WAR MEMORIES

Hokitika Guardian, 21 November 1933, Page 2

WAR MEMORIES

FIGHTS IN THE AIR

GOERING AND ADVERSARIES

BERLIN, November 7

General Goering, Premier of Prussa ,has .writtten a preface to. a book which is to appear shortly, and in which some of the principal survivors among the flying aces who fought during the Great War, either on the German or Allied side, recount their ex* pei'iencoij." :

In th<j course of tlie preface, General Goering* ‘ who says he became a flier by accident 'of circumstances, states that the vefy nature of the inan-to-man fights fii; the air made those who took part in'tjiem feel some sort of admiration for 1 the kinship with their courageous opponents.

‘‘We Attacked each other because it was war, and therefore had to be, but these stubborn and desperate encounters were by no means dictated by hatred or the desire to kill and annihilate,” continues General Goering, “Though undertaken partly with ambition for' sporting honours, they were above-all, a matter of instinctive selfpreservation. If at the end of the fight the defeated man was fortunate enough to escape alive, his opponent visited him in-hospital, endeavouring to cheer him on the way to internment by friendly talk and any helpful thing he could do.

“I once. had a long and interesting conversation with a-, competent.-British squad-flier , whom I, had.; faced, but a few hours before jin a: desperate lifeand- death struggle.

“This,'officer, Mr Slee, had previously brought down five German aeroplanes,- and I and my machine had all our work cut out to escape the same fate. My opponent was a most skilful aviator and very plucky. “Again and again he had compelled me to fly in fantastic curves and spirals in order to get out of the range of liis well-aimed machine-gun fire..

“I was completely exhausted, and discovered to my dismay that. I was running short of ammunition, when I finally succeeded by a last “desperate attack, in bitting his engine at very close quarters. Thereby the fight was decided in my favour, as the wind had driven us far behind the German lines.

“His glide down to earth was rather a fall than a flight, and ended in a crash. It was almost a miracle that my plucky adversary came out of it unhurt, and I was really glad when I heard of his good luck.”