Journal Entry: November 8, 1915
St. Pol-sur-Mer

Fabio was killed today. He had been assigned as my wingman only yesterday, and I hadn't had a chance to teach him any of my tactics. He was an experienced flier with many hours logged, but in the heat of combat I can only imagine he lost his head. Anyway, here is how it all happened. I was leading Fabio and Roderic on the morning patrol up near Loos. As we were approaching Loos, I spotted a couple of the new Hun monoplane machines. Well, I had been hoping for such an opportunity because I wanted to see how our new buses would perform against the Huns best machine. I signaled the flight and we swooped down on the Huns. They must have spotted us as we were diving on them because they began evasive maneuvers. I had no difficulty staying on the tail of my Hun and it wasn't long before he was spinning towards earth. After taking care of him, I turned and soon spotted Fabio engaged with the other Hun. I can only assume that Fabio was so consumed with destroying this Hun that he lost track of his closing speed and collided with the Hun. Something must have damaged Fabio's engine because his plane burst into flames almost immediately and they both spun into the ground. We were so low that Roderic and I circled the area thinking that maybe Fabio could survive, but no, he must have been killed on impact. Damn this war, it would be one thing had Fabio been killed by enemy action, but to be killed by a simple mistake.



Member and provider of banjo music for the Illustrious BOC