Far and wide along the trenches the word was spread. Firing stopped
as though a flag of truce had been hoisted. Germans and English left
covers and sought positions of vantage from which to watch the battle
royal. At the appointed time both flyers rose promptly and made their
way over “No Man’s Land.”
“Cheering arose,” relates an eye-witness.
“There were wild cheers for Ball. The Germans yelled just as vigorously
for Immelman.
“The cheers from the trenches continued; the Germans’ increased in
volume; ours changed into cries of alarm.”
Immelman was known to have a method of attack peculiar to himself.
Instead of approaching his adversary from the side, he maneuvered to
get squarely behind him. His study was to hold the nose of his machine
almost on the tail of the aircraft he was pursuing. This gave him,
Abbot points out, what used to be called in the Navy a raking position,
for his shots would rake the whole body of the enemy airplane from
tail to nose with a fair chance of hitting either the fuel tank, the
engine, or the pilot. Failing to secure the position he coveted, this
daring German would surrender it with apparent unconcern to the enemy,
who usually fell into a trap. For just as the foeman’s machine came up
to the tail of Immelman’s craft the latter would suddenly turn his nose
straight to earth, drop like a stone, execute a backward loop and come
up behind his surprised adversary, who thus found the tables suddenly
turned....”
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._