WAR

When Becker reported to Jasta 12 the squadron was stationed at
Epinoy, on
the road between Cambrai and Douai, where the opposition was mostly the
dashing British pilots of the RFC. In his first days as a fighter pilot at the Front,
Becker learned the lessons that were to bring him later success.
One day in May 1917 Becker was alone over the Front, trying to find a
familiar landmark by which he might orient himself. He was alone because he
had become separated from the rest of the patrol, a common experience for new
men (even veterans of another branch of the air service). Absorbed in scanning
the earth below, and accustomed to having an observer guard his tail, he left
himself wide open to an enemy pilot who came up behind him and put a burst
into his machine. The British pilot must have been close, for Becker heard the
crackling and felt the blow at the same time. The blow, on his right side, caused
him involuntarily to fall against the stick which was driven forward, and the
Albatros dived into a violent half-loop which took it out of the attacker's field of
fire. Becker was upside down in an instant and when he recovered control and
righted his ship the enemy aeroplane was nowhere in sight.
Keeping a sharp watch out, Becker found his way home and landed smoothly
at Epinoy. He found that he had suffered a trifling graze on the ribs and that
only one bullet had hit him. It had passed between his arm and his body, putting
holes in the sleeves of his flying togs and the uniform jacket underneath. It
couldn't have been closer. But for that shove his career as a fighter pilot would
have come to an untimely end. Rule number one was evolved forthwith:
show your back to the enemy.
NEVER
For Becker, the rest of the rules were soon educed, albeit without such
drastic lessons. Attack is the best defense, speedy, surprise attack. Always close
to within 20 or even 10 metres of your opponent
(regardless of whether he fires
or not). These were the rules by which he fought—and lived. When he commanded
his own squadron he continually exhorted his men to follow them.
"Target-sure," he would say,
"so close that every burst becomes target-sure.
That this may happen to one's own self must not deter one. Whoever has the
stronger nerves is the victor."
Manfred von Richthofen expressed the conquering of fear thus: "One must
overcome the inner Schweinehund." John Kirbach, a veteran of the German Army
in the First World War and of the American Army in World War II, was asked
how "overcoming the inner Schweinehund" might be translated. "The best American
equivalent is possibly 'to overcome turning yellow,' " he answered. "The
German word means anything from coward to turncoat to being just a mangy
dog good enough only to keep company with swine."
So much for the inner Schweinehund. Did this really work Can it be said
that success required only that one have the guts to bore into point-blank range
to fire It worked for Hermann Becker: "I achieved my 24 victories only by
adhering strictly to these rules, and was never in serious trouble."
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