Air Stories — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

AFTER THE white triplane of exceptional perform- ance. The day after Richthofen had fallen, he scored his eighteenth victory, but he was not long to survive his famous leader, On May 2nd, while flying at the head of his new command, he encountered a flight of Sopwith Camels, and as the other triplanes of his flight could not climb as fast as the British ‘planes, only Weiss, with his hotted-up engine, managed to reach the Camels and to engage them. Hope- lessly outnumbered, he put up a gallant show, but within a few minutes he was plunging earthwards, shot through the head. And before that disastrous day ended another pilot from Staffel 11, the veteran Serg-Scholz, crashed his tri- plane on the boundary of Cappy aero- drome and was instantly killed. Those early days of May were none too happy ones for Staffel 11 which, at one time, had only one pilot fit to fly. As a unit, however, the Circus was highly successful, and in a hot dogfight over Cherisy, on May roth, they shot down seven out of a formation of eight Camels. Soon afterwards, they encoun- tered a formation of D.H.9 day-bombers returning from a raid and sent three of them down in flames. The Richthofen Squadron never liked Cappy, however, and after their leader’s death it was considered by some pilots to be unlucky. It was therefore with considerable relief that orders were re- ceived in mid-May for a move to Laon, where a new offensive was planned. A few days before they left, however, the Circus had to mourn yet another of their pilots, this time the ever-smiling Joachim Wolff, who had crashed to his death over Lamotte with two Vickers bullets through his heart. Wolff had been one of Richthofen’s greatest friends, with the honour of protecting his tail in dogfights, and was one of the most popular men in the Circus. Fighting the French T Laon, the Squadron were opposed to French airmen, and they did not find them quite such doughty opponents as the British pilots whom they had been RED BARON up against at Cappy. Nevertheless, ignorance of the new country over which they were now flying resulted in the loss of several of their pilots. One of the most unfortunate cases occurred during the last days of May when a pilot of Staffel 10 had forced-landed on an old French aerodrome, slightly damaging his undercarriage. Reinhard, hearing of his plight, sent another squadron- member to collect him in one of the Circus’s two-seaters, but although the pilot was given exact directions, and was told that there were six abandoned French machines behind a hangar, he landed on an aerodrome that was still occupied by the French—and was quickly informed of his mistake. Meanwhile, Udet and Loewenhardt, who now wore the Pour le Merité and led Staffel 11, were running a neck-and- neck race for the position of leading ‘face,’’ and when on June 5th thirteen French ’planes fell to the Squadron, both Udet and Loewenhardt could claim their twenty-seventh victories. Such a ‘‘killing,’? however, was unusual, for the Circus had been doing such damage that its pilots were finding it increasingly difficult to get a fight unless they hunted in twos and threes and attacked forma- tions greater than their own. As the summer wore on, the offensive died down, and Reinhard went off to attend the Test Meeting in Berlin. This meeting had been inaugurated by Rich- thofen, who considered that front-line pilots should themselves test the new types of ’planes they would later have to fly. The High Command had agreed, as they did with most of Richthofen’s suggestions, and thereafter all new designs were approved by active-service pilots before being ordered in quantity. Unfor- tunately, Reinhard picked a _ faulty machine on which to carry out his test, and when it broke up in mid-air, the Richthofen Circus was once more leaderless. It was several days before a successor to Reinhard could be found and, to the great surprise of the Squadron, an out- sider was chosen to take over the com- mand. This was Oberleutnant Géering 157 comiclooolk (©