Lieutenant Fletcher, survived with a bullet in his leg. “As I flew
on to Behain at three hundred feet,” he reported that night, “a
second enemy single-seater swooped down, pursued by an Al-
batros. The Englishman briefly attacked me and shot out my
rudder... I could not see what happened then as I had my
hands full flying my plane without a rudder.”
These dry reports give something of the flavor of air com-
bat in those days.
On May he had been given command of Fighter
Squadron, operating from the same field as Loerzer at Iseghem
near Ypres. As the grim and bloody battles of Arras and Flanders
dragged on, the rivalry between pilots was intense:
, : Attacked a Nieuport that engaged me
from above. I gave chase. In a protracted duel he kept
recovering and attacking me. Finally I forced him
down at Moorstedt, where he flipped over and caught
fire. The dogfight had been watched by the entire
Fighter Squadron either from the ground or from the
air, so... there can be no question of any other plane
claiming this one... Five hundred rounds expended.By the end of World War Hermann Göring was one of
Germany’s top-scoring fighter aces.