He wouldn't have been of much use anyway in the hopeless confusion. So, excluding myself, there were only four of us remaining. Although the Tommies had seemed assured of victory through their so unexpectedly successful attack, they had their hands full just trying to protect their own skins. That they didn't entirely succeed in this, but rather the bold English leader, of all people, was eventually cut off, forced down behind our lines and taken prisoner, might be noted as proof of the superior combat skills of German fighter pilots even under the most unfavorable of circumstances. So I had to join my comrades.
Every machine gun counts twice as much in such cases of numerical inferiority.
Then a glance in the interior of my machine reveals a more pressing danger than all the Englishmen combined. Two thin copper pipes, one on each side, are distinctly visible on the floor ofthe fuselage running from the tank to the motor. But on the left one a blue-green flame is playing merrily, fed by benzine spewing from bullet hole. Like a malicious gremlin it darts up and down with the change ofair pressure in the tank. A cold shudder runs up my spine.