The Price of Glory
 Oswald
Boelcke's life found its tragic end on a dull day in October of 1916. Dull
again is the weather today here in Central Europe, exactly 82 years after he
died. It is unfriendly and cold outside and it is raining a lot. A stormy
wind is howling, chasing the heavy rain clouds deep over the country. The
trees are beaten by the strong wind, that crops the brown leaves from them -
the moisture is creeping into ones clothing like a cold ghost. On such an
unfriendly day, Oswald Boelcke - the master of all fighter pilots - left
this world forever. He died after breaking the left wing of his fighter
aircraft in a midair collision with his squadron mate and friend ERWIN
BÖHME.
The following story is based
on the statements given by those people who knew Oswald Boelcke in
person.
"More and more he turned serious
and lean", his loyal aide-de-camp Fischer reported. "The
superhuman burden of flying up to seven sorties a day plus the sorrows
about his squadron was pressing him hard. The commander of our Army,
General von Below, wanted to send him on leave from the front due to the
fact that he was completely overworked, but this wasn't possible."
"I am needed here",
Boelcke said.
Whenever he returned from a victory of the
squadron he was happy, but in the past days he was often down in the
dumps.
As he returned from a sortie only a few
days before his death, he said to me: "Fischer! Today I had an
opponent who matched me. There will be heavy fights in the next days - but
a bullet won't hit me."
This weren't high spirits nor
was it superstition leading him to this statement. It was only his strong
will to prevail. And no bullet hit him, after all.
The next day he returned from
the Casino soon and went to his room:
"It's too loud there", he
said.
He sat down at the fireplace, staring
into the flames. Then he told me:
"Fischer, play the
gramophone record of "Vater, Mutter, Schwestern, Brüder, hab' ich in der Welt
nicht mehr" (father, mother, sisters, brothers I
don't have in the world no more)."
Then Leutnant Böhme came
in: "Herr Hauptmann, may I keep you company?
It is too loud at the Casino."
They sat a long time talking at
the flickering fire until I said: "Herr Hauptmann, it is time to go
to bed now ."
On the other morning the weather
was very bad - it was raining and snowing. It wasn't even 7 o'clock as the
message came in: AIRCRAFT ABOVE US. Only ten minutes later he was already up
in the air. One hour later he got back with a chin blackened from the
gunpowder gas of his own machineguns:
"I showed them that I'm
still there", he said.
I had just brought him his
breakfast as he had to start again. Like this, it went on the whole time
long - four times he had to start on this morning. After lunch, we wanted to
drive to Douai in a car - but again six enemy aircraft had been spotted and
the Hauptmann had to start once again. The squadron wasn't back for long and
I just wanted to bring the chocolate to my Hauptmann as there was a call
from the front after 04.30 pm. They asked for help.
I had just brought him his
breakfast as he had to start again. Like this, it went on the whole time long - four times
he had to start on this morning. After lunch, we wanted to drive to Douai in a car - but
again six enemy aircraft had been spotted and the Hauptmann had to start once again. The squadron
wasn't back for long and I just wanted to bring the chocolate to my Hauptmann as there was
a call from the front after 04.30 pm. They asked for help.
Because everybody felt so
exhausted we wanted to keep the Hauptmann back from flying, but he jumped
into his machine: "Ready? GO!". He started despite the bad
weather, and the squadron followed him, as if they wanted to say: "There
where you go, there we'll be too".
Fifteen minutes later we saw our Hauptmann
in battle. This went on for ten minutes, then we saw the enemy going down.
But suddenly: A German... and yet another German.......what happened that
they were spinning? Down they came...
Fifteen minutes later, Leutnant Böhme came
and asked me: "Where is your Hauptmann?".
I looked at him with big eyes. "Come", he said, "he
crashed - dead."
"That's not true," I said.
"I don't believe that! HE didn't believe it either!"
But it WAS true! As I saw Leutnant Böhme;
saw his face and his machine how it was - then I had to believe it
too.
Erwin Böhme wrote in his letter from
October 31, 1916:
"On Saturday afternoon
we sat in our airfield barracks on standby. I'd just started a chess game
with Boelcke as we were called out to help in an infantry attack on the
front, shortly after 04.30. Boelcke lead us, as usual. We soon came to
attack several British airplanes over Flers - fast single seaters who
defended themselves brilliantly. In the following wild fight, which allowed
us only brief shots, we attempted to press the enemy down by alternating the
cutting-the-way-off-tactics that we often used successfully before. Boelcke
and me just had an Englishman between us as another enemy, who had been
chased by friend Richthofen, cut in our way. At the following quick evading
maneuvers, Boelcke and I couldn't see each other for a brief moment because
our view had been obstructed by the wings of our aircraft. In this moment it
happened.
