WAR

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grudziadz is a town on the Vistula in the old Polish province of Pomorze. It
was founded by the Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth century, came under the
rule of Poland in 1466 by the Peace of Thorn, and was seized by Prussia in 1772
at the first partition of Poland. It was called Graudenz in German. In 1807 the
city and fortress of Graudenz, under the command of General von Courbiere,
was the only Prussian stronghold that would not capitulate to Napoleon.
Throughout the nineteenth century a fortress
each of seven fortress
Festung—was developed
towns ringing Germany: Strasbourg, Metz, and Cologne in
the Rhineland, Posen in the east, and Konigsberg, Lotzen, and Graudenz in
the north to secure the enclave of East Prussia. When aeroplanes made their
appearance in the first years of the twentieth century, they were grudgingly accepted
by the Imperial Staff and the establishment for the fortresses was expanded
to include a permanent complement of four two-seaters for each Festung. These
"fortress squadrons" were called Festungsfliegerabteilungen, or Fortress Flying
Sections.
Graudenz received its first four aeroplanes in due course, with an enlisted
man as pilot for each one and four regular army officers to act as observers.
Gradually the flying facilities there were expanded until Graudenz became a
major air station for the Fliegertruppen, or Flying Troops, the collective name for
Hellmuth von Zastrow German air personnel.
By the spring of 1915 the Fliegertruppen had grown enough to require the
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establishment of eleven flight training schools. These were called Fliegerersatzabteilungen,
or Flying Replacement Sections. Taking the initials of the three words
in that impressive compound, Fliegerersatzabteilung, a standard abbreviation
F.E.A.—was obtained. F.E.A. 2 was created at Graudenz.
On December 15, 1914, Hellmuth von Zastrow was sent to Graudenz as a
pilot with the Festungsfliegerabteilung while his father, General Ernst von
Zastrow, was in command of the fortress itself. Hellmuth was born in Berlin on
November 15, 1890, was raised there and entered the Berlin Realgymnasium in
1910. On September 1, 1914, he entered Flieger-Bataillon Nr. 1 at Berlin-Doberitz
and won his pilot's certificate on October 23. From there he went to Graudenz.
On January 19, 1915, Hellmuth made his first flight over the enemy lines on
_ the Eastern Front during the battles at Prasnysz-Ciechanow and Narew. In
I February 1915 he was commissioned a Leutnant and awarded the Iron Cross
I Second Class in recognition of his arduous flying.
There was a bit of folklore about Hellmuth in the Fliegertruppen to the effect
I that he should have been awarded the Iron Cross for having almost wrecked an
" aeroplane during training. An altimeter had been installed in his aeroplane by a
representative of the manufacturer, and great were the claims made for this
marvel of aeronautical instrument technology. Hellmuth, more than a little
skeptical, took off to test the new altimeter. "Just keep your eye on that instrument,"
he had been told. He did as he was bidden and at the end of his flight,
brought his ship in to a harsh landing, bounced hard, and rolled to a stop. The
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