To the Last Man - Jeff Shaara [8]
While they are in France the war breaks out, and, to Lufbery’s distress, Pourpe hears the call of his native country and joins the fledgling French Air Service. Lufbery responds by joining the French Foreign Legion, the home to a growing number of Americans who have come to Europe in search of adventure, or simply to participate in the war. Pourpe’s influence helps Lufbery make the transfer to the Air Service, a move sought by hundreds of foreigners who would rather explore the new adventure of aviation instead of life in the infantry. Lufbery never stops fine-tuning his mechanical skills, and learns as much as he can about every new aircraft motor in production, while continuing to serve as Pourpe’s personal mechanic.
On December 2, 1914, Marc Pourpe is killed while attempting to land his plane in inclement weather. Lufbery is devastated. Though he can easily find a place as a mechanic with any number of pilots, he begins to see a new mission in his life. He blames Germany and the war for the death of his one close friend, and driven by a need for revenge, Lufbery requests transfer to the French pilot school at Chartres. He completes his training in October 1915, and is assigned to a French bomber squadron. But he finds the work boring and seeks recertification as a fighter pilot. In May 1916, he receives certification to fly the French Nieuport, that country’s finest front-line weapon against the growing threat of the German Air Service. Despite his perfect fluency in French, as an American citizen, the Aeronautique Militaire feels justified in assigning him to a recently organized squadron of American pilots. Lufbery knows that, now, he will have his opportunity to face the enemy in the air.
BARON MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN
Born 1892, in Breslau, Lower Silesia, the oldest son of a professional soldier. At age nine, his family moves to Schweidnitz, where Richthofen becomes enamored of the woodlands that ring his family’s estate. He immediately develops a love of guns and hunting, and when given an air rifle by his father, he engages in his first safari by killing three of his grandmother’s domestic ducks.
At age eleven, he is sent by his father to the Wahlstatt Military School in Berlin, the tradition for sons of Prussian officers. Richthofen hates the rigidity of the school, spends far more time engaging in athletics than in his studies in the classroom. He is punished constantly for climbing the many trees that surround the school, and on one occasion he climbs to the highest point in the area, a church steeple, where the view of the world from above captivates him. He spends six miserable years at Wahlstatt, but at age seventeen, the tedium concludes. He is enrolled at the Senior School, Lichterfelde, south of Berlin, which proves far more enjoyable. Instead of the mundane rules of discipline, Lichterfelde is dedicated to the instruction of soldiers, and Richthofen takes to his studies with a passion. He reads the complete works of Clausewitz, the definitive volumes on the science and philosophy of war, impressing not only his teachers, but his father as well. He graduates Lichterfelde in 1910, and enters the Berlin War Academy, the final step for a young man’s leap into a career as a military officer. For the first time he receives detailed instructions on modern political thinking, including the prevailing winds that blow through Germany at the time. But Richthofen is bored by the talk of politics and intrigue, and focuses on his final graduation, which will open the door to his career