division. As all the
authorities helped me quickly and well, I was ready to move on June
30th. Imagine my bad luck: just on this very day I was destined to
make my exit from the stage. It was like this:

Near Verdun there was not much to do in the air. Scouting had been
almost dropped. One day, when there was a little more to do than
usual, I had gone up twice in the morning and was loafing around on
the field. I suddenly heard machine-gun firing in the air and saw a
Nieuport attacking one of our biplanes. The German landed and told me,
all out of breath:

"The devil is loose on the front. Six Americans are up. I could
plainly see the American flag on the fuselage. They were quite bold;
came all the way across the front."

I didn't imagine things were quite so bad, and decided to go up and
give the Americans a welcome. They were probably expecting it;
politeness demanded it. I really met them above the Meuse. They were
flying back and forth quite gaily, close together. I flew toward them,
and greeted the first one with my machine gun. He seemed to be quite a
beginner; at any rate, I had no trouble in getting to within 100
meters of him, and had him well under fire. As he was up in the clouds
and flew in a straight course, I was justified in expecting to bring
him to earth soon. But luck was not with me. I had just gotten my
machine back from the factory, and after firing a few shots my gun
jammed. In vain I tried to remedy the trouble. While still bothering
with my gun the other "five Americans" were on me. As I could not
fire, I preferred to retreat, and the whole swarm were after me. I
tried to speed up my departure by tilting my machine to the left and
letting it drop. A few hundred meters, and I righted it. But they
still followed. I repeated the manoeuver and flew home, little
pleased but unharmed. I only saw that the Americans were again flying
where I had found them.[A] This angered me and I immediately got into
my second machine and went off again. I was hardly 1,500 meters high
when with a loud crash my motor broke apart, and I had to land in a
meadow at C.

[Footnote A: The result of this was that the English wireless news
service asserted the next day: "Yesterday Adjutant Ribiere succeeded
in bringing down the famous Captain Boelcke in an air battle at
Verdun." In the meantime I have relieved him of this misapprehension.]

We made another pretty flight this day. The district around B. and
west of Verdu