Flying a line patrol in my SPAD VII, I felt almost invincible, which was even amplified by the wonderful weather.
And then the god of war seemed to give me as a little present a German two-seater - a Roland Cl.II.
Lovely, I thought - get this kill and back in time for lunch!
Thought it and attacked.
But then: tackackackackack!!! Sploing! Twang! Shred! Crack! Bonk, bonk, bonk! Shrrrrrreedddddd!!!
I was hit!
A quick check showed the reason: the Boche had had a wingman! And this very wingman was now right behind me,
about to chew my SPAD's tailplane off with his prop!
I turned high and low with that lovely couple, but - boy! - that German pilot could fly!
He gave me some quick, short lessons, before I realised that my engine lost power.
I was no longer up to this "fighting school"!
Somehow I managed to evade as well the guns of my persecutor as the barbed wire fences and tree stumps which you find
spread all over the mud line. I could put my SPAD down right beside the old Roman road from Metz to Reims.
Never again will I underestimate the defensive abilities of the Roland "Walfisch" - this "whale" had been a shark!