on the railroad station. Luckily they hit
nothing. After they had all dropped their bombs (there were now ten of
them) they turned to go home. I was now about at their altitude, so I
started for them. One of the biplanes saw me--it seems they go along
to protect the others--and he attacked me from above. Since it is very
hard to fire at an opponent who is above you, I let him have a few
shots and turned away. That was all the Frenchman wanted, so he
turned back. I again attacked the squadron and soon succeeded in
getting in range of the lowest of them. I did not fire till I was
within a hundred meters, to avoid attracting unnecessary attention. My
opponent was frightened and tried to escape. I was right behind him
all the while, and kept filling him with well-aimed shots. My only
worry was the others, who heard the shots and came to their comrade's
rescue. I had to hurry. I noticed I was having some success, because
the Frenchman started to glide to earth. Finally, both of us had
dropped from 2,500 meters to 1,200. I kept firing at him from behind,
as well as I could. In the meantime, however, two of his friends had
arrived and sent me several friendly greetings. That isn't very
comfortable, and to add to it all, I was without a map above a strange
territory and did not know where I was any longer. As my opponent kept
flying lower and his companions followed, I had to assume I was behind
the enemy's line. Therefore, I ceased my attack and soon, owing to my
speed and lack of desire to follow on the part of the French, I left
them far behind. Now I had to find my way back. I flew north, and
after a time got back to the district around M., which was familiar to
me from my days at the officers' school. When I got back I only knew
what I have told, and could report only a battle and not a victory.
By aid of a map I found I had been over P. a M. In the afternoon the
report came that the infantry on the heights of ---- had seen a
biplane "flutter" to earth. The artillery positively reported that the
biplane I had fired on had fallen behind the enemy's barbed-wire
entanglements. They said the pilot had been dragged to the trenches,
dead or severely wounded. Then our artillery had fired at the 'plane
and destroyed it. I can only explain the thing this way: I wounded the
pilot during the fight; he had tried to glide to earth and land behind
his own lines; shortly before landing he lost consciousness or control
of his machine; then