Air Stories — page 62: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AIR STORIES The weather remained throughout December, 1917, and the Circus took the air but rarely. Altogether, the month was destined to be a bad one for them, for only five victories were confirmed, while two of their pilots failed to return from patrol. In fact, their only stroke of luck was when Leutnants Mohnicke and Boddin col- lided in mid-air—and got away with it. Mohnicke crashed, but escaped injury, while Boddin, with great skill, managed to bring his damaged triplane safely back to the aerodrome. Bad flying conditions persisted throughout January of 1918, and although Reinhard and Loewenhardt scored victories in the early days of the month, three more names had been entered on the roll of the missing. But for once, one of these losses had a happy sequel. On January 13th Leut- nant Stapenhorst had set out to attack the balloon lines at Cambrai, and when he failed to return after some ground officers had seen his ’plane go into a dive just before reaching the enemy balloons, he was reported ‘‘ missing, believed killed.’?’ A month later, how- ever, the Circus heard from the Red Cross Society that a certain Leutnant Stapenhorst had been shot down by an Allied ’plane as he tried to bring down a balloon at Cambrai on January 13th, and that this airman had been captured and was a prisoner in England. A few weeks later the news was confirmed by a card which the Circus received from Stapenhorst, one of the very few members of the Richthofen Circus to find his way into English captivity. In March, the Squadron moved for- ward and took over the old British aerodrome at Lechelle. Bodenschatz, the Squadron adjutant, was very disap- pointed to find the buildings half destroyed and the earth reeking of the petrol which had been poured into the ground before the British pilots evacuated the aerodrome. The ground was also pitted with shell-holes, but the Squadron’s staff worked all night and, within two days, the Circus was again ready for action. 66 dud 99 Richthofen’s Last Wish ICHTHOFEN was in great good humour at this time, for during the previous three days he had added four more victims to his list, the total of which now stood at 70. It was still further increased a few days later when, on March 27th, the Squadron took part in a large-scale dogfight at a height of a thousand feet above the lines. When the day closed, the wreckage of thirteen British ’planes lay scattered over a wide area—and the Circus had not lost a single pilot. Flying with Richthofen that day was Leutnant Udet, newly-drafted to the Circus, and after he had seen the Red Knight add two more victories to his score, he came down on the tail of an R.E.8 and sent it crashing to destruction as his twenty-second victory. That evening, the whole Squadron gathered in the mess, and Richthofen read a telegram of congratulation to them which had been sent by the Chief of the Air Service. Early in April, the weather changed again and, Lechelle aerodrome proving unsuitable, the Circus once more got on the move and took over the flying- ground at Cappy. On April 2oth, Manfred von Rich- thofen sent down Major Barker and Lieutenant Lewis in flaming Camels, but his own fate was almost upon him. The very next day, at about 11.30 in the morning, he was seen to land in the British lines, and the career of Ger- many’s greatest ace was ended. Rich- thofen left a note which ran simply : ** Should I not return, Oberleutnant Reinhard is to take over the Squadron.’’ The High Command respected his last wish and the walking-stick which Richthofen had always carried when in command of the Squadron, and which had come to be known as the ‘‘ squadron stick,’’ was duly handed over to Reinhard. Reinhard’s own staffel was taken over by Janzen, while Staffel 11 also received a new leader in place of Lothar von Richthofen, who had been wounded in March. His successor was Leutnant Weiss, a gifted pilot who flew an all- 156 cormniclooolk (©