fast asleep
2:47:41
Speaker 1: when I heard in a dream and I aircraft firing.
2:47:45
Speaker 1: I woke up and discovered that the dream was reality.
2:47:48
Speaker 1: One of the Englishmen flew at so low an altitude
2:47:51
Speaker 1: over my habitation that, in my fright, I pulled the
2:47:54
Speaker 1: blanket over my head. The next moment I heard an
2:47:57
Speaker 1: incredible bang just outside my window. Well the Pains had
2:48:01
Speaker 1: fallen a victim to the bomb. I rushed out of
2:48:04
Speaker 1: my room and my shirt in order to fire a
2:48:06
Speaker 1: few shots. After him. They were firing from everywhere. Unfortunately
2:48:11
Speaker 1: I had overslept my opportunity. The next morning we were
2:48:15
Speaker 1: extremely surprised and delighted to discover that we had shot
2:48:19
Speaker 1: down from the ground no fewer than three Englishmen. They
2:48:23
Speaker 1: had landed not far from our aerodrome and had been
2:48:25
Speaker 1: made prisoners. As a rule, we had hit the Engines
2:48:29
Speaker 1: and had forced the airmen to come down on our
2:48:31
Speaker 1: side of the front. After all, Schaeffer was possibly right
2:48:35
Speaker 1: in his assertion. At any rate, we were very well
2:48:38
Speaker 1: satisfied with our success. The English were distinctly less satisfied,
2:48:43
Speaker 1: for they preferred avoiding our base. It was a pity
2:48:46
Speaker 1: that they gave us a wide berth, for they gave
2:48:49
Speaker 1: us lots of fun. Let us hope that they come
2:48:51
Speaker 1: back to us next month. End of chapter eleven. Chapter
2:48:56
Speaker 1: twelve Schaefer lands between the lines. We went on a
2:49:01
Speaker 1: shooting expedition on the twentieth of April. We came home
2:49:05
Speaker 1: very late and lost Shaeffer on the way. Of course,
2:49:09
Speaker 1: everyone hoped that he would come to hand before dark.
2:49:12
Speaker 1: It struck nine, it struck ten, but no Schafer was visible.
2:49:17
Speaker 1: His benzine could not last so long. Consequently, he had
2:49:21
Speaker 1: landed somewhere, For no one was willing to admit that
2:49:24
Speaker 1: he had been shot down. No one dared to mention
2:49:28
Speaker 1: the possibility. Still, everyone was afraid for him. The ubiquitous
2:49:33
Speaker 1: telephone was set in motion in order to find out
2:49:36
Speaker 1: whether a flying man had come down anywhere. Nobody could
2:49:39
Speaker 1: give us information. No division and no brigade had seen
2:49:44
Speaker 1: anything of him. We felt very uncomfortable. At last we
2:49:48
Speaker 1: went to bed. All of us were perfectly convinced that
2:49:52
Speaker 1: he would turn up in the end. At two o'clock
2:49:55
Speaker 1: after midnight, I was suddenly awakened. The telephone, orderly beaming
2:49:59
Speaker 1: with pleasure, reported to me, Schaefer is in the village
2:50:02
Speaker 1: of Why and would like to be fetched home. The
2:50:05
Speaker 1: next morning, when we were sitting at breakfast, the door
2:50:08
Speaker 1: opened and my dear pilot stood before me. His clothes
2:50:12
Speaker 1: were as filthy as those of an infantry man who
2:50:14
Speaker 1: has fought at Arras for a fortnight. He was greeted
2:50:17
Speaker 1: with a general hurrah. Shaefer was tremendously happy and elated,
2:50:22
Speaker 1: and tremendously excited about his adventure. When he had finished
2:50:26
Speaker 1: his breakfast, he told us the following tale. I was
2:50:29
Speaker 1: flying along the front intending to return home. Suddenly I
2:50:34
Speaker 1: noticed far below me something that looked like an infantry flyer.
2:50:37
Speaker 1: I attacked him, shot him down, and meant to fly back. However,
2:50:42
Speaker 1: the English in the trenches did not mean me to
2:50:44
Speaker 1: get away and started peppering me like anything. My salvation
2:50:48
Speaker 1: lay in the rapidity of my machine. For those rascals,
2:50:52
Speaker 1: of course, would forget that they had to aim far
2:50:54
Speaker 1: in front of me if they wished to hit me.
2:50:57
Speaker 1: I was at an altitude of perhaps six hundred fears.
2:51:00
Speaker 1: Suddenly I heard a smash and my engine stopped running.
2:51:04
Speaker 1: There was nothing to do but land. I asked myself
2:51:07
Speaker 1: whether I should be able to get away from the
2:51:09
Speaker 1: English position. It seemed very questionable. The English noticed my
2:51:14
Speaker 1: predicament and started shooting like mad. As my engine was
2:51:18
Speaker 1: no longer running, I could hear every single shot. The
2:51:22
Speaker 1: position became awkward. I came down and landed before my
2:51:26
Speaker 1: machine had come to a standstill. They squirted upon me
2:51:30
Speaker 1: heaps of bullets from machine gun in the hedge of
2:51:32
Speaker 1: the village Amashe near Arras my machine became splashed with bullets,
2:51:37
Speaker 1: I jumped out of it and down into the first
2:51:39
Speaker 1: shell hole, squatting there I reflected and tried to realize
2:51:44
Speaker 1: exactly where I was. Gradually it became clear to me
2:51:48
Speaker 1: that I had landed outside the English lines, but cursedly
2:51:52
Speaker 1: near them. Happily, it was rather late in the evening,
2:51:55
Speaker 1: and that was my salvation. Before long, the first shell
2:51:59
Speaker 1: came along. Of course, they were gas shells, and I
2:52:02
Speaker 1: had no mask with me. My eyes started watering like
2:52:05
Speaker 1: anything Before darkness set in. The English ascertained the distance
2:52:10
Speaker 1: of the spot where I had landed with machine guns,
2:52:13
Speaker 1: part of them aimed at my machine and part at
2:52:15
Speaker 1: my shell crater. The bullets constantly hit its rim. In
2:52:19
Speaker 1: order to quiet my nerves, I lit a cigarette. Then
2:52:23
Speaker 1: I took off my heavy fur coat and prepared everything
2:52:26
Speaker 1: for a leap and a run. Every minute seemed to
2:52:29
Speaker 1: me an hour. Gradually it became dark, but only very gradually.
2:52:34
Speaker 1: Around me, I heard partridges giving a concert. As an
2:52:38
Speaker 1: experienced shot, I recognized from their voices that they felt
2:52:41
Speaker 1: quite happy, and contented that there was no danger of
2:52:44
Speaker 1: my being surprised in my hiding place. At last, it
2:52:48
Speaker 1: became quite dark suddenly, and quite close to me. A
2:52:51
Speaker 1: couple of partridges flew up. A second couple followed it
2:52:55
Speaker 1: was obvious that danger was approaching. No doubt a patrol
2:52:59
Speaker 1: was on the way to wish me a happy evening.
2:53:02
Speaker 1: I had no time to lose now or never. First,
2:53:05
Speaker 1: I crept very cautiously in my chest from shell hole
2:53:08
Speaker 1: to shell hole. After creeping industriously for about an hour
2:53:11
Speaker 1: and a half, I noticed I was nearing humans. Were
2:53:15
Speaker 1: they English or were they Germans? They came nearer and
2:53:18
Speaker 1: I could almost have fallen round their necks when I
2:53:20
Speaker 1: discovered our own musketeers. They were a German patrol who
2:53:24
Speaker 1: were nosing about in no man's land. One of the
2:53:27
Speaker 1: men conducted me to the commander of his company. I
2:53:31
Speaker 1: was told that in the evening I had landed about
2:53:33
Speaker 1: fifty yards in front of the enemy lines, and that
2:53:36
Speaker 1: our infantry had given me up for loss. I had
2:53:39
Speaker 1: a good supper, and then I started on my way home.
2:53:43
Speaker 1: Behind me there was far more shooting than in front
2:53:45
Speaker 1: of me. Every path, every trench, every bush, every hollow
2:53:49
Speaker 1: was under enemy fire. The English attacked on the next morning,
2:53:54
Speaker 1: and consequently they had to begin their artillery preparation the
2:53:57
Speaker 1: evening before. So I had chosen an unfavorable day for
2:54:01
Speaker 1: my enterprise. I reached the first telephone. Only at two
2:54:05
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, when I phoned to the squadron.
2:54:08
Speaker 1: We were all very happy to have our shaffer again
2:54:11
Speaker 1: with us. We went to bed, and the other man
2:54:14
Speaker 1: would have taken a rest from flying for twenty four hours.
2:54:17
Speaker 1: But on the afternoon of this very day, friend Schaeffer
2:54:20
Speaker 1: attacked a low flying bee above Maushee, the anti Roockhoffin squadron.
2:54:27
Speaker 1: The English had hit upon a splendid joke. They intended
2:54:30
Speaker 1: to catch me, or to bring me down. For that purpose,
2:54:34
Speaker 1: they had actually organized a special squadron which flew about
2:54:37
Speaker 1: in that part which we frequented. It as a rule,
2:54:40
Speaker 1: we discovered its particular aim by the fact that its
2:54:43
Speaker 1: aggressive activity was principally directed against our red machines. I
2:54:48
Speaker 1: would say that all the machines of the squadron had
2:54:51
Speaker 1: been painted red, because our English friends had by and
2:54:53
Speaker 1: by perceived that I was sitting in a blood red manbox.
