Then, Göring managed to make a very tight turn that put him right on his opponent’s tail. Firing both of his machine guns into the S.E.5, he sent his opponent down with ‘his engine going full out as he plunged headlong to earth’. The dead pilot, identified as ‘the famous Captain Craig, known all along the [battle] line for his audacity and daring’, was pulled from the debris of his aeroplane and was found to have ‘three shots through the head and no fewer than seven through the chest’.³⁶

British records show that Göring’s victim was Second-Lieutenant George B. Craig in S.E.5a C.5325 of 60 Squadron, RFC. His companion, most likely brought down by Leutnant Klimke, was Second-Lieutenant William M. Kent in S.E.5a B.4860 of the same squadron. Craig³⁷ and Kent,³⁸ both Canadians, reportedly left their aerodrome at 7:40 a.m. (British Summer Time) and, two hours and fifteen minutes later were ‘last seen near Houthulst’ and later confirmed as having been killed.³⁹ Those facts match Jasta 27’s claims of downing Craig’s aircraft near Ledeghem, and Kent’s near Rolleghem-Kapelle, at 10:00 a.m. (German time, an hour ahead of BST) or shortly thereafter. Göring received credit for his seventeenth victory and Klimke his sixth.⁴⁰

Once again, Göring indulged in his characteristic hyperbole by identifying Craig as a captain who had a reputation for ‘audacity and daring’, as the pilot had not yet distinguished himself. According to noted Canadian World War I aviation historian Stewart K. Taylor, who had access to the airman’s family records, Craig died the following day and, therefore, could not have been killed immediately, as Göring contended. Further, Taylor’s research shows that Craig and Kent collided and may not have been shot down by Göring and Klimke at all.⁴¹

Before Göring could score again, his childhood tonsillitis returned in a severe form. He developed a tonsillar abscess (or quinsy) and, three days after his latest aerial combat success, he had to be sent for treatment to a field hospital in Deynze,⁴² northeast of Marckebeke. His malady was ‘serious, sometimes life threatening due to swelling of the throat and interference with breathing; it necessitated incision and drainage of the pus … sometimes warranting morphine’ to alleviate pain, notes World War I historian and physician Dr. M. Geoffrey Miller. This medical condition may have occasioned Göring’s first use of narcotics, to which, later in life, he became severely addicted. He did not return to Jasta 27 until 7 March and, in his absence, Leutnant der Reserve Helmuth Dilthey again led the Staffel.⁴³

While Göring was being treated, plans for Germany’s spring 1918 offensive were being finalised. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent cessation of hostilities assured that German forces in France and Belgium would be reinforced by fresh troops from the Eastern Front,⁴⁴ where an armistice had gone into effect on Sunday, 3 March 1918. Thus, German ground and air units in three broad operational areas entered the final phase of preparations for their spring offensive on the Western Front; Jasta 27, for example, left the comforts of Marckebeke in the 4th Army Sector on 12 March for a journey of some fifty kilometres southeast to an airfield at Erchin,⁴⁵ not far from Douai in the 17th Army Sector. Richthofen and JG I were a short distance away at Awoingt⁴⁶ on Thursday, 21 March, when ‘Operation Michael' was launched on both sides of St. Quentin⁴⁷ in the German 18th Army Sector.

Jasta 27 enjoyed a relatively quiet time on the day the offensive was initiated. Göring led afternoon and early evening patrols that went unchallenged.⁴⁸ For the remainder of the month, the Staffel reported little activity and, when aerial skirmishes occurred, there were no successes.⁴⁹

On Monday, 1 April 