The Two-Headed Eagle

I think that we must have fallen a good thousand metres. Then, as suddenly as it had stopped flying, the Brandenburger groaned and creaked a little then began to fly once more, straight and even in a shallow dive be­low the clouds. As for our Italian attacker, there was no sign of him. Toth sca

As for the two men in the Italian aeroplane we shot down that morn­ing, I can hardly think that they could have survived such a fall. I was sad afterwards for them and their families, once I had leisure to think about the morning’s events. But there: what would you? It was kill or be killed in those days before parachutes, and I suppose that the Fliegertod was at least preferable to choking with gas in some stinking dug-out or being casually blown to bits by a chance artillery shell. It is a noble and glorious thing, the Latin poet observes, to die for one’s country. But given the choice I think that I would still prefer to make the other fellow die for his.

We landed safely at Caprovizza about 0800; much to my relief, since our poor Zoska’s racked frame was creaking and sagging in a most alarm­ing fashion as a result of the brutal strains imposed upon it by Toth’s aero­batics. From the observer’s seat alone I could count a good half-dozen snapped bracing-wires. We had come out of it alive—even contrived somehow to escape from a spin. But having had a taste of Toth’s flying I could now quite understand how Leutnant Rosenbaum had met his end over Gorz. If I had been a fraction slower about letting go of the gun and seizing the cockpit coaming when we reached the top of the loop I would now be embedded half a metre deep in some Friulian cow pasture.

I saw as we came in to land that a motor-cyclist was standing by, waiting for the camera to be unloaded so that he could collect the box of photographs for the dark-room in Haidenschaft. We taxied to a halt and Toth switched off the engine as the ground crew came ru

“Well Prohaska old man, back in one piece I see. Did you get your holiday snaps?”

I smiled. “Yes, thank you very much,” I said, signing the motor­cyclist’s receipt for the photographs against the side of the fuselage. “Mission accomplished exactly as per orders. But that wasn’t all: Toth here shot down an Italian two-seater on the way home.” A cheer went up from the ground crew and, smiling self-deprecatingly, Toth was hoisted on to their shoulders to be carried across the field in triumph. They would have done the same to me, but the gulf between officers and rankers in the k.u.k. Armee was too great for them to feel confident about such horseplay, so I followed behind the triumphal progress.

“But what’s happened to Schraffl and Jahudka?” I asked. “Are they back yet? We saw them go into a cloud somewhere this side of Palmanova, but then the Italians came after us and we had other things to think about. I’d have expected them to have got home ahead of us.”

“Don’t worry about it: they’ve probably had an engine failure or got lost or something and landed at another field. It happens all the time. Bad pe

“Can Toth come with us for a drink in the mess?”

Meyerhofer suddenly looked doubtful. “No, no, I think not: better not risk it. Herr Kommandant wouldn’t like it—against regulations, thin end of the wedge and all that. But Toth can entertain you in the NCOs’ mess if he wants; can’t see anything against that.” So I shook my faithful coachman’s hand in farewell and made my way to my tent.

I managed about an hour’s much-needed nap before Petrescu shook me awake, obediently reporting that Herr Kommandant Kraliczek wished to see me now. I rinsed my face hurriedly at the canvas washbasin—I was still grimy from exhaust smoke—ran a comb through my hair and set off to meet him in his office.

As I stepped up to salute and report the success of our mission I could see at first glance that Hauptma

“Pray tell me, how many kilometres did you fly today, Herr Linien- schiffsleutnant?”

“Forgive me, Herr Kommandant, but I have no real idea. It’s about fifty kilometres from here to Palmanova as the crow flies, but we took a more circuitous route to get there, over Gorz, and we flew some way to west of our target so as to be able to come at it from the direction of Venice. Meanwhile, as for our return journey, I can’t say exactly where we flew since we were engaged with the enemy for part of the way.”

“So you mean to say, in other words, that you are an officer-observer, but you have no real idea of how far you flew in total? Some might consider that a grave dereliction of duty.”

“But Herr Kommandant,” I protested, “surely the precise distance we flew is of no great importance? The point is that we reached our tar­get, carried out our mission and returned unharmed to our base, having accounted for one enemy aeroplane on the way and successfully dodged another. Exactly how much ground we covered in the process is surely quite irrelevant.”

“Not in the least, Herr Linienschiffsleutnant, not in the least. The suc­cess of this unit depends, like the success of all military operations, upon minute precison and the scrupulous maintenance of records. In future I shall require your written combat reports and attendant forms to contain a clear statement, accurate to the nearest hundred metres, of the distance flown, so that this can be compared with the stated consumption of fuel for the flight. However . . .” he turned to address his remarks to a differ­ent corner of the room, “I have to say that there are other serious matters to discuss with you concerning your verbal report of this mission, at least as it was related to me a few minutes ago by Oberleutnant Meyerhofer. It appears that you shot down an Italian aeroplane?”

“I have the honour and satisfaction to report that we did—or rather, Zugsfuhrer Toth did.”

“I see. Of what kind?”

“Herr Kommandant, I really ca

“So you really have no idea what aircraft it was?” he snapped.

“Not really. All that concerned me at the time was that it was manoeu­vring under our tail to try and shoot us down.”

“And have you any tangible evidence of having destroyed it? Stand­ing orders from Fliegertruppe headquarters are that positive identifica­tion of crashed enemy aircraft and their crews is to be secured wherever possible.”