2:54:58
Speaker 1: Suddenly there were quite a lot of red mashe machines,
2:55:00
Speaker 1: and the English opened their eyes wide when one fine
2:55:03
Speaker 1: day they saw a dozen red barges streaming along instead
2:55:07
Speaker 1: of a single one. Our new trick did not prevent
2:55:10
Speaker 1: them from making an attempt at attacking us. I preferred
2:55:14
Speaker 1: their new tactics. It is better that one's customers come
2:55:17
Speaker 1: to one's shop than to have to look for them abroad.
2:55:21
Speaker 1: We flew to the front, hoping to find our enemy.
2:55:24
Speaker 1: After about twenty minutes, the first arrived and attacked us.
2:55:28
Speaker 1: That had not happened to us for a long time.
2:55:31
Speaker 1: The English had abandoned their celebrated offensive tactics to some extent.
2:55:36
Speaker 1: They had found them somewhat too expensive. Our aggressors were
2:55:40
Speaker 1: three spot one seater machines. Their occupants thought themselves very
2:55:44
Speaker 1: superior to us because of the excellence of their apparatus. Wolf,
2:55:49
Speaker 1: my brother, and I were flying together. We were three
2:55:52
Speaker 1: against three. That was as it ought to be. Immediately,
2:55:56
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the encounter, the aggressive became a defensive.
2:56:00
Speaker 1: Our superiority became clear. I tackled my opponent and could
2:56:04
Speaker 1: see how my brother and Wolf handled each his own enemy.
2:56:08
Speaker 1: The usual waltzing began. We were circling around one another.
2:56:12
Speaker 1: A favorable wind came to our aid. It drove us
2:56:15
Speaker 1: fighting away from the front in the direction of Germany.
2:56:19
Speaker 1: My man was the first who fell down. I suppose
2:56:23
Speaker 1: I had smashed up his machine at any rate. He
2:56:26
Speaker 1: made up his mind to land. I no longer gave
2:56:29
Speaker 1: pardon to him. Therefore I attacked him a second time,
2:56:32
Speaker 1: and the consequence was that his whole machine went to pieces.
2:56:36
Speaker 1: His planes dropped off like pieces of paper, and the
2:56:39
Speaker 1: body of the machine fell like a stone, burning fiercely.
2:56:42
Speaker 1: It dropped into a morass. It was impossible to dig
2:56:46
Speaker 1: it out, and I have never discovered the name of
2:56:48
Speaker 1: my opponent. He had disappeared. Only the end of the
2:56:53
Speaker 1: tail was visible and marked the place where he had
2:56:55
Speaker 1: dug his own grave. Simultaneously with me and my brother
2:57:00
Speaker 1: had attacked their opponents and had forced them to land
2:57:03
Speaker 1: not far from my victim. We were very happy and
2:57:07
Speaker 1: flew home and hoped that the anti Rickhoffin squadron would
2:57:10
Speaker 1: often return to the fray We are visited by my father.
2:57:17
Speaker 1: My father had announced that he would visit his two
2:57:19
Speaker 1: sons on the twenty ninth of April. My father is
2:57:23
Speaker 1: a commander of a little town in the vicinity of Lille. Therefore,
2:57:27
Speaker 1: he does not live very far away from us. I
2:57:30
Speaker 1: have occasionally seen him on my flights. He intended to
2:57:34
Speaker 1: arrive by train at nine o'clock at half past nine
2:57:37
Speaker 1: he came to our aerodrome. We just happened to have
2:57:41
Speaker 1: returned from an expedition. My brother was the first to
2:57:44
Speaker 1: climb out of his machine, and he greeted the old
2:57:46
Speaker 1: gentleman with the words, good day, father, I have just
2:57:49
Speaker 1: shot down an Englishman. Immediately afterward, I also climbed out
2:57:54
Speaker 1: of my machine and greeted him, good day, father, I
2:57:57
Speaker 1: have just shot down an Englishman. The old gentleman felt
2:58:01
Speaker 1: very happy, and he was delighted. That was obvious. He
2:58:05
Speaker 1: is not one of those fathers who are afraid for
2:58:07
Speaker 1: their sons. I think he would like best to get
2:58:10
Speaker 1: into a machine himself and help us shoot. We breakfasted
2:58:14
Speaker 1: with him and then went flying again. In the meantime,
2:58:18
Speaker 1: an aerial fight took place above our aerodrome. My father
2:58:22
Speaker 1: looked on and was greatly interested. We did not take
2:58:25
Speaker 1: a hand in the fight, for we were standing on
2:58:27
Speaker 1: the ground and looked on ourselves. An English squadron had
2:58:31
Speaker 1: broken through and was being attacked above our aerodrome by
2:58:34
Speaker 1: some of our own reconnoitering aeroplanes. Suddenly, one of the
2:58:38
Speaker 1: machines started turning over and over. Then it recovered itself
2:58:42
Speaker 1: and came gliding down normally. We saw with regret this
2:58:46
Speaker 1: time that it was a German machine. The Englishman flew on.
2:58:51
Speaker 1: The German aeroplane had apparently been damaged. It was quite
2:58:55
Speaker 1: correctly handled. It came down and tried to land on
2:58:58
Speaker 1: our flying ground. The room was rather narrow for the
2:59:02
Speaker 1: large machine. Besides, the ground was unfamiliar to the pilot.
2:59:06
Speaker 1: Hence the landing was not quite smooth. We ran towards
2:59:10
Speaker 1: the aeroplane and discovered with regret that one of the
2:59:13
Speaker 1: occupants of the machine, the machine gunner, had been killed.
2:59:17
Speaker 1: The spectacle was new to my father. It made him serious.
2:59:22
Speaker 1: The day promised to be a favorable one for us.
2:59:25
Speaker 1: The weather was wonderfully clear. The anti aircraft guns were
2:59:29
Speaker 1: constantly audible. Obviously there was much aircraft about. Towards midday
2:59:35
Speaker 1: we flew once more. This time I was again lucky
2:59:39
Speaker 1: and shot down my second Englishman of the day. The
2:59:42
Speaker 1: governor recovered his good spirits. After the midday dinner, I
2:59:47
Speaker 1: slept a little. I was again quite fresh. Wolf had
2:59:51
Speaker 1: fought the enemy in the meantime with his group of
2:59:53
Speaker 1: machines and had himself bagged an enemy. Schaeffer also had
2:59:57
Speaker 1: eaten one in the afternoon, and I, accompanied by Schaefer,
3:00:02
Speaker 1: Fesner and Almanru, flew twice more. The first afternoon flight
3:00:07
Speaker 1: was a failure, the second was all the better. Soon
3:00:11
Speaker 1: after we had come to the front, a hostile squadron
3:00:14
Speaker 1: met us. Unfortunately, they occupied a higher altitude, so we
3:00:18
Speaker 1: could not do anything. We tried to climb to their level,
3:00:21
Speaker 1: but did not succeed. We had to let them go.
3:00:25
Speaker 1: We flew along the front. My brother was next to
3:00:29
Speaker 1: me in front of the others. Suddenly I noticed two
3:00:32
Speaker 1: hostile artillery flyers approaching our front in the most impertinent
3:00:36
Speaker 1: and provocative manner. I waved to my brother and he
3:00:39
Speaker 1: understood my meaning. We flew side by side, increasing our speed.
3:00:44
Speaker 1: Each of us felt certain that he was superior to
3:00:47
Speaker 1: the enemy. It was a great thing that we could
3:00:50
Speaker 1: absolutely rely on one another, and that was the principal
3:00:53
Speaker 1: thing one has to know one's flying partner. My brother
3:00:58
Speaker 1: was the first to approach his enm me. He attacked
3:01:01
Speaker 1: the first and I took care of the second. At
3:01:04
Speaker 1: the last moment, I quickly looked round in order to
3:01:06
Speaker 1: feel sure that there was no third aeroplane about. We
3:01:10
Speaker 1: were alone and could see eye to eye. Soon I
3:01:13
Speaker 1: had got on the favorable side of my opponent. A
3:01:16
Speaker 1: short spell of quick firing, and the enemy machine went
3:01:19
Speaker 1: to pieces. I never had a more rapid success. While
3:01:24
Speaker 1: I was still looking where my enemy's fragments were falling,
3:01:27
Speaker 1: I noticed my brother. He was scarcely five hundred yards
3:01:30
Speaker 1: away from me and was still fighting his opponent. I
3:01:33
Speaker 1: had time to study the struggle and must say that
3:01:36
Speaker 1: I myself could not have done any better than he did.
