AERIAL COMBAT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 10

AERIAL COMBAT

MEMORIES OF THE WAR

STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY

A GERMAN VIEWPOINT

When people ask mo liow I came ti, join the Air Force I can only saj' that I became an airman almost, by accident, writes Hermann yon Goering, the Prime Minister of Prussia, in an over- | seas journal. After the Battle of BacI carat-1 was laid up in hospital, when a friend of mine, an officer named Loorzer, who had almost completed Ms course of training as an army aviator, called on me suggesting I should join him at the front as his observer. This suggestion was so tempting that I asked to lie allowed to leave hospital immediately* and, failing to "obtain my commander's permission and approval, simply went away with Loerzer. From the point of view of military discipline this was a serious offence, prompted by the careless enthusiasm of youth, but aa I was still very young and had "deserted" to go to the front, the matter was leniently dealt with. Having been severely censured and cautioned, I was eventually permitted to stay with my old friend. Our task consisted primarily of making photographic surveys of the fortifications of Verdun. It was during that time that I came to • understand and appreciate the strenuous occupation of a scouting observation-flyer and his tactical importance. These flights should not involve spectacular fighting and defeat; it was merely steady work and the accomplishment of a task that has often proved to be of immense importance for the troops fighting in the trenches. Tor that reason every possible means had to be used for the protection of the observation flyer, and this also accounts for the appearance of the first high-speed machines for pursuing observation-flyers on the front as early as the autumn of 1915. AIR DUELS. At first these were two-seater aeroplanes. Beside the observer, the pilot carried a machine-gun firing forward through the propeller. After a while a very light, adaptable and fast-rising type of single-seater was constructed. This- had two machine-guns fitted in a fixed position so that the pilot could only fire ahead, having no means of protection at the rear. As a result there came about a new style of air fighting requiring besides very great technical skill nerves of steel and the determination to, succeed. It was almost impossible to withdraw from an engagement, since the only means of attack was from the rear. Not for a second could the pilot fly straight ahead, or his opponent, being behind him, would almost inevitably make an end of him. With few exceptions there were just the two alternatives of victory or anuihilation. Victory could only come after a wild air duel in weird spirals and curves, the combatants rising and falling without ever yielding; never did the pilot dare to expose the vulnerable side of his machine. His job was to try by every means to get behind the other aeroplane in order to direct towards it from the shortest possible distance the fatal fire of his two ma-chine-guns. All of us, comrades and enemies alike, knew the advantages and disadvantages of the single-seater fighting aeroplanes. The very nature of these man-to-man fights in the air made us feel some sort of admiration for, and kinship with, a courageous opponent. We attacked each other because it was war, and therefore had to be, but these stubborn and desperate encounters were by no means dictated by hatred or the desire to kill and annihilate; though undertaken partly with ambition for sporting honours, they were, above all, a matter of self-preservation. If at the end of the fight the defeated man was fortunate enough to escape alive., his opponent visited him in hospital, endeavouring to cheer him on the way to internment by friendly talk and any helpful thing we could do. DESPERATE COMBAT. I once had .-a long and interesting conversation witli a competent British squad-flyer whom I had faced but a few hours before in a desperate, life-and-dcath struggle. This officer, Mr. Sloe, had previously brought down five German aeroplanes, and I and my aeroplane had all our work cut out to escape the same fate. My opponent was a moat skilful aviator and very plucky. Again and again he compelled me to fly in fantastic curves and spirals in older to get out.of the range of his well-aimed machine-gun fire, I was completely exhausted and discovered to my dismay that I was running short of ammunition, when I finally succeeded by a last desperate attack in hitting his engine at very close quarters. Thereby the fight was decided in my favour as the wind had driven us far behind the German lines. His glide own to earth was rather a fall than a flight, and ended in a crash. It was almost a miracle that my plucky adversary came out of it unhurt, and I was really glad when I heard of his good luck. Naturally, the feeling of comradeship between us airmen was particularly strong within the flying-squad. Whenever one of us was transferred to another unit, we felt pretty bad about it. Still it was all the more delightful to come upon some old acquaintance accidentally. Stories and experiences were then mutually exchanged, and we were happy to talk about old times. But in these reminiscences the name of many a comrade was mentioned that had been carved weeks and months before on the roughly-hewn wood of a plain cross. So that even the merry hours spent in the company of old comrades-in-arms had their sad and sinister background, and the firm grip of a comrade's hand at the moment of parting had its peculiarly deep significance. DEATH IN EVERY CLOUD. We had, it is true, in comparison with the troops at the front and the men in the trenches, many privileges. We were at least in a position .to keep our persons clean, and had as a rule very decent billets. From the camp of our squad to the ;front was quite a long way, but this distance had to be covered daily more frequently as the enemy's numeric superiority increased. And along all this way menacing perils were always lurking. Prom the start to the landing one had to be carefully on the watch. Wo had no leisure time to enjoy the beauty of the landscape during the flight, as wo had to strain our eyes to find the landmarks on the ground, and were, as well, always on the look-out for potential adversaries in the air. From behind every single cloud one of the enemy's squads might possibly cross our route, and if the sun were shining that made matters worse, as the enemy's attack from the area of radiant light took us entirely bysurprise in any case. So there were ever and anon days on which one faithful comrade or another did not Teturn, and naturally enough our losses of young and inadequately experienced pilots were particularly heavy. In most cases these young officers came straight from the training school as fighting pilots, and in addition to a most praiseworthy longing for action they brought all the perilous carelessness of youth to the field. Nearly all these combatant pilotu were young, and as a rule only young men could be employed in such a capacity, only a fresh and vigorous

organism being fit to stand the immense physical strain of aerial combat. The fighting pilot must be ablo to stand tho effect of rising thousands of metres in a few minutes without losing his physical and moral vigour in any