Iron Man by Peter Kilduff

Author:Peter Kilduff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
ISBN: 9781909808805
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
Published: 2012-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

Berthold’s Albatros D.III (left) in his new blue and red colour scheme with his flying sword insignia. The third aircraft from left, with the white arrow marking, was flown by his protégé, Ltn.d.Res Josef Veltjens. (Greg VanWyngarden)

At about 10:00 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday, 19 September, Oblt Rudolf Berthold attacked an R.E.8 on a photo reconnaissance flight east of Ypres and sent the two-seater down over German-held Becelaere. He was credited with his twentieth aerial victory.92 Only one R.E.8 – B.3427 of 4 Squadron, RFC93 – went down in that area; the crewmen were nineteen-year-old 2/Lt John Syers Walthew, whose body was not recovered, and Lt Michael Charles Hartnett, age twenty-one, who was buried near Jasta 18’s airfield at Harlebeke,94 a few kilometres north of Courtrai.

Even though he was, at last, flying and fighting in the active combat environment he seemed to crave, Berthold remained dissatisfied. He wrote in his diary:

‘As it was a year earlier, during the Somme offensive, once again we had to go into battle [in Flanders] with an inferior fighter aeroplane. The British and French continually improved theirs. They had already brought to the frontlines the third improved versions of their aircraft, however, our pilots are far better.’95

When the author visited Paul Strähle in May 1967, the former Jasta 18 pilot noted that his staffel leader was often given to wide-ranging mood swings. Strähle related:

“Berthold would fly into a towering rage over some small point and then, in an instant, be overjoyed with everything. Later, we learned that medical personnel were providing him with a narcotic for the pains he continued to suffer from his crash over a year earlier and the leg wound he received after that. At the time, such drug use was accepted, as we did not realise the effects of addiction caused by them.”

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