3:01:40
Speaker 1: He had rushed his men, and both were turning around
3:01:43
Speaker 1: one another. Suddenly the enemy machine reared. That is a
3:01:47
Speaker 1: certain indication of a hit. Probably the pilot was shot
3:01:51
Speaker 1: in the head. The machine fell, and the planes of
3:01:54
Speaker 1: the enemy apparatus went to pieces. They fell quite close
3:01:58
Speaker 1: to my victim. I flew towards my brother and we
3:02:02
Speaker 1: congratulated one another by waving. We were highly satisfied with
3:02:06
Speaker 1: our performance, and flew off. It is a splendid thing
3:02:09
Speaker 1: when one can fly together with one's brother and do
3:02:12
Speaker 1: so well. In the meantime, the other fellows of the
3:02:16
Speaker 1: squadron had drawn near and were watching the spectacle of
3:02:19
Speaker 1: the fight of the two brothers. Of course, they could
3:02:22
Speaker 1: not help us, for only one man can shoot down
3:02:25
Speaker 1: an opponent. If one airman has tackle his enemy, the
3:02:28
Speaker 1: others cannot assist. They can only look on and protect
3:02:32
Speaker 1: his back, otherwise he might be attacked in the rear.
3:02:36
Speaker 1: We flew on and went on to a higher altitude,
3:02:39
Speaker 1: for there was apparently a meeting somewhere in the air
3:02:42
Speaker 1: for the members of the anti Richtoffin club. They could
3:02:45
Speaker 1: recognize us from far away in the powerful sunlight. The
3:02:49
Speaker 1: beautiful red color of our machines could be seen at
3:02:52
Speaker 1: a long distance. We closed our ranks, for we knew
3:02:56
Speaker 1: that our English friends pursued the same business as we. Unfortunately,
3:03:01
Speaker 1: they were again too high, so we had to wait
3:03:03
Speaker 1: for their attack. The celebrated triplanes and spots were perfectly
3:03:08
Speaker 1: new machines. However, the quality of a box matters. Little
3:03:13
Speaker 1: success depends upon the man who sits in it. The
3:03:16
Speaker 1: English airmen played a cautious game, but would not fight.
3:03:20
Speaker 1: We offered to fight them, either on one side of
3:03:23
Speaker 1: the front or on the other, but they said no,
3:03:25
Speaker 1: thank you. What is the good of bringing out a
3:03:28
Speaker 1: squadron against us and then turning tail. At last, one
3:03:32
Speaker 1: of the men plucked up courage and dropped down upon
3:03:35
Speaker 1: our rear machine. Naturally, battle was accepted, although our position
3:03:39
Speaker 1: was unfavorable. If you wish to do business, you must,
3:03:43
Speaker 1: after all adapt yourself to the desires of your customers.
3:03:47
Speaker 1: Therefore we all turned round. The Englishman noticed what was
3:03:52
Speaker 1: going on and got away. The battle had begun. Another
3:03:56
Speaker 1: Englishman tried a similar trick on me, and I greeted
3:03:59
Speaker 1: him at once with quick fire from my two machine guns.
3:04:03
Speaker 1: He tried to escape me by dropping down. Nat was
3:04:06
Speaker 1: fatal to him when he got beneath me. I remained
3:04:10
Speaker 1: on top of him. Everything in the air that is
3:04:12
Speaker 1: beneath me, especially if it is a one seater, a
3:04:15
Speaker 1: chaser is lost, for it cannot shoot to the rear.
3:04:19
Speaker 1: My opponent had a very good and very fast machine. However,
3:04:23
Speaker 1: he did not succeed in reaching the English lines. I
3:04:26
Speaker 1: began to fire at him when we were above lens.
3:04:29
Speaker 1: I started shooting when I was much too far away.
3:04:32
Speaker 1: That was merely a trick of mine. I did not
3:04:35
Speaker 1: mean so much to hit him as to frighten him,
3:04:38
Speaker 1: and I succeeded in catching him. He began flying curves,
3:04:42
Speaker 1: and this enabled me to draw nearer. I tried to
3:04:44
Speaker 1: say maneuver a second, and a third time. Every time
3:04:48
Speaker 1: my foolish friend started making his curves, I gradually edged
3:04:52
Speaker 1: quite close to him. I approached him almost a touching distance.
3:04:56
Speaker 1: I aimed very carefully. I waited a moment, and when
3:05:00
Speaker 1: I was at most a distance of fifty yards from him,
3:05:03
Speaker 1: I started with both the machine guns. At the same time.
3:05:06
Speaker 1: I heard a slight hissing noise, a certain sign that
3:05:09
Speaker 1: the Benzene tanks had been hit. Then I saw a
3:05:12
Speaker 1: bright flame and my lord disappeared below. This was the
3:05:16
Speaker 1: fourth victim of the day. My brother had bagged two. Apparently,
3:05:21
Speaker 1: we had invited our father to a treat. His joy
3:05:25
Speaker 1: was wonderful. I had invited several gentlemen for the evening.
3:05:30
Speaker 1: Among these was my dear Vettel, who happened to be
3:05:32
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. We had a great treat. The two
3:05:36
Speaker 1: brothers had bagged six Englishmen in a single day, that
3:05:40
Speaker 1: is a whole flying squadron. I believed the English ceased
3:05:43
Speaker 1: to feel any sympathy for us. I fly home. I
3:05:49
Speaker 1: had shot down fifty yaroplanes. That was a good number,
3:05:53
Speaker 1: but I would have preferred fifty two. So I went
3:05:56
Speaker 1: up one day and had another two, although it was
3:05:59
Speaker 1: against orders. As a matter of fact, I had been
3:06:02
Speaker 1: allowed to bag only forty one. Anyone will be able
3:06:06
Speaker 1: to guess why the number was fixed at forty one,
3:06:09
Speaker 1: just for that reason I wanted to avoid that figure.
3:06:13
Speaker 1: I am not out for breaking records. Besides, generally speaking,
3:06:17
Speaker 1: we of the Flying Corps do not think of records
3:06:20
Speaker 1: at all. We merely think of our duty. Bolka might
3:06:24
Speaker 1: have shot down one hundred aeroplanes but for his accident,
3:06:27
Speaker 1: and many others of our dear dead comrades might have
3:06:30
Speaker 1: vastly increased their bag but for their sudden depth. Still,
3:06:35
Speaker 1: it is some fun to have down half a hundred aeroplanes.
3:06:38
Speaker 1: After all, I had succeeded in obtaining permission to bring
3:06:42
Speaker 1: down fifty machines before going on leave. I hope that
3:06:46
Speaker 1: I may live to celebrate a second lot of fifty.
3:06:50
Speaker 1: In the evening of that particular day, the telephone bell
3:06:53
Speaker 1: was ringing. Headquarters wished to speak to me. It seemed
3:06:57
Speaker 1: to me the height of fund to be connected with
3:06:59
Speaker 1: the whole of holies. Over the wire, they gave me
3:07:03
Speaker 1: the cheerful news that His Majesty had expressed the wish
3:07:06
Speaker 1: to make my personal acquaintance and had fixed the date
3:07:09
Speaker 1: for me. I had to make an appearance on the
3:07:12
Speaker 1: second of May. The notification reached me on the thirtieth
3:07:16
Speaker 1: of April at nine o'clock in the evening. I should
3:07:19
Speaker 1: not have been able to fulfill the wish of our
3:07:21
Speaker 1: all highest Warlord by taking the train. I therefore thought
3:07:25
Speaker 1: I would travel by air, especially as that mode of
3:07:28
Speaker 1: locomotion is far pleasanterer. I started the next morning not
3:07:32
Speaker 1: in my single seater Le Petit Rouget, but in a big,
3:07:35
Speaker 1: fat double seed. I took a seat at the rear,
3:07:38
Speaker 1: not the styx. The man who had to do the
3:07:41
Speaker 1: flying was Lieutenant Kraft, one of the officers of my squadron.
3:07:45
Speaker 1: He was just going on furlough to recover his strength,
3:07:48
Speaker 1: so that it suited him admirably to act as my pilot.
3:07:51
Speaker 1: We reached home more quickly traveling by air, and he
3:07:55
Speaker 1: preferred the trip by aeroplane. I started on the journey
3:07:58
Speaker 1: rather hastily. The only luggage which I took with me
3:08:02
Speaker 1: was my tooth brush. Therefore, I had to dress for
3:08:05
Speaker 1: the journey in the clothes in which I was to
3:08:07
Speaker 1: appear at headquarters. Now a soldier does not carry with
3:08:11
Speaker 1: him many beautiful uniforms when he goes to war, and
3:08:15
Speaker 1: the scarcity of nice clothes is particularly great in the
3:08:18
Speaker 1: case of such a poor front hog as myself. My
3:08:22
Speaker 1: brother undertook the command of the aeroplane squadron in my absence.
3:08:26
Speaker 1: I took lead with a few words, for I hoped
3:08:28
Speaker 1: soon to recommence my work among those dear fellows. The
3:08:32
Speaker 1: flight went via Namur, liege A la Chapelle and Cologne.
3:08:37
Speaker 1: It was lovely for once to sail through the air
3:08:40
Speaker 1: without any thoughts of war. The weather was wonderful. We
3:08:44
Speaker 1: had rarely had such a perfect time. Probably the men
3:08:48
Speaker 1: at the front would be extremely busy. Soon our own
3:08:51
Speaker 1: captive balloons were lost to sight. The thunder of the
3:08:55
Speaker 1: Battle of Arras was only heard in the distance. Beneath us,
3:08:58
Speaker 1: all was peace. We saw steamers on the rivers and
3:09:02
Speaker 1: fast trains on the railways. We easily overtook everything below.
