In the Battle of Champagne

‘Once I flew with Osteroth, who had a slightly smaller aeroplane than the Äppelkahn (the large fighter plane). We met up with a Farman two-seater about five kilometres behind the front line. He let us approach calmly, and it was the first time I had seen an enemy up close in the air. Osteroth flew very skilfully alongside him so that I was able to take him under fire. The enemy probably hadn't even noticed us, because I already had my first jam when he started firing again. After I had fired my cartridge box of a hundred rounds, I couldn't believe my eyes as suddenly the enemy went down in strange spirals. I followed him with my eyes and patted Osteroth on the head. He fell, he fell, and indeed he fell into a large blasting funnel; you could see him standing [64]upside down in it, tail up. I noticed on the map that he was five kilometres behind the current front line. So we had shot him down on the other side. In those days, however, shots beyond the front line were not counted, otherwise I would have one more on my list today. But I was very proud of my success, and by the way, the main thing is when the guy is down, not that he's counted as a kill.’