On the 5th of January I pursued two Englishmen, overtook them at
H.-L. and attacked the first one. The other did not seem to see me;
at any rate he kept right on. The fight was comparatively short. I
attacked, he defended himself; I hit and he didn't. He had dropped
considerably in the meantime, and finally started to sway and landed.
I stayed close behind him, so he could not escape. Close to H. he
landed; his machine broke apart, the pilot jumped out and collapsed. I
quickly landed and found the 'plane already surrounded by people from
the nearby village. The Englishmen, whom I interviewed, were both
wounded. The pilot, who was only slightly wounded, could talk German;
the observer was severely wounded. The former was very sad at his
capture; I had hit his controls and shot them to pieces. Yesterday I
visited the observer at the hospital; the pilot had been taken away in
the meantime. I brought the observer English books and photographs of
his machine. He was very pleased. He said he knew my name well.
On the afternoon of the 5th, I made another flight, but everything was
quiet. I landed and rode to the city to eat with the rest, because it
was getting cloudy again. Just imagine my luck! I was hardly in when a
squadron of ten 'planes appeared. I hurried back again and arrived
just as they were dropping their bombs on our field. All the helpers
were in the bomb-proofs. I howled as if I were being burned alive.
At last someone came. I had to take an 80-horsepower machine,
because Immelmann, who had remained behind, had already taken my
160-horsepower machine. But with the 80-horsepower machine I could not
reach the enemy in time. Then I saw one somewhat separated from the
rest. One Fokker had already attacked it, and I went to help him, for
I saw I could not overtake the rest. When the Englishman saw both of
us on top of him, he judged things were too hot for him, and quickly
landed at V., both of us close behind him. The Englishman was alone,
still had all his bombs, was unwounded and had only landed through
fear.
[Illustration: DONNING HIS FLYING-DRESS]
[Illustration: AN AVIATOR BOMBARDED WITH SHRAPNEL]