1914-18 German Air Ace

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 3, 29 December 1939, Page 7

1914-18 German Air Ace

REPORTED FALLEN INTO DISGRACE. Major-General Ernst Udet, who is reported to have been dismissed from the German Air Force because of the technically unsatisfactory performance of its . ’planes, is one man who has been seen by many New Zealanders. Udet is probably the leading German ace surviving from the World War, and who was credited with shooting down 60 Allied machines in the last war and still in service, and before the expansion of the new air force under the Goering Plan, he was widely known as a stunt aviator. Because of his fame he was engaged to do the flying in the spectacular film, “White Hell of Pitz Palu,” which was screened throughout the country fairly soon after the advent of the talkies, and in the cast of that movie was another German who reached fame and now is reported to have fallen into disgrace—Len. Riefenstahl, the friend of Hitler. Later Udet was seen on the screen again, this time in “SOS Iceberg.” He is declared to have been the original member of the Caterpillar Club, having been ordered to wear a parachute, and bailing out after the struts of one of the wings of his ’plane were shot away by the gunner of a Bristol Fighter whom he had thought dead. Once, while flying a Fokker D-VII, he is said to have rammed a camel and escaped from the crash with slight injuries. In 1918 he commanded the Richtofen Squadron, and he won the highest award of Imperial Germany, Pour le Merite, for his gallantry. He was credited with 62 victories in the World War, and gained a reputation for sportsmanship. He was the first man to land an aeroplane on the frozen lake at St. Moritz, and the first to take off from an alpine glacier. An Australian squadron leader who visited him in Germany several years ago reported that Udet appeared to be a wealthy man, had a luxurious flat in Berlin, and included in it a miniature rifle

range, where he liked to demonstrate his skill. The walls of his flat were decorated with trophies from the World War, including pieces of some of the machines that he brought down in combat.