Infantry, artillery and reconnaissance pilots

    Event ID: 214

    Categories: 

    General Event
    Deutsch
    Der rote Kampfflieger von Rittmeister Manfred Freiherrn von Richthofen, 1917, 351.000 - 400.000, Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin-Wien

    27 May 1917

    Date?
    50.84890767354939, 16.476310886960174
    Władysława Sikorskiego 19, 58-105 Świdnica, Polen
    Swidnica
    Schweidnitz

    Source ID: 4

    Der rote Kampfflieger von Rittmeister Manfred Freiherrn von Richthofen, 1917, 351.000 - 400.000, Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin-Wien p.  180 

    “If I hadn’t become a fighter pilot, I think I would have chosen infantry flying. It is a great satisfaction to be able to provide direct assistance to our hardest-fighting troops. The infantry pilot is in a position to do this. He has a rewarding task. During the Battle of Arras I was able to observe many of these capable people flying at low altitude over the enemy in all weathers and at all times of the day, seeking contact with our hard-fighting troops. I can understand how you can get excited about it, I think many a man shouted hurrah when he saw the enemy masses flooding back after an attack and our dashing infantry emerged from the trenches and fought the enemy flooding back eye to eye. Many a time I have fired the rest of my cartridges into the enemy trenches after a chase. Even if it doesn’t help much, it still makes a moral impression. I was also an artillery pilot myself. In my day it was something new to direct the firing of one’s own artillery [181] with radio telegraphy. But it required a very special talent. I was not suited to it in the long run. I prefer combat. To fly artillery you have to be a gunner yourself to have the necessary understanding. I also did reconnaissance flying, in Russia during the war of movement. I was a cavalryman once again, i.e. I felt like one when I set off with my steel Pegasus. Those days with Holck over the Russians are among my favourite memories. But the image of the movement doesn’t seem to be coming back. In the west, the reconnaissance pilot sees something completely different from what the cavalryman’s eye is used to. The villages and towns, the railways and roads look so dead and quiet, and yet there is a tremendous amount of traffic on them, which is hidden from the aviator with great skill. Only a very, very practised eye is able to observe anything in particular from the speeding heights. I have good eyes, but it seems doubtful to me whether there is anyone at all who can recognise something precise from a height of five thousand metres on a highway. So you have to rely on something else to replace the eye – the photographic apparatus. So you photograph everything that you think is important and that [182]you should photograph. If you come home and the plates have crashed, the whole flight has been in vain. The reconnaissance pilot is often involved in a fight, but he has more important things to do than deal with the fight. Often a disc is more important than shooting down a whole apparatus, so in most cases he is not called upon to fight in the air. It’s a difficult task these days to carry out good reconnaissance in the West.”

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