Early August 10th the weather was very poor so that our officer
'phoned in to the city, saying there was no need of my coming out. So
I was glad to stay in bed. Suddenly my boy woke me up, saying an
English flyer had just passed. I hopped out of bed and ran to the
window. But the Englishman was headed for his own lines, so there
wasn't any chance of my catching him. I crawled back to bed, angry at
being disturbed. I had hardly gotten comfortably warm, when my boy
came in again--the Englishman was coming back. Well, I thought if this
fellow has so much nerve, I had better get dressed. Unwashed, in my
nightshirt, without leggings, hardly half dressed, I rode out to the
camp on my motorcycle. I got there in time to see the fellows (not
one, but four!) dropping bombs on the aviation field. As I was, I got
into my machine and went up after them. But as the English had very
speedy machines and headed for home after dropping their bombs, I did
not get within range of them. Very sad, I turned back and could not
believe my eyes, for there were five more of the enemy paying us a
visit. Straight for the first one I headed. I got him at a good angle,
and peppered him well, but just when I thought the end was near my
machine gun jammed. I was furious. I tried to repair the damage in the
air, but in my rage only succeeded in breaking the jammed cartridge in
half. There was nothing left to do but land and change the cartridges;
while doing this I saw our other monoplanes arrive and was glad that
they, at least, would give the Englishmen a good fight. While having
the damage repaired, I saw Lieutenant Immelmann make a pretty attack
on an Englishman, who tried to fly away. I quickly went up to support
Immelmann, but the enemy was gone by the time I got there. In the
meantime, Immelmann had forced his opponent to land. He had wounded
him, shattering his left arm--Immelmann had had good luck. Two days
before I had flown with him in a Fokker; that is, I did the piloting
and he was only learning. The day before was the first time he had
made a flight alone, and was able to land only after a lot of trouble.
He had never taken part in a battle with the enemy, but in spite of
that, he had handled himself very well.