3:09:07
Speaker 1: The wind was in our favor. The earth seemed as
3:09:10
Speaker 1: flat as a threshing floor. The beautiful mountains of the
3:09:13
Speaker 1: mouse were not recognizable as mountains. One could not even
3:09:17
Speaker 1: trace them by their shadows, for the sun was right
3:09:20
Speaker 1: above us. We only knew that they were there and
3:09:23
Speaker 1: with a little imagination we could hide ourselves in the
3:09:26
Speaker 1: cool glades of that delightful country. It had become late
3:09:31
Speaker 1: clouds were gathering below. It hid us from the earth.
3:09:35
Speaker 1: We flew on, taking our directions by means of the
3:09:38
Speaker 1: sun and the compass. The vicinity of Holland was disagreeable
3:09:42
Speaker 1: to us. We decided to go lower in order to
3:09:45
Speaker 1: find out where we were. We went beneath the cloud
3:09:48
Speaker 1: and discovered that we were above Numur. We then went
3:09:51
Speaker 1: on to Eile Chappelle. We left that town to our left,
3:09:55
Speaker 1: and about midday we reached Cologne. We both were in
3:09:59
Speaker 1: high spirits. We had before us a long leave of absence.
3:10:03
Speaker 1: The weather was beautiful, we had succeeded in all our undertakings.
3:10:07
Speaker 1: We had reached Cologne. We could be certain to get
3:10:10
Speaker 1: to headquarters in time, whatever might happen. Our coming had
3:10:15
Speaker 1: been announced in Cologne by telegram. People were looking out
3:10:18
Speaker 1: for us. On the previous day the newspapers had reported
3:10:22
Speaker 1: my fifty second aerial victory. One can imagine what kind
3:10:26
Speaker 1: of a reception they had prepared for us. Having been
3:10:30
Speaker 1: flying for three hours, I had a slight headache. Therefore,
3:10:34
Speaker 1: I thought I would take forty winks. Before going to
3:10:36
Speaker 1: headquarters from Cologne, we flew along the Rhine for some distance.
3:10:41
Speaker 1: I knew the country well. I had often journeyed that
3:10:44
Speaker 1: way by steamer, by motor car, and by railway, and
3:10:48
Speaker 1: now I was traveling by aeroplane. It is difficult to
3:10:51
Speaker 1: say which of these is the most pleasant form of locomotion.
3:10:55
Speaker 1: Of course, one can see the details of the landscape
3:10:58
Speaker 1: better from the steamer. However, the commanding view one gets
3:11:02
Speaker 1: from an aeroplane has also its attractions. The Rhine is
3:11:06
Speaker 1: a very beautiful river from above, as well as from
3:11:09
Speaker 1: any other viewpoint. We flew rather low in order not
3:11:14
Speaker 1: to lose the sensation that we were traveling among mountains.
3:11:17
Speaker 1: For after all, the most beautiful part of the Rhine
3:11:20
Speaker 1: or the tree clad hills and castles. Of course, we
3:11:24
Speaker 1: could not make out individual houses. It is a pity
3:11:28
Speaker 1: that one cannot fly slowly and quickly. If it had
3:11:31
Speaker 1: been possible, I would have flown quite slowly. The beautiful
3:11:36
Speaker 1: views which we saw vanished only too quickly. Nevertheless, when
3:11:41
Speaker 1: one flies high in the air, one never has the
3:11:43
Speaker 1: sensation that one is proceeding at a fast pace. If
3:11:48
Speaker 1: you are sitting in a motor car or in a
3:11:50
Speaker 1: fast train, you have the impression of tremendous speed. On
3:11:54
Speaker 1: the other hand, you seem to be advancing slowly when
3:11:57
Speaker 1: you fly in an aeroplane at a considerable speed. You've
3:12:01
Speaker 1: noticed the celerity of your progress only when you have
3:12:04
Speaker 1: not looked out of your machine for four or five minutes,
3:12:07
Speaker 1: and then try to find out where you are. Then
3:12:10
Speaker 1: the aspect of the country appears suddenly completely changed. The
3:12:15
Speaker 1: terrain which you passed over a little while ago looks
3:12:18
Speaker 1: quite different under a different angle, and you do not
3:12:21
Speaker 1: recognize the scenery you have passed. Herein lies the reason
3:12:25
Speaker 1: that an airman can easily lose his way if he
3:12:28
Speaker 1: forgets for a moment to examine the territory. In the afternoon,
3:12:32
Speaker 1: we arrived at headquarters and were cordially received by some
3:12:36
Speaker 1: comrades with whom I was acquainted and who had worked
3:12:39
Speaker 1: at the holiest of holies. I absolutely pitied those poor inkspillers.
3:12:43
Speaker 1: They get only half the fun in war. First of all,
3:12:48
Speaker 1: I went to the general commanding the air forces. On
3:12:51
Speaker 1: the next morning came the great moment when I was
3:12:53
Speaker 1: to meet Hindenburg and Ludendorff. I had to wait for
3:12:56
Speaker 1: quite a while. I should find it difficult to describe
3:13:00
Speaker 1: my encounter with these generals. I saw Hindenburg first, and
3:13:04
Speaker 1: then Ludendorf. It is a weird feeling to be in
3:13:07
Speaker 1: the room where the fate of the world is decided.
3:13:10
Speaker 1: I was quite glad when I was again outside the
3:13:13
Speaker 1: holiest of holies, and when I had been commanded to
3:13:16
Speaker 1: lunch with his Majesty. The day was the day of
3:13:19
Speaker 1: my birth and somebody had apparently told his Majesty. He
3:13:23
Speaker 1: congratulated me in the first place on my success, and
3:13:26
Speaker 1: in the second on my twenty fifth birthday. At the
3:13:30
Speaker 1: same time he handed me a small birthday present. Formerly,
3:13:35
Speaker 1: I would never have believed it possible that on my
3:13:37
Speaker 1: twenty fifth birthday I would be sitting at the right
3:13:40
Speaker 1: of General Field Marshal von Hindenburg, and that I would
3:13:43
Speaker 1: be mentioned by him in his speech. On the day following,
3:13:47
Speaker 1: I was to take midday dinner with Her Majesty, and
3:13:50
Speaker 1: so I went to Homburg. Her Majesty also gave me
3:13:54
Speaker 1: a birthday present, and I had the great pleasure to
3:13:57
Speaker 1: show her how to start an aeroplane. I was again
3:14:01
Speaker 1: invited by General Field Marshal von Hindenburg. The day following
3:14:05
Speaker 1: I flew to Freybird to do some shooting. At Freiburg,
3:14:08
Speaker 1: I made use of the flying machine which was going
3:14:11
Speaker 1: to Berlin by air. In Nuremberg, I replenished my tanks
3:14:15
Speaker 1: with Benzene. A thunderstorm was coming on. I was in
3:14:19
Speaker 1: a great hurry to get to Berlin. Various more or
3:14:22
Speaker 1: less interesting things awaited me there, so I flew on
3:14:27
Speaker 1: the thunderstorm. Notwithstanding, I enjoyed the clouds. In the beastly weather,
3:14:32
Speaker 1: the rain fell in streams. Sometimes it hailed. Always. The
3:14:36
Speaker 1: propeller had the most extraordinary aspect. The hailstones had damaged
3:14:41
Speaker 1: it considerably. The blades looked like saws. Unfortunately, I enjoyed
3:14:46
Speaker 1: the bad weather so much that I quite forgot to
3:14:49
Speaker 1: look about me. When I remembered that one has to
3:14:52
Speaker 1: look out, it was too late. I had no longer
3:14:56
Speaker 1: any idea where I was. That was a nice position
3:14:59
Speaker 1: to I had lost my way in my own country.
3:15:03
Speaker 1: My people at home would laugh when they knew it. However,
3:15:07
Speaker 1: there it was and couldn't be helped. I had no
3:15:10
Speaker 1: idea where I was. Owing to a powerful wind. I
3:15:14
Speaker 1: had been driven out of my course and off my map.
3:15:17
Speaker 1: Guided by son and compass, I tried to get the
3:15:20
Speaker 1: direction of Berlin. Towns, villages, hills and forests were slipping
3:15:25
Speaker 1: away below me. I did not recognize a thing. I
3:15:29
Speaker 1: tried in vain to compare the picture beneath my map.
3:15:32
Speaker 1: Everything was different. I found it impossible to recognize the country.
3:15:38
Speaker 1: Later on I discovered the impossibility of finding my way,
3:15:41
Speaker 1: for I was flying about sixty miles outside my map.
3:15:46
Speaker 1: After having flown for a couple of hours, my guide
3:15:48
Speaker 1: and I resolved to land somewhere in the open. That
3:15:52
Speaker 1: is always unpleasant. One cannot tell how the surface of
3:15:56
Speaker 1: the ground is in reality. If one of the wheels
3:15:59
Speaker 1: gets into wall, whole one's box is converted into matchwood.
