A GRUESOME INCIDENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1674, 13 February 1917, Page 4

A GRUESOME INCIDENT.

AEROPLANE FLEW ON WITH

DEAD PILOT

Replete with dramatic incidents and interesting features are the reports just published of Captain Boelke, the famous German aviator, who brought down 40 hostile airoplanes during his service with the army, which ended with his death, on October 29th last. As summarised, these reports from the held include the following: —

In the majority of the air engagements the distance between the combatants usually was about one hundred metres (328 feet), but often only from 39 to 40 metres. On November 2, 1915, Boelke made bold to approach a French aviator as close as three metres.

“He tired,” says Boelke’s report, “but it didn’t help him, for 1 was much quicker. I tired five hundred shots, keeping up the fire until he began to fall. I had approached up to a distance of three metres, and still he hadn’t begun to come down. At the moment when a collision seemed inevitable 1 turned my machine rapidly on its left side. The enemy turned his upside down on the right hand. I did not, see him anv more.”

On March 4th, 1919, Boelke report ed: — “Again I approached the enemy, who had already been violently fired upon. Then I saw something most peculiar. The observer had climbed upon the left wing of the machine, and was clinging to the supports. He looked at me as if quite terrified and waved his hand. I had shot away a piece of the helm, and the machine had pitched downward. In order again to get it in balance the observer had seated himself on the wing.” CONTINUED TO ELY.

Boelke reported a gruesome incident as occurring on one of the last of his raids, on Ooctober Bth of last yea r. “1 wondered at the stubbornness of the enemy,” wrote the aviator, “considering that he must have been finished a long time ago; but he continued to circle in the same fashion. Reason told me the man must be dead, and that the machine was being maintained in its right position only by the rubber bands at (he helm. Therefore 1 approached closely and saw the occupant of the machine leaning toward the right side, dead. The aeroplane bore the number 7,495. The horrible picture left me unshaken. I let the man alone and attacked the next one:”

An example of chivalry reported in Boelke’s book is to the effect that after having encountered an adversary Boelke made several “rounds of honour” over the place where his enemy bad fallen. A “round of honours” among aviators is a mark of courtesy to a fallen brave enemy. Boelke himself decorated the place where the .enemy aviator had been buried with military honours with a bunch of (lowers.

A British flier, who was shot down by Boelke, was taken to a German hospital, and there called on by the German aviator. Boelke took him English books and photographs of his machine. Boelke adds; —“He was very glad about it and knew my name well.” One of Boelke's most remarkable qualities was his respect for an enemy, and he repeatedly used phrases like Ihe following: —“A British aviator really flew home til a height of one hundred metres above our trenches. He was a smart chap. That is not likely to be done by another.”