“And on 16 August, Rittmeister von Richthofen takes off again. At 7.55 in the morning he sends his 58th opponent burning into the funnels south-west of Houthulsterwald. It hardly ever happened that his opponent was not shot down by him while burning. And one of the first questions he asked his comrades when he received a firing report was: ‘Burning?’ The fighter pilots in his squadron were ultimately embarrassed when they had to answer no to this question.

Richthofen’s report on this shootdown read:

“At about 7.55 in the morning I pursued a small Nieuport squadron accompanied by 4 aircraft of Squadron 11. After a long pursuit I attacked one of the opponents and after a short fight I shot down its engine and petrol tank. The aeroplane spun off, I followed it directly to just above the ground, got it shot again, so that the aeroplane crashed southwest of the Houthulsterwald and ran into the ground. As I had followed it to within 50 metres, I came into a cloud of gas, which made me feel sick for a few moments.‘’