3:16:03
Speaker 1: We tried to read the name written upon a station,
3:16:06
Speaker 1: but of course that was impossible. It was too small,
3:16:10
Speaker 1: so we had to land. We did it with a
3:16:12
Speaker 1: heavy heart, for nothing else could be done. We looked
3:16:16
Speaker 1: for a medal, which appeared suitable from above, and tried
3:16:19
Speaker 1: our luck. Close inspection unfortunately showed that the metal was
3:16:23
Speaker 1: not as pleasant as it seemed. The fact was obviously
3:16:27
Speaker 1: proved by the slightly bent frame of our machine. We
3:16:30
Speaker 1: had made ourselves gloriously ridiculous. We had first lost our
3:16:36
Speaker 1: way and then smashed the machine, so we had to
3:16:39
Speaker 1: continue our journey with a commonplace conveyance by railway train. Slowly,
3:16:44
Speaker 1: but surely we reached Berlin. We had landed in the
3:16:48
Speaker 1: neighborhood of Leipzick. If we had not landed so stupidly,
3:16:52
Speaker 1: we would certainly have reached Berlin. But sometimes you make
3:16:56
Speaker 1: a mistake whatever you do. Some days later I arrived
3:17:00
Speaker 1: I had in Schweidnit's, my own town. Although I got
3:17:03
Speaker 1: there at seven o'clock in the morning, there was a
3:17:05
Speaker 1: large crowd at the station. I was very cordially received.
3:17:10
Speaker 1: In the afternoon, various demonstrations took place to honor me,
3:17:13
Speaker 1: among others one of the local boy scouts. It became
3:17:17
Speaker 1: clear to me that the people at home took a
3:17:19
Speaker 1: vivid interest in their fighting soldiers. After all. End of
3:17:23
Speaker 1: chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen, my brother I had not yet
3:17:30
Speaker 1: passed eight days of my leave when I received the telegram.
3:17:34
Speaker 1: Though Tarus wounded but not mortally, that was all inquerries
3:17:39
Speaker 1: showed that he had been very rash. He flew against
3:17:42
Speaker 1: the enemy together with Almond Roder beneath him, and a
3:17:45
Speaker 1: good distance on the other side of the front, he
3:17:48
Speaker 1: saw in the air a lonely Englishman crawling about. He
3:17:52
Speaker 1: was one of those hostile infantry flyers who make themselves
3:17:55
Speaker 1: particularly disagreeable to our troops. We molest them a great deal.
3:18:00
Speaker 1: Whether they really achieve anything in crawling along the ground
3:18:03
Speaker 1: is very problematical. My brother was at an altitude of
3:18:07
Speaker 1: about six thousand feet, while the Englishman was at about
3:18:11
Speaker 1: three thousand feet. He quietly approached the Englishman, prepared to plunge,
3:18:15
Speaker 1: and in a few seconds was upon him. The Englishman
3:18:19
Speaker 1: thought he would avoid a duel, and he disappeared likewise
3:18:22
Speaker 1: by a plunge. My brother, without hesitation, plunged after. He
3:18:27
Speaker 1: didn't care at all whether he was on one side
3:18:29
Speaker 1: of the front or the other. He was animated by
3:18:32
Speaker 1: a single thought, I must down that fellow. That is,
3:18:36
Speaker 1: of course the correct way of managing things now, and
3:18:40
Speaker 1: then I myself have acted that way. However, if my
3:18:44
Speaker 1: brother does not have at least one success on every flight,
3:18:47
Speaker 1: he gets tired of the whole thing. Only a little
3:18:50
Speaker 1: above the ground, my brother obtained a favorable position towards
3:18:54
Speaker 1: the english flyer and could shoot into his shop windows.
3:18:57
Speaker 1: The Englishman fell. There was nothing to be done after
3:19:02
Speaker 1: such a struggle, especially at a low altitude, in the
3:19:05
Speaker 1: course of which one has so often been twisting and
3:19:07
Speaker 1: turning and circling to the right and to the left,
3:19:10
Speaker 1: The average mortal has no longer the slightest notion of
3:19:13
Speaker 1: his position. On that day, it happened that the air
3:19:17
Speaker 1: was somewhat misty. The weather was particularly unfavorable. My brother
3:19:22
Speaker 1: quickly took his bearings and discovered only then that he
3:19:25
Speaker 1: was a long distance behind the front. He was behind
3:19:28
Speaker 1: the ridge of v Me. The top of that hill
3:19:31
Speaker 1: is about three hundred feet higher than the country around
3:19:35
Speaker 1: my brother, so the observers on the ground reported had
3:19:38
Speaker 1: disappeared behind the vimy height. It is not a particularly
3:19:42
Speaker 1: pleasant feeling to fly home over enemy country. One is
3:19:46
Speaker 1: shot at and cannot shoot back. It is true, however,
3:19:50
Speaker 1: that a hit is rare. My brother approached the line.
3:19:54
Speaker 1: At a low altitude, one can hear every shot that
3:19:56
Speaker 1: is fired, and firing sounds then very much like the
3:20:00
Speaker 1: noise made by chestnuts which are being roasted. Suddenly he
3:20:03
Speaker 1: felt that he had been hit. That was queer to him.
3:20:07
Speaker 1: My brother is one of those men who cannot see
3:20:10
Speaker 1: their own blood. If somebody else was bleeding, it would
3:20:13
Speaker 1: not impress him very greatly, But the sight of his
3:20:16
Speaker 1: own blood upsets him. He felt his blood running down
3:20:19
Speaker 1: his right leg in a warm stream. At the same
3:20:22
Speaker 1: time he noticed a pain in his hip below. The
3:20:26
Speaker 1: shooting continued. He followed that he was still over hostile ground.
3:20:31
Speaker 1: At last, the firing gradually ceased. He had crossed the front.
3:20:36
Speaker 1: Now he must be nimble, for his strength was rapidly
3:20:38
Speaker 1: ebbing away. He saw a wood, and next to the
3:20:41
Speaker 1: wood a meadow. Straight for the meadow, he flew and mechanically,
3:20:46
Speaker 1: almost unconsciously, he switched off the engine. At the same
3:20:49
Speaker 1: moment he lost consciousness. My brother was in a single cedar.
3:20:55
Speaker 1: No one could help him. It is a miracle that
3:20:57
Speaker 1: he came to the ground. For no flying machine lafe
3:21:00
Speaker 1: or starts automatically. There is a rumor that they have
3:21:03
Speaker 1: at Cologne an old taub which will start by itself
3:21:06
Speaker 1: as soon as the pilot takes the seat, which makes
3:21:09
Speaker 1: the regulation curve and lands again after exactly five minutes.
3:21:13
Speaker 1: Many men pretend to have seen that miraculous machine. I
3:21:17
Speaker 1: have not seen it, but still I am convinced that
3:21:20
Speaker 1: the tale is true. Now, my brother was not in
3:21:23
Speaker 1: such a miraculous automatic machine. Nevertheless, he had not hurt
3:21:28
Speaker 1: himself in landing. He recovered consciousness only in hospital and
3:21:32
Speaker 1: was sent to dois. It is a curious feeling to
3:21:36
Speaker 1: see one's brother fighting with an Englishman. Once I saw
3:21:39
Speaker 1: that Lotar, who was lagging behind the squadron, was being
3:21:43
Speaker 1: attacked by an English aviator, it would have been easy
3:21:46
Speaker 1: for him to avoid battle. He need only plunge, But
3:21:49
Speaker 1: he would not do that. That would not even occur
3:21:52
Speaker 1: to him. He does not know how to run away. Happily,
3:21:56
Speaker 1: I had observed what was going on and was looking
3:21:59
Speaker 1: for my chance. I noticed that the Englishman went for
3:22:02
Speaker 1: my brother and shot at him. My brother tried to
3:22:05
Speaker 1: reach the englishman's altitude, disregarding the shots. Suddenly his machine
3:22:10
Speaker 1: turned a somersault and plunged perpendicularly, turning round and round.
3:22:15
Speaker 1: It was not an intended plunge, but a regular fall.
3:22:18
Speaker 1: That is not a nice thing to look at, especially
3:22:21
Speaker 1: if the falling airman is one's own brother. Gradually, I
3:22:24
Speaker 1: had to accustom myself to that site, for it was
3:22:27
Speaker 1: one of my brother's tricks. As soon as he felt
3:22:30
Speaker 1: sure that the Englishman was as superior. He acted as
3:22:34
Speaker 1: if he had been shot. The Englishman rushed after him.
3:22:38
Speaker 1: My brother recovered his balance and in a moment had
3:22:41
Speaker 1: got above his enemy. The hostile aeroplane could not equally
3:22:45
Speaker 1: quickly get ready for what was to come. My brother
3:22:48
Speaker 1: caught it at a favorable angle, and a few seconds
3:22:50
Speaker 1: after it went down in flames. When a machine is burning,
3:22:54
Speaker 1: all is lost, for it falls to the ground burning.
3:22:58
Speaker 1: Once I was on the ground next to a benzine tank.
3:23:02
Speaker 1: It contained one hundred liters of benzene, which exploded and burnt.
3:23:06
Speaker 1: The heat was so great that I could not bear
3:23:08
Speaker 1: to be within ten yards of it. One can therefore
3:23:11
Speaker 1: imagine what it means if a tank containing a large
3:23:15
Speaker 1: quantity of this devilish liquid explodes a few engines in
3:23:18
Speaker 1: front of one, while the blast from the propeller blows
3:23:21
Speaker 1: the flame into one's face. I believe a man must
3:23:24
Speaker 1: lose consciousness at the very first moment. Sometimes miracles do happen.