How shall I explain you my emotions as Boelcke suddenly appeared only a few
meters from me on my right side - as he pressed his machine down while I
pulled up mine, how we then touched each other and how he had to go down
then to earth? It was only a slight touch, but at such high speed this means
already a violent concussion. Fate is often so cruel in its choice. I only
lost half of my landing gear, he lost the outer part of his left wing.
After falling down a few hundred meters, I recovered from the spin and was
able to follow the machine of Boelcke. I saw it gliding down slowly to our
lines, hanging slightly to one side. Only in a lower layer of clouds, his
machine went down steeper due to strong wind blows and I had to watch how he
was unable to level it out before landing, crashing close to an artillery
position.
From the artillery position, people
immediately hurried to the rescue. My attempts to land close to the friend
came to nothing because of the many shell craters. So I flew back to our
airfield. That I flipped over on landing they told me only the other day.
I didn't notice it myself. I was very confused but still I hoped. But as
we arrived in a car, they brought us already the dead body. He died
immediately at the impact. Boelcke never wore a crash helmet nor did he
fasten his seatbelts - otherwise he probably would have survived the not
so bad crash...
..."It couldn't hit us any harder.
Now everything is so empty. We only realize bit by bit what big gap
Boelcke leaves - realize that with him, the spirit of the whole thing has
left. In every situation he was it who was our one and only master. He had
a compelling influence on everybody, even superiors, only by his
personality and by all nature of his character. With us he could go
everywhere. We never had the feeling that something might turn out to be a
failure when he was with us. Most things we did were a success. In these
one and a half months he put over 60 enemy planes out of action, together
with us. The overweight of the Englishmen faded day by day. Now we must
see that his victorious spirit won't die out in the squadron"...
This letter had been written in the evening
hours after the funeral ceremony in Cambrai. In the morning hours of the
same day, the parents of Oswald Boelcke as well as his in the field
standing brothers came to visit the squadron in Lagnicourt. They came to
see the sphere of the last activity of their son and brother. Also they
wanted to tell his deeply shocked friend a few words of comfort. "The
parents are wonderful people", Böhme wrote later. This first contact
of the parents with the unlucky friend was the beginning of a great
friendship. Exactly one year and one day later the friendship got sealed,
as Erwin Böhme - then commander of Jasta 2 - followed his friend and
master to the death.
Also an eyewitness of the events, Manfred
von Richthofen wrote the following in his book "THE RED BATTLE
FLYER" :
...One day we were flying against the enemy, once more lead by Boelcke.
We always had a wonderful feeling of safety when he was with us. After all
he was the one and only. The weather was very gusty and there were many
clouds. There were no airplanes about except the fighting ones. From a
long distance we saw two impertinent Englishmen in the air, who actually
seemed to enjoy the terrible weather. We were six and they were two. If
they had been twenty and if Boelcke had given us the signal to attack we
should not have been surprised at all.
The struggle began in the usual way. Boelcke tackled the one and I tackled
the other. I had to let go because one of the German machines got in my
way. I looked around and noticed Boelcke settling on his victim about two
hundred meters away from me. It was the usual thing. Boelcke would shoot
down his opponent and I had to look on. Close to Boelcke flew a good
friend of his. It was an interesting struggle. Both men were shooting. It
was probable that the Englishman would fall at any moment. Suddenly I
noticed an unnatural movement of the two German flying machines.
Immediately I thought: "Collision". I had not seen a collision
in the air yet. I had imagined that it would look quite different. In
reality, what happened was not a collision. The two machines merely
touched one another. However, if two machines go at the tremendous pace of
flying machines, the slightest contact has the effect of a violent
concussion.
Boelcke drew away from his victim and descended in large curves. He did
not seem to be falling, but when I saw him descending below me, I noticed
that part of his wings had been broken off. I could not see what happened
afterwards, but in the clouds he lost an entire wing. Now his machine was
no longer steerable. It fell, accompanied all the time by Boelcke's
faithful friend.
When we reached home we found the report "Boelcke is dead !" had
already arrived. We could scarcely realize it. The greatest pain was, of
course, felt by the man who had the misfortune to be involved in the
accident.
It is a strange thing that everybody who met Boelcke imagined that he
alone was his true friend. I have made the acquaintance of about forty
men, each of whom imagined that he alone was Boelcke's intimate friend.
