To your surprise, you no doubt have read of my twentieth victory. You
probably did not expect I would be doing much flying while arranging
my new division.
A few days ago two new Fokkers arrived for me, and yesterday I made my
first flight. At the front, the enemy was very active. They have grown
quite rash. While I was enjoying a peaceful sail behind our lines, one
came to attack me. I paid no attention to him (he was higher than I).
A little later I saw bombs bursting near P. Here I found a B.-E.
biplane, and with him three Vickers' one-man machines, evidently a
scout with its protectors. I attacked the B.-E., but in the midst of
my work the other three disturbed me so I had to run. One of them
thought he could get me in spite of this, and followed me. A little
apart from the rest, I offered battle, and soon I had him. I did not
let him go; he had no more ammunition left. In descending, he swayed
heavily from side to side. As he said later, this was involuntary; I
had crippled his machine. He came down northeast of Th. The aviator
jumped out of his burning machine and beat about with hands and
feet, for he was also afire. I went home to get fresh supplies of
cartridges and start anew, for more Englishmen were coming. But I had
no success. Yesterday I got the Englishman, whom I had captured, from
the prisoners' camp and took him to the Casino for coffee. I showed
him our aviation field and learned a lot of interesting things from
him. My field is slowly nearing completion and I am exceedingly busy.