. I did not
let him go; he had no more ammunition left. In descending, he swayed
heavily from side to side. As he said later, this was involuntary; I
had crippled his machine. He came down northeast of Th. The aviator
jumped out of his burning machine and beat about with hands and
feet, for he was also afire. I went home to get fresh supplies of
cartridges and start anew, for more Englishmen were coming. But I had
no success. Yesterday I got the Englishman, whom I had captured, from
the prisoners' camp and took him to the Casino for coffee. I showed
him our aviation field and learned a lot of interesting things from
him. My field is slowly nearing completion and I am exceedingly busy.

SEPTEMBER 17, 1916

In the meantime, I have made my total twenty-five.

Number 21 I tackled single-handed. The fight with this Vickers biplane
did not take very long. I attacked him at an angle from behind (the
best; to get him from directly behind is not so good, since the motor
acts as a protection). In vain he tried to get out of this poor
position; I did not give him the chance. I came so close to him that
my machine was smutted by the ensuing explosion of his 'plane. He
fell, twisting like a boomerang. The observer fell out of the machine
before it struck.

Number 22 was quite bold; with his companions, he was sailing over our
front, attacking our machines. This was too bad for him as well as one
of his friends, who was shot down by two Rumplers. Number 22 fell in
exactly the same way as 21 fell the day before, only he landed within
his own lines.

Number 23 was a hard one. I had headed off the squadron he was with
and picked the second one. He started to get away. The third attacked
Lieutenant R., and was soon engaged by Lieutenants B. and R., but,
nevertheless, escaped within his own lines. My opponent pretended to
fall after the first shots. I knew this trick, and followed him
closely. He really was trying to escape to his own lines. He did not
succeed. At M. he fell. His wings broke off and the machine broke into
pieces. As he lies so far behind our front I did not get a chance to
inspect the wreck. Once, however, I flew over it at a very low
altitude.

After a short while I saw several Englishmen circling over P. When I
got nearer, they wanted to attack me. As I was lower, I paid no
attention to them, but turned away. As they saw I would not fight, one
of them attacked another German machine. I