MvR writes his mother

“…Manfred hasn’t let us hear from him for a long time. Whenever the postman comes, you’re already at the window. There is fierce fighting on the Somme. In the air too; Boelcke’s star outshines everything. What a wonderful man he must be, and – Lanfred is at his side! 22 September 1916 A detailed letter from Manfred. Jagdstaffel II, 18 September 1916 “Dear Mum! You must have wondered why I haven’t written to you yet. But this is the first time I’ve sat at my desk and picked up a pen. Up to now I’ve been busy all the time. Lately I’ve been flying a temporary machine, which I couldn’t do much with and usually lost out in aerial combat. Yesterday, at last, the box intended for me arrived and, just think, as it flies in I see an English squadron on our side. – Fly there – and shoot one down. The occupants were an English officer and a non-commissioned officer. I was very proud of my flying in. Of course I was credited with the one I shot down. Boelcke is a mystery to everyone, he shoots one down almost every time he flies. I was in the air myself on his twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh and took part in the battle. The battle on the Somme is not what it seems to you at home. The enemy has been attacking with enormous superiority, especially in artillery, every day for four weeks. Always with fresh troops. Our people are doing brilliantly. In the next few days we will probably be allowed to move our airport a little further back. The whole thing has the look of a war of movement. You probably know that my friend Schweinichen has fallen. I was just going to visit him, as he was very close to me. He was killed the same day.” Hans von Schweinichen had been Manfred’s best friend from the cadet corps. They had gone through the classes in Wahlstatt and Lichterfelde side by side. At the blessing, they knelt together in front of the altar, and we parents also sat together at this ceremony. Manfred was given the beautiful saying: ‘It is God who works in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.’ Even in Lichterfelde, the two remained inseparable. Their Sunday holidays in Berlin were usually spent together. They stroll through the museums, lunchtime has long since passed, when Schweinichen says: ‘We want to eat now, I’m terribly hungry.’ – Manfred disagrees: ‘I have to see everything first.’ Hans grumbles a little and trots along again. After another hour he says again: ‘You, now I can’t stand it any longer, my stomach is growling terribly.’ Manfred replies: ‘Well, go and eat – but I want to stay here.’ They part amicably and only meet again at the ticket counter for the train to Lichterfelde. Then the two of them travel back to the asylum, very happy and content. There is no discord in this friendship, it would last forever…”