First,
Robert, I was NOT chiding you or anyone else for not having or reading my books--PLEASE don't think that! I'm sorry if I gave that impression. I would
never do that. I was just promoting the book to whomever reads this thread.
"...the one thing that would help significantly is knowing if those who were close to him, ever commented in written or officially recorded orally if they had noted any persistent changes after the head injury that would intimate he was not functioning at full potential..." Actually, the opposite is true. Every anecdote indicates he was jovial, accessible, normal at the end of his life. The "nausea" so often cited actually only occurred after his first flight post-wounding back in August 1917, and just that one time, at least as has been recorded. There are no other records of any sort of in-flight nausea. Nor did he experience nausea from the wound and fly anyway, as is claimed; the nausea was
because of the flight, the result of it. Yet, this one event has been turned into "he experienced nausea and flew anyway, and did so until he was killed." Simply not true and a gross exaggeration of the result of one flight. Similarly, there is only one further anecdote about headache after his release from the hospital, which came from his mother. It's the known story how when on leave at home, MvR had a headache and took a nap from which he was awakened to greet well-wishers, and he appeared surly when he came down from the bedroom. Somehow this has turned into he "always" had headaches until he died. Not true, at least as has been recorded. And there are anecdotes indicating that MvR would be irritated be awakened from
any nap, not just that one! So the irritation from being awakened from a nap was normal, and the headache might have been the result of his wounding--the headache in question happened in September 1917, after all--or he might have just had a headache. Who knows? But either way, there are NO records or anecdotes of chronic headaches for the rest of his life.
None.
Interesting that his mother's words about one headache, etc., in September 1917 have been taken as gospel and propelled forward to cover the rest of his life, but these comments she made about MvR's visit at the end of January 1918 are virtually ignored:
"[Manfred]
was hungry. He at a large piece of the groat-torte. I seated myself next to him. 'How does it taste to you?' 'Superb!' Suddenly our eyes met, and we laughed in unison, like two playful children." "[Manfred]
looked healthier and fresher compared to when he was on leave in the fall... Certainly--he had never complained, but for a time it [being wounded]
had crippled all his strength. He had looked altered; very wretched and sensitive, as I saw him again at that time [three months previous].
That was now past." "THAT WAS NOW PAST." The mention of one headache in September 1917 becomes a chronic condition until MvR is killed seven months later, but three months before his death his mother says in essence he looks better and his strength has returned, and this is ignored?
Pooch, I didn't watch that film and have never seen it--it would have led me to start drinking again!
Just the trailers of the Albatroses in power dives while in a formation tighter than the Blue Angels was all I needed to see to stay away.