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28 October, 1917 Harlebeke
Jasta 18

We were on a balloon defence mission near Menen. While circling above the gasbag, 3 Nieuport 27s showed up high up and commenced their attack. All we could do, to avoid being pounced from behind, was to face them head on. We scattered like a flock of seagulls when a dog runs up to them. Despite my best attempts to lose them, I picked up two, while the third one was lost somewhere in the clouds. I don’t know where it’d gone to. My hands were full with these two behind me to worry about that third one. All I could do was to spiral down before getting shredded to pieces. The ground was coming at me fast and the creaks in the wings of my machine were getting more ominous, the maneuvers more desperate. Everything became darker. We were now under the cloud layer. Then, one of the attackers broke off his pursuit. It was Dingel, who finally got on his tail and started to chew it away. The burning wreck of the Nieuport went by. My wingman was also following us and gaining on my remaining pursuer. Then it happened, a sick sound of wood and metal crashing into each other. Everything happened in an instant, yet looked like it was happening in slow motion, with me able to only catch parts of the terrible show happening behind me as the mid-air wreck came into view and disappeared again behind me, as my machine was just coming out of the spiralling dive. I watched in terror as the two crates, fused together in some places and dismembered in others, came crashing down on my port side. The poor lad was pulled alive from the wreckage and lived through the night. His funeral will be tomorrow.
I looked around to get my bearings. We were now over the front, North of Menen. My men were forming up, when out of nowhere the third Nieuport came screaming down past us intent on reaching the lines first. We gave chase taking potshots all the way. Finally, the hits were making an impact and the enemy scout slowed down and with a final volley I was able to shot him down west of Passchendaele. Both Runge and Strähle witnessed the kill and were able to confirm. We landed shortly thereafter at the closest airfield. Everyone was drained of strength, but happy to have vanquished our foe.