Wings of War and Glory - Interlude 1: Grounded
August 21, 1915
For almost a month now, I've been grounded. My fellow pilots talk kindly with me and even Oberleutnant Schultz recounts their combats to me with sympathy and humor, but I'm never asked to join them in the morning and my plane is flown by another pilot.
I endure. I take strolls, I help the ground crew, I read and I nap when I can.
I'm always up in the morning to see them taking off and I'm always waiting with the ground crew when they come back. Occasionally I help an injured comrade getting out of a badly shot Eindecker. Oberst Metzger, our leader watches me carefully sometimes. I pretend not to notice while I try to be helpful.
We are quartered in a big French house and I have a nice bedroom, but I only go to bed when I'm completely exhausted. Not being able to fly is getting to my nerves. But now I have a plan. I'm carving a small wooden Eindecker for each of my fellow pilots to offer them in one of our dinners. It helps.
Our Kest - the third - is composed of 18 scouts and 3 observation planes, but my squadron is composed of six planes. Our squadron leader, Rittmeister Jan Schlesinger, Oberleutnant Leonhard Schultz, Leutnant Anselm Bergmann, Leutnant Otto Drescher, Leutnant Rüdiger Kuefer and me. They are all good men, risking their life while I wait, carving little planes.
Tomorrow will be my twenty fourth day grounded...
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