Boelcke’s funeral

‘Jagdstaffel Boelcke, 3 November 1916: ’Dear Mum! Unfortunately I missed the train after Boelcke’s funeral, to which I was ordered as a representative of his hunting squadron. Now I can only come to you in the middle of the month. – Boelcke’s death came as follows: Boelcke, some other gentlemen of the fighter squadron and I were involved in a dogfight with the English. Suddenly I see Boelcke, attacking an Englishman, being rammed in the air by one of our gentlemen. Nothing else happened to the poor other gentleman. Boelcke went down normally at first. I followed him immediately. Later, one wing broke off and he plummeted. His skull was crushed by the impact, so he was killed instantly. We were incredibly upset – it was like having your favourite brother taken away from you. I wore the medal cushion at the funeral service. The ceremony was like that of a reigning prince. In six weeks we’ve had six dead and one wounded; two of them are nervous wrecks… I shot my seventh yesterday, having killed the sixth shortly before. My nerves have not yet suffered from all the bad luck of the others…‘’