WAR

—
in may 1915 Fliegerersatzabteilung Nr. 7 at Cologne ran a class of about 30
officers through the standard four-week observers course. The rudiments of navigation
and the greasy aspects of aviation, such as the internal combustion engine,
were touched upon. Lectures on observation and photography were given,
as well
as map-reading, and the course included a few hours of actual flight time.
At neither the head nor the foot of the class was Manfred von Richthofen
who, on completing the course, was posted to Fl. Abt. 69 on the Russian Front.
As an observer von Richthofen flew almost daily over the traditional scorched
earth of a Russian retreat. His pilot was a well-known pre-war automobile
enthusiast and sportsman named Count von Hoick. The Count, a former Uhlan
like von Richthofen, had strolled onto the aerodrome on foot with his hunting
dogs, looking less like a Prussian officer than a happy-go-lucky blue-blooded
playboy, which he was.
By the familiar mystery of the attraction of opposites, which they were except
for their youth and high birth,
von Hoick and von Richthofen soon teamed up as
pilot and observer.
In August 1915 they were transferred to Ostend, in Belgium, where a
squadron was formed under the name of the Ostend Carrier Pigeons
Brieftauben
Abteilung Ostend. The B.A.O. was a "secret weapon"—a bombing squadron conceived
and organized with the ultimate object of strategic raids on Britain. The
plan did not pan out, however, and after a short period of duty in Ostend, von
Richthofen was transferred from B.A.O. to B.A.M.—the Metz Carrier Pigeons.
On the train to Metz, von Richthofen met Boelcke, who at that time had scored
four victories, and introduced himself as an admirer and one who very seriously
wanted to fight in the air. The unprepossessing Boelcke listened quietly to von
Richthofen's expressions of growing dissatisfaction with the clumsy brutes he was
riding around in, and explained to him how he had gotten his four victories by
simply flying close, aiming well, and shooting. At Metz, von Richthofen continued
to ride in big, lumbering barges while his friend von Hoick switched to an
Eindecker, and Boelcke and Immelmann continued to gain victories.
For the second time von Richthofen, the impetuous cavalryman, decided
to step out of the war for a brief spell of training in the hope that this would
enable him to come to closer grips with the enemy. He applied, and was accepted,
for pilot training at Doberitz; he soloed on Christmas Day, 1915.
In March 1916 he rejoined B.A.M., now labelled K.G.2 (Kampfgeschwader
2, or Battle Group 2), at Verdun as pilot of an Albatros C III. Attached to the
top wing of the Albatros was a machine gun on a rigid mount. Although it is
officially unconfirmed, it is said that he managed to shoot down a French aeroplane
with this machine on April 26.
On May first, while flying in the vicinity of Fort Douaumont, von Richthofen
saw a fight between a Fokker Eindecker and three French two-seaters. The action
was some distance off and up-wind from his position so he was unable to join
the fight but he saw its end. The Eindecker suddenly dived straight down and
disappeared in cloud. The pilot, von Richthofen later learned, had been killed
Albatros C 111
outright by a bullet through the head. It
Count von Hoick.
was his old friend from the Russian Front,
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