3:23:30
Speaker 1: For instance, I once saw an English aeroplane falling down
3:23:34
Speaker 1: in flames. The flames burst out only at an altitude
3:23:37
Speaker 1: of fifteen hundred feet. The whole machine was burning. When
3:23:41
Speaker 1: we had flown home, we were told that one of
3:23:43
Speaker 1: the occupants of the machine had jumped from an altitude
3:23:46
Speaker 1: of one hundred and fifty feet. It was the observer.
3:23:50
Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty feet is the height of a
3:23:52
Speaker 1: good sized steeple. Supposing somebody should jump from its top
3:23:56
Speaker 1: to the ground. What would be as condition Most men
3:23:59
Speaker 1: would break their bones and jumping from a first floor
3:24:02
Speaker 1: window at any rate, This good fellow jumped from a
3:24:06
Speaker 1: burning machine at an altitude of one hundred and fifty feet,
3:24:09
Speaker 1: from a machine which had been burning for over a minute,
3:24:12
Speaker 1: and nothing happened to him except a simple fracture of
3:24:15
Speaker 1: the leg. Soon after his adventure he made a statement
3:24:18
Speaker 1: from which it appears that his nerve had not suffered.
3:24:22
Speaker 1: Another time I shot down an Englishman. The pilot had
3:24:25
Speaker 1: been fatally wounded in the head. The machine fell perpendicularly
3:24:29
Speaker 1: to earth from an altitude of nine thousand feet. Some
3:24:33
Speaker 1: time later, I came gliding down and saw on the
3:24:36
Speaker 1: ground nothing but a heap of twisted debris. To my surprise,
3:24:40
Speaker 1: I was told that the observer had only damaged his skull,
3:24:44
Speaker 1: and that his condition was not dangerous. Some people have luck. Indeed,
3:24:50
Speaker 1: once upon a time Boca shot down a new Poe machine.
3:24:54
Speaker 1: I was present. The aeroplane fell like a stone. When
3:24:58
Speaker 1: we had inspected it, we found that it had been
3:25:00
Speaker 1: driven up to the middle in the loamy soil. The
3:25:03
Speaker 1: occupant had been shot in the abdomen and had lost
3:25:06
Speaker 1: consciousness and had wrenched his arm out of its socket
3:25:09
Speaker 1: on striking the ground. He did not die of his fall.
3:25:13
Speaker 1: On the other hand, it has happened that a good
3:25:15
Speaker 1: friend of mine in landing had a slight accident. One
3:25:19
Speaker 1: of the wheels of his machine got into a rabbit hole.
3:25:22
Speaker 1: The aeroplane was traveling at no speed and quite slowly
3:25:25
Speaker 1: went on its head. It seemed to reflect whether it
3:25:28
Speaker 1: should fall to one side or to the other, turned over,
3:25:31
Speaker 1: and the poor fellow's back was broken. My brother lo
3:25:35
Speaker 1: Tar as lieutenant in the fourth Dragoons. Before the war,
3:25:39
Speaker 1: he was at the War Academy. He was made an
3:25:41
Speaker 1: officer at the outbreak, and began the war as a cavalryman,
3:25:45
Speaker 1: exactly as I did. I know nothing about his actions,
3:25:49
Speaker 1: for he never speaks of himself. However, I have been
3:25:52
Speaker 1: told the following story. In the winter of nineteen fourteen,
3:25:56
Speaker 1: Lotar's regiment was on the warp the Russians were on
3:26:00
Speaker 1: the other side of the river. Nobody knew whether they
3:26:03
Speaker 1: intended to stay there or to go back. The water
3:26:06
Speaker 1: was frozen partly along the shore, so it was difficult
3:26:10
Speaker 1: to ride through the water. There were, of course, no bridges,
3:26:13
Speaker 1: for the Russians had destroyed them, so my brother swam across,
3:26:17
Speaker 1: ascertained the position of the Russians, and swam back again.
3:26:22
Speaker 1: He did that during a severe Russian winter, when the
3:26:24
Speaker 1: thermometer was very low. After a few minutes his clothes
3:26:28
Speaker 1: were frozen solid. Yet he asserted that he had felt
3:26:31
Speaker 1: quite warm. Notwithstanding, he kept on his horse all day
3:26:35
Speaker 1: long until he got to his quarters in the evening.
3:26:38
Speaker 1: Yet he did not catch a chill. In winter nineteen fifteen,
3:26:43
Speaker 1: he followed my urgent advice and went into the flying service.
3:26:47
Speaker 1: He also became an observer and became a pilot only
3:26:50
Speaker 1: a year later. Acting as an observer is certainly not
3:26:54
Speaker 1: a bad training, particularly for a chasing airman. In March
3:26:59
Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, he passed his third examination and came at
3:27:03
Speaker 1: once to my squadron. When he arrived, he was a
3:27:06
Speaker 1: very young and innocent pilot who never thought of looping
3:27:09
Speaker 1: and such like tricks. He was quite satisfied if he
3:27:12
Speaker 1: succeeded in starting his machine and in landing successfully. A
3:27:17
Speaker 1: fortnight later, I took him with me against the enemy
3:27:19
Speaker 1: for the first time. I asked him to fly close
3:27:22
Speaker 1: behind me, in order that he might see exactly how
3:27:25
Speaker 1: the fighting was done. After the third flight with him,
3:27:29
Speaker 1: I suddenly noticed he parted company with me. He rushed
3:27:33
Speaker 1: at an Englishman and killed him. My heart leapt with
3:27:36
Speaker 1: joy when I saw it. The event proved once more
3:27:39
Speaker 1: that there is no art in shooting down an aeroplane.
3:27:42
Speaker 1: The thing is done by the personality or by the
3:27:44
Speaker 1: fighting determination of the airmen. I am not a pugo,
3:27:48
Speaker 1: and I do not wish to be a pugo. I
3:27:50
Speaker 1: am only a soldier who does his duty. Four weeks later,
3:27:55
Speaker 1: my brother had shot down a total of twenty Englishmen.
3:27:58
Speaker 1: His record as a flyer is probably unique. It has
3:28:02
Speaker 1: probably not happened in any other case that a pilot
3:28:04
Speaker 1: a fortnight after his third examination, has shot down his
3:28:08
Speaker 1: first enemy, and that he has shot down twenty during
3:28:11
Speaker 1: the first four weeks of his fighting life. My brother's
3:28:15
Speaker 1: twenty second opponent was a celebrated Captain Ball. He was
3:28:19
Speaker 1: by far the best English flyer, Major Hawker, who in
3:28:23
Speaker 1: his time was as renowned as Captain Ball. I had
3:28:25
Speaker 1: pressed to my bosom some months previously. It was a
3:28:29
Speaker 1: particular pleasure to me that it fell to my brother
3:28:32
Speaker 1: to settle England's second flying champion. Captain Ball flew a
3:28:36
Speaker 1: triplane and encountered my brother, flying by himself at the front.
3:28:41
Speaker 1: Each tried to catch the other. Neither gave his opponent
3:28:44
Speaker 1: a chance. Every encounter was a short one. They were
3:28:48
Speaker 1: constantly dashing at one another. Neither succeeded in getting behind
3:28:53
Speaker 1: the other. Suddenly both resolved to fire a few well
3:28:56
Speaker 1: aimed shots. During the few moments of the encounter, rushed
3:29:00
Speaker 1: at one another and fired. Both had before them their engine.
3:29:04
Speaker 1: The probability of a hit was very small, for their
3:29:06
Speaker 1: speed was twice as great as normally. It was improbable
3:29:10
Speaker 1: that either should succeed. My brother, who was a little lower,
3:29:13
Speaker 1: had pulled his machine around too hard, and the result
3:29:17
Speaker 1: was that it overturned. For a moment his aeroplane became unsteerable,
3:29:22
Speaker 1: but presently he recovered control and found out that his
3:29:25
Speaker 1: opponent had smashed both his benzine tanks. Therefore he had
3:29:29
Speaker 1: to stop the engine and landed quickly, otherwise his machine
3:29:33
Speaker 1: might burst into flames. His next idea was what has
3:29:37
Speaker 1: become of my opponent? At the moment when his machine
3:29:41
Speaker 1: turned in somersault, he had seen that the enemy's machine
3:29:44
Speaker 1: was rearing up in the air, and it also turned
3:29:46
Speaker 1: a somersault. He therefar could not be very far. His
3:29:50
Speaker 1: whole thought was is he above me or beneath me?
3:29:54
Speaker 1: He was not above, but he saw the triplane falling
3:29:57
Speaker 1: down in a series of sumrsaults. It fell well, fell
3:30:01
Speaker 1: fell until it came to the ground, where it was
3:30:03
Speaker 1: smashed to pieces. This happened a German territory. Both opponents
3:30:08
Speaker 1: had hit one another with their machine guns. My brother's
3:30:11
Speaker 1: machine had had both been zine tanks smashed, and at
3:30:14
Speaker 1: the same moment Captain Ball had been shot through the head.
3:30:18
Speaker 1: He carried with him some photographs and cuttings from the
3:30:20
Speaker 1: newspapers of his town, where he had been greatly faded.
3:30:24
Speaker 1: In Bolkas's time, Captain Ball destroyed thirty six German machines.
3:30:29
Speaker 1: He too had found his master. Was it by chance
3:30:33
Speaker 1: that a prominent man such as he also should die
3:30:36
Speaker 1: an ordinary soldier's death? Captain Ball was certainly the commander
3:30:41
Speaker 1: of the anti Richthoffin squadron. I believe that the Englishman
3:30:44
Speaker 1: will now give up their attempt to catch me. I
3:30:47
Speaker 1: should regret it, for in that case I should miss
3:30:50
Speaker 1: many opportunities to make myself beloved by them. Had my
3:30:54
Speaker 1: brother not been wounded on the fifth of May, he
3:30:57
Speaker 1: would probably, on my return from furlough, also have been
3:31:00
Speaker 1: given a leave of absence with fifty two hostile machines.
3:31:03
Speaker 1: To his credit, my father discriminates between a sportsman and
3:31:08
Speaker 1: a butcher. The former shoots for fun. When I have
3:31:12
Speaker 1: shot down an Englishman, my hunting passion is satisfied for
3:31:15
Speaker 1: a quarter of an hour. Therefore, I do not succeed
3:31:19
Speaker 1: in shooting two Englishmen in succession. If one of them
3:31:22
Speaker 1: comes down, I have the feeling of complete satisfaction. Only
3:31:26
Speaker 1: much much later I have overcome my instinct and have
3:31:29
Speaker 1: become a butcher. My brother is differently constituted. I had
3:31:35
Speaker 1: an opportunity of observing him when he was shooting down
3:31:38
Speaker 1: his fourth and fifth opponents. We were attacking in a squadron.
3:31:42
Speaker 1: I started to dance. I had settled my opponent very quickly.
3:31:46
Speaker 1: When I looked around, I noticed my brother rushing after
3:31:49
Speaker 1: an english machine which was bursting into flames and exploded.
3:31:53
Speaker 1: Next to it was another Englishman. My brother, though following
3:31:57
Speaker 1: number one, immediately directed his machine gun against number two.
3:32:01
Speaker 1: Although his first opponent was still in the air and
3:32:03
Speaker 1: had not yet fallen, his second victim also fell after
3:32:07
Speaker 1: a short struggle. When we met at home, he asked
3:32:10
Speaker 1: me proudly, how many have you shot down? I said,
3:32:14
Speaker 1: quite modestly one. He turned his back upon me and
3:32:17
Speaker 1: said I did two. Thereupon I sent him forward to
3:32:21
Speaker 1: make inquiries. He was to find out the names of
3:32:24
Speaker 1: his victims, et cetera. He returned late in the afternoon,
3:32:28
Speaker 1: having been able to find only a single Englishman. He
3:32:31
Speaker 1: had looked carelessly, as is usual amongst such butchers. Only
3:32:36
Speaker 1: on the following day I received the report as to
3:32:39
Speaker 1: the place where the second had come down. We all
3:32:42
Speaker 1: had seen his ball. I shoot a bison. When visiting headquarters,
3:32:47
Speaker 1: I met the Prince Vonplasse. He permitted me to shoot
3:32:51
Speaker 1: a bison on his estate. The bison has died out
3:32:55
Speaker 1: on the whole earth. There are only two spots where
3:32:58
Speaker 1: bisons may be found. These are the Plus estate and
3:33:01
Speaker 1: in the Bilois estate of the ex Tsar. The Bilois
3:33:05
Speaker 1: forest has of course suffered terribly through the war. Many
3:33:09
Speaker 1: a magnificent bison, which ought to have been shot, either
3:33:12
Speaker 1: by the Tzar or by some other monarch, has been
3:33:14
Speaker 1: eaten by German musketeers. Through the kindness of the Prince,
3:33:19
Speaker 1: I was permitted to shoot so rare an animal. In
3:33:22
Speaker 1: a few decades, none will be left. I arrived at
3:33:25
Speaker 1: Pless on the afternoon of the twenty sixth to May,
3:33:28
Speaker 1: and had to start immediately from the station if I
3:33:30
Speaker 1: wished to kill a bull. The same evening we drove
3:33:34
Speaker 1: along a celebrated road through the giant preserves of the Prince,
3:33:37
Speaker 1: which has been frequented by many crowned heads. After about
3:33:41
Speaker 1: an hour we got out and had to walk half
3:33:43
Speaker 1: an hour to come to the shooting place. The drivers
3:33:46
Speaker 1: had already been placed in position. The signal was given
3:33:49
Speaker 1: to them and they began to drive. I stood at
3:33:53
Speaker 1: an elevated spot which had been occupied, according to the
3:33:56
Speaker 1: head forester, by his Majesty, who from thence had shot
3:33:59
Speaker 1: many a bit. We waited some considerable time. Suddenly I
3:34:04
Speaker 1: saw among the timber a giant black monster rolling along.
3:34:08
Speaker 1: He came straight in my direction. I noticed that before
3:34:12
Speaker 1: the head forester had I got ready for firing, and
3:34:15
Speaker 1: must say that I felt somewhat feverish. It was a
3:34:19
Speaker 1: mighty bull. When he was at a distance of two
3:34:22
Speaker 1: hundred yards, there was still some hope for him. I
3:34:25
Speaker 1: thought it was too far for a shot. Of course,
3:34:28
Speaker 1: I could have hit the monster, because it was impossible
3:34:31
Speaker 1: to miss such a huge beast. However, it would have
3:34:34
Speaker 1: been unpleasant to search for him. Besides, it would have
3:34:37
Speaker 1: been ridiculous had I missed him, so I thought I
3:34:40
Speaker 1: would wait until he came nearer. Probably he noticed the drivers,
3:34:44
Speaker 1: for he suddenly turned and came rushing towards me, at
3:34:46
Speaker 1: a sharp angle and at a speed which seemed to
3:34:49
Speaker 1: me incredible. It was a bad position for a shot,
3:34:52
Speaker 1: and in a moment he disappeared behind a group of
3:34:55
Speaker 1: stout trees. I heard him snorting and stamping. I lost
3:34:59
Speaker 1: sight of him. I have no idea whether he smelt
3:35:02
Speaker 1: me or not. At any rate he had disappeared, I
3:35:05
Speaker 1: caught another glimpse of him at a long distance, and
3:35:08
Speaker 1: he was gone. I do not know whether it was
3:35:11
Speaker 1: the unaccustomed aspect of the animal, or whether something else
3:35:15
Speaker 1: affected me at any rate. At the moment when the
3:35:18
Speaker 1: bull came near, I had the same feeling, the same
3:35:21
Speaker 1: feverishness which seizes me when I am sitting in my
3:35:24
Speaker 1: aeroplane and noticed an Englishman at so great a distance
3:35:28
Speaker 1: that I have to fly perhaps five minutes in order
3:35:30
Speaker 1: to get near him. The only difference is that the
3:35:34
Speaker 1: Englishman defends himself. Possibly different feelings would have moved me
3:35:38
Speaker 1: had I been standing on level ground and not on
3:35:41
Speaker 1: an elevated position. Before long, a second bison came near.
3:35:46
Speaker 1: He was also a huge fellow. He made it easier
3:35:49
Speaker 1: for me to fire my shot at a distance of
3:35:52
Speaker 1: eighty yards. I fired at him, but I had missed
3:35:55
Speaker 1: my opportunity to shoot him in his shoulder. A month before,
3:35:59
Speaker 1: Hinted had told me, when talking of bison, you must
3:36:02
Speaker 1: take a lot of cartridges with you. I have spent
3:36:05
Speaker 1: on such a fellow half a dozen, for he does
3:36:08
Speaker 1: not die easily. His heart lives so deep that one
3:36:12
Speaker 1: misses it. As a rule. That was really so. Although
3:36:16
Speaker 1: I knew exactly where the bison's heart was, I had
3:36:19
Speaker 1: missed it. I fired a second shot, and a third
3:36:22
Speaker 1: hit for the third time. The bull stopped perhaps fifty
3:36:25
Speaker 1: yards from me. Five minutes later, the beast was dead.
3:36:30
Speaker 1: The shooting was finished. All three bullets had hit him
3:36:34
Speaker 1: close above the heart. We drove now past the beautiful
3:36:38
Speaker 1: hunting box of the Prince, through the forest in which
3:36:40
Speaker 1: the guests of Prince Pleaz shoot every year deer and
3:36:43
Speaker 1: other animals. Then we looked at the interior of the
3:36:46
Speaker 1: house in prominence. It is situated on a peninsula. It
3:36:50
Speaker 1: commands beautiful views, and for three miles around there is
3:36:54
Speaker 1: no human being. One has no longer the feeling that
3:36:58
Speaker 1: one is in a preserve of the ordinary kind when
3:37:00
Speaker 1: one visits the estate of Prince Plaz, For the preserve
3:37:04
Speaker 1: extends to a million acres. It contains glorious stags which
3:37:08
Speaker 1: have never been seen by man. No forester knows them.
3:37:12
Speaker 1: Occasionally they are shot. One can tramp about for weeks
3:37:16
Speaker 1: without seeing a bison. During certain times of the year
3:37:19
Speaker 1: it is impossible to find one. They like quietude, and
3:37:23
Speaker 1: they can hide themselves into gigantic forest entangled woods. We
3:37:27
Speaker 1: saw many beautiful deer. After about two hours we arrived
3:37:32
Speaker 1: at Plaz just before it became dark. Infantry flyers are
3:37:37
Speaker 1: chillry flyers and reconnoitering machines. Had I not become a
3:37:41
Speaker 1: professional chaser. I should have turned an infantry flyer. After all,
3:37:46
Speaker 1: it must be a very satisfactory feeling to be able
3:37:49
Speaker 1: to aid those troops whose work is hardest. The infantry
3:37:53
Speaker 1: flyer can do a great deal to assist a man
3:37:55
Speaker 1: on foot. For that reason, his is a very grateful task.
3:38:01
Speaker 1: In the course of the Battle of Arras, I observed
3:38:03
Speaker 1: many of these splendid fellows. They flew in any weather
3:38:07
Speaker 1: and at any time, at low altitude over the enemy,
3:38:10
Speaker 1: and tried to act as connecting links with our hard
3:38:12
Speaker 1: pressed troops. I can understand that one can fight with
3:38:16
Speaker 1: enthusiasm when one is given such a task. I dare
3:38:20
Speaker 1: say many an airman has shouted Hurrah when after an
3:38:23
Speaker 1: assault he saw the hostile masses stream back, or when
3:38:27
Speaker 1: our smart infantry leap from the trenches and fought the
3:38:30
Speaker 1: aggressor's eye to eye. Many a time after a chasing expedition,
3:38:35
Speaker 1: I have fired my remaining cartridges into the enemy trenches.
3:38:39
Speaker 1: Although I may have done little practical good, such firing
3:38:43
Speaker 1: affects the enemy's morale. I have also been an artillery flyer.
3:38:49
Speaker 1: In my time. It was a novelty to regulate the
3:38:51
Speaker 1: firing of one's own artillery by wireless telegraphy. To do
3:38:56
Speaker 1: this well, an airman requires special talent not do the
3:39:00
Speaker 1: work for long. I prefer fighting. Very likely. Artillery officers
3:39:05
Speaker 1: make the best artillery flyers. At least they have the
3:39:09
Speaker 1: necessary knowledge of the arm which they serve. I have
3:39:12
Speaker 1: done a lot of reconnoitering by airplane, particularly in Russia
3:39:15
Speaker 1: during the War of Movement. Then I acted once more
3:39:19
Speaker 1: as a cavalryman. The only difference was that I wrote
3:39:22
Speaker 1: a pegasus made of steel. My days spent with friend
3:39:25
Speaker 1: Hulk among the Russians were among the finest in my life.
3:39:30
Speaker 1: In the Western theater, the eye of the reconnaissance flyer
3:39:33
Speaker 1: sees things which are very different from those to which
3:39:35
Speaker 1: the cavalryman gets accustomed. Villages in towns, railways and roads
3:39:40
Speaker 1: seem lifeless and dead. Yet there is a colossal traffic
3:39:44
Speaker 1: going on all the time, but it is hidden from
3:39:47
Speaker 1: the flying men with great skill. Only a wonderfully trained, practiced,
3:39:51
Speaker 1: and observant eye can see anything definite when one is
3:39:54
Speaker 1: traveling at a great height and at a terrific speed.
3:39:58
Speaker 1: I have excellent eyes, but it seems doubtful to me
3:40:01
Speaker 1: whether there is any one who can see anything definite
3:40:04
Speaker 1: when he looks down upon a road from an altitude
3:40:07
Speaker 1: of fifteen thousand feet. As the eye is an imperfect
3:40:11
Speaker 1: object for observation, one replaces it by the photographic apparatus.
3:40:16
Speaker 1: Everything that seems important to one must be photographed. Besides,
3:40:20
Speaker 1: one must photograph those things which one is told the photograph.
3:40:24
Speaker 1: If one comes home, and if the plates have gone wrong,
3:40:27
Speaker 1: the whole flight has been for nothing. It often happens
3:40:31
Speaker 1: to flying men who do reconnoitering that they get involved
3:40:34
Speaker 1: in a fight. However, their task is more important than fighting. Frequently,
3:40:39
Speaker 1: a photographic plate is more valuable than the shooting down
3:40:42
Speaker 1: of a squadron. Hence, the flying photographer should, as a rule,
3:40:46
Speaker 1: not take a hand in fighting. Nowadays, it is a
3:40:50
Speaker 1: difficult task to reconnoiter efficiently in the West the German
3:40:55
Speaker 1: flying machines. In the course of the war, the German
3:40:59
Speaker 1: flying machine have experienced great changes. That is probably generally known.
3:41:05
Speaker 1: There is a colossal difference between a giant plane and
3:41:08
Speaker 1: a chaser plane. The chaser plane is small, fast, quiket turning.
3:41:13
Speaker 1: It carries nothing apart from the pilot except machine guns
3:41:16
Speaker 1: and cartridges. The giant plane is a colossus. Its only
3:41:20
Speaker 1: duty is to carry as much weight as possible, and
3:41:23
Speaker 1: it is able to do this owing to the large
3:41:26
Speaker 1: surface of its planes. It is worthwhile to look at
3:41:29
Speaker 1: the gigantic English plane which landed smoothly on the German
3:41:32
Speaker 1: side of the front. The giant plane can carry an
3:41:36
Speaker 1: unbelievable weight. It will easily fly away, dragging from three
3:41:40
Speaker 1: to five tons. Its benzene tanks look as large as
3:41:43
Speaker 1: railroad cars. In going about in such a colossus, one
3:41:47
Speaker 1: has no longer the sensation that one is flying, one
3:41:51
Speaker 1: is driving it. Going about in a giant plane, the
3:41:55
Speaker 1: direction depends no longer on one's instinct, but on the
3:41:58
Speaker 1: technical instruments which one carries. A giant plane has a
3:42:02
Speaker 1: huge number of horse powers. I do not know exactly
3:42:06
Speaker 1: how many, but they are many thousand. The greater the
3:42:09
Speaker 1: horsepower is, the better. It seems not impossible that the
3:42:13
Speaker 1: day may come when a whole division will be transported
3:42:16
Speaker 1: in such a thing. In its body one can go
3:42:19
Speaker 1: for a walk. In one of its quarters, there is
3:42:22
Speaker 1: an indescribable something. It contains an apparatus for wireless telephony,
3:42:27
Speaker 1: by means of which one can converse with the people
3:42:29
Speaker 1: down below in another corner, or hang the most attractive
3:42:33
Speaker 1: liver sausages, which one can imagine they are the famous
3:42:37
Speaker 1: bombs which cause such a fright to the good people
3:42:39
Speaker 1: down below. At every corner is a gun. The whole
3:42:43
Speaker 1: thing is a flying fortress. And these planes, with their
3:42:46
Speaker 1: stays and supports, look like arcades. I have never been
3:42:50
Speaker 1: able to feel enthusiasm for these giant barges. I find
3:42:54
Speaker 1: them horrible unsportslike, boring and clumsy. I rather like a
3:42:58
Speaker 1: machine of the type of lipetite rouget. If one is
3:43:03
Speaker 1: in a small chaser plane, it is quite immaterial whether
3:43:06
Speaker 1: one flies on one's back, whether one flies up or down,
3:43:10
Speaker 1: stands on one's heads, et cetera. One can play any
3:43:13
Speaker 1: tricks one likes. For in such a machine one can
3:43:16
Speaker 1: fly like a bird. The only difference is that one
3:43:19
Speaker 1: does not fly with wings, as does the bird albatross.
3:43:23
Speaker 1: The thing is, after all, merely a flying engine. I
3:43:27
Speaker 1: think things will come to this, that we should be
3:43:29
Speaker 1: able to buy a flying suit for half a crown.
3:43:32
Speaker 1: One gets into it. On the other end, there is
3:43:35
Speaker 1: a little engine and a little propeller. You stick your
3:43:38
Speaker 1: arms into planes, and your legs into the tail. Then
3:43:41
Speaker 1: you will do a few leaves in order to start,
3:43:43
Speaker 1: and a way you will go up into the air
3:43:46
Speaker 1: like a bird. My dear reader, I hear you laughing
3:43:50
Speaker 1: at my story, but we do not know yet whether
3:43:53
Speaker 1: our children will laugh at it. Everyone would have laughed
3:43:56
Speaker 1: fifty years ago if somebody had spoken about flying above Berlin.
3:44:01
Speaker 1: I remember the sensation which was caused when in nineteen
3:44:04
Speaker 1: ten Zeppelin came for the first time to Berlin. Now
3:44:09
Speaker 1: no Berlin street man looks up into the air when
3:44:12
Speaker 1: an airship is coming along. Besides giant planes and little
3:44:16
Speaker 1: chaser planes, there are innumerable other types of flying machines,
3:44:20
Speaker 1: and they are of all sizes. Indentiveness has not yet
3:44:24
Speaker 1: come to an end. Who can tell what machine we
3:44:28
Speaker 1: shall employ a year hence, in order to perforate the atmosphere.
3:44:33
Speaker 1: This is the end of the Red battle Flyer by
3:44:35
Speaker 1: Manfred Fryhair from Rick Coffin