Testimonial of Carl August von Schoenebeck
Event ID: 53
03 September 1917
Source ID: 1
Testimonial of Carl August von Schoenebeck: In June 1917, when I was 19 years old, I was ordered to join Jasta 11. Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen was leader of this Jagdstaffel, which even then was considered one of the best in our air force. Every one of us knew this Jagdstaffel and we admired Richthofen. A certain apprehension took hold of me: ‘With my 19 years, how would I face the best fighter pilot?’. So I reported to my new commander, who wanted to test my qualities as a pilot on the same day. The fighter plane, which was still new to me, was immediately in my hand, so I could show what I had learned so far. I was proud of my performance, but Richthofen told me: ‘That proves nothing, you have to be able to make turns, nothing but turns, by gaining altitude and getting the most out of the plane, among other things’. Moreover, he believed he could not yet take me to the front in the first eight to 10 days. I was disappointed, and when, on top of that, I achieved rather mediocre results in the target practice, uncertainty came over me.DOch my self-confidence soon returned, even after the first flights I was allowed to make with the Jagdstaffel at the front. Richthofen himself took charge of training his men. We had to shoot using discs; each man was given 50 cartridges for his two machine guns; the attackers averaged 50-60 hits, the best managed 80. When von Richthofen returned, however, he always had over 90 hits in the disc. In our front flights, he looked after us like a hen looks after her chicks. All attackers had to fly in his immediate vicinity, the older ones flew more in the rear, and higher up…So it once happened that it was only at the meeting, held after each front flight, that I learned that von Richthofen had again shot down 2 opposing fighters, so much were they preoccupied with themselves…After each front flight, von Richthofen made us aware of our mistakes. Thus we were astonished to notice that despite his own life-and-death battles he never lost sight of us for a moment. This understandably gave the Jagdstaffel a great sense of security, because they knew they could rely on the commander rock-solid. Even though the situation was so bad, he saw through it and got us out…A hit from behind was the only real failure known to von Richthofen. After every air battle, he inspected every aircraft and woe betide us if he detected such a hit, because it would give a hefty reprimand. Our fear of such a reprimand was so great that we often had our bullet holes plugged at ‘another’ airfield. Richthofen discovered these hits anyway, because he had observed the situation from the air. If one then emerged from such a dogfight, the familiar excuse was: the propeller is no good or the dust covering of the aircraft is too old; invariably the claim would sound: the engine is not running normally. Richthofen knew all these excuses, discussed them with the mechanics and told them the following: ‘If a pilot comes back from a front flight and claims that the engine is not fine and therefore received a hit from behind, you guys quietly hear this nonsense. You then place the aircraft in the tent for 3 days and when you hand it back you say that a new engine was fitted.We were naturally proud and pleased to get our aircraft back in new condition after three days and thought it was fine! How we had a wry pleasure later, when we learned how the commander had tricked us…Off duty, Richthofen was the most brilliant comrade one could wish for. There were hardly any disagreements, he was generous and went through all our antics. When it came to baking polish he was always happy to be there, after all, we were all so young. He was equally comradely with the English pilots, who had made it out alive and ended up in captivity. ‘The fight was over, why should we continue?’, he mused. Before being deported to Germany, they were able to move around completely freely and ate with us in our mess. Richthofen asked them on their word of honour that they would not attempt an escape. An English officer once refused that word of honour and Richthofen said, ‘Very well, I will not lock you up anyway, only guard you strictly; however, if you flee, you may be shot by the guards at once’. The man did not flee!…On a certain day, another such group of delegates had arrived at our place…In that cosy mood, Richthofen suddenly says: ‘Actually, we should demonstrate a real bombardment for those gentlemen from the homeland, so that they would really get to know the mood at the front. ..Everything is ready, a whistle blows from Richthofen: the motorbikes begin to turn, the radishes explode in the air lighting everything brightly, the machine guns crackle…Carefully they come out and want to walk to the bunker. Another whistle blows from von Richthofen and our water bomb empties over the heads of our visitors…A few hours later, the phone rings: Richthofen is called to Ghent for a scolding! When he returns a little depressed later, he tells us that the Supreme Commander had scolded very much, but it occurred to him that he too had to laugh about our successful attack.
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