Each imagined that he had the monopoly of Boelcke's affections. Men whose
names were unknown to Boelcke believed that he was particularly fond of
them. This is a curious phenomenon which I have never noticed in anyone
else. Boelcke had no personal enemy. He was equally polite to everybody,
making no differences.
The only one who was perhaps more intimate with him than the others was
the very man who had the misfortune to get involved into the accident
which caused his death. Nothing happens without God's will. That is the
only consolation which any of us can put to our souls during this war.
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The coffin laid out at the station of
Cambrai, before it got transferred to Dessau in Germany |
The following is a descrition
of the funeral and home coming of Oswald Boelcke by Prof. Johannes Werner
who had published a most interesting biography of Boelcke's life in 1932:
In the afternoon of October 31 the
funeral ceremony for Oswald Boelcke was held in the Cathedral of Cambrai.
The coffin was laid out in front of the altar of the huge Cathedral. It
was the first time that a funeral ceremony for a fallen German hero was
held in a one of the great Cathedrals of Northern France, but not without
resistance of the archbishop. This high room was shrouded in silence while
outside at the near front the battle was raging. After the ceremony was
over, the coffin was carried out of the Cathedral and laid onto a gun
carriage, drawn by six black horses. At this moment the sun broke through
the clouds, shining onto the moving stream. Walking in front of the
coffin, Manfred von Richthofen carried the cushion of decorations of
Oswald Boelcke.
 Along
the way, Lance Riders and Infantry Guards were forming a guard of honor. In
the air, the procession was escorted by German flyers until it reached the
railway station where the coffin was laid out once again in front of the
decorated railroad car. In the name of the Emperor as well as in the name of
the Army, General von Below spoke; after him it was Oberleutnant Kirmaier
who spoke for Jasta 2. Then a salvo of salute was fired by the guard of
honor. The men got withdrawn from the front in the morning only for this
purpose. Under the tunes of the "song of the good comrade", Oswald
Boelcke's last journey back to the homeland began.
Already in the evening hours of the next day the coffin arrived in Dessau,
the home town of Oswald Boelcke. Despite of the late hour he was awaited by
the authorities of the city as well as by an endless crowd of people who
solemnly guided him to the Johannis Church. The coffin was laid out once
more at the same altar where Oswald Boelcke received already his holy
communion. Unteroffiziere (airmen 1st class), all of them pilots wearing the
E.K.1 (Iron Cross 1st class), formed the guard of honor.
On the other day, it was November the
2nd, the whole city was dressed in mourning. In the early afternoon a
short funeral service was held in the church where priest Finger spoke,
the same priest who once gave Oswald Boelcke the holy communion at a time
he was a boy. To represent the emperor, General von Lynker was send to the
ceremony. Again, like it was already in Cambrai, flyers was circling over
the church. Quiet, with stopped propellers, they bowed down to greet their
master as the coffin got carried out of the church. At the entrance of the
graveyard in the South of the city, the governing Duke of Anhalt was
already awaiting the endless stream. At the grave spoke Oberleutnant
Thomsen in the name of the air service, after him the priest, the mayor,
and the uncle of Oswald Boelcke - priest Karl Bölcke.
There at the grave, Oberleutnant Thomsen
spoke out the famous words which echoed for a long time in the hearts of
all Germans:
"Boelcke was falling! As we, his comrades, received this sad news,
our hearts got paralyzed. Boelcke was falling! After a warrior's career
full of incredible successes, after 40 glorious victories, our Boelcke
left us undefeated - he, our friend and our master. Indeed, the German Air
Service lost endlessly much by his early death, but they also won a lot by
his life and by his work!
Today there is no fresh German boy in the homeland who doesn't feel the
wish burning in his heart: "I want to become a Boelcke". And out
there on the front there is none among the young flyers who doesn't feel
the hot glow yearning: I want to become a Boelcke!". That's a proud
comfort we all, parents and siblings, comrades an friends, take home from
the place of rest of our unforgotten comrade.
And so I lay down on the grave of our dear friend, these words as a last
goodbye, which shall be a solemn promise of every single of our German
flyers:
ICH WILL EIN BOELCKE
WERDEN !
(I want to become a Boelcke)
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The mourning family leaving the Cathedral
of Cambrai
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General von Below, representative of
the German Emperor
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General-Field Marshal Rupprecht of
Bavaria
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The father
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The mother
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A brother of Oswald Boelcke
notice: the original numbers on the
picture are very small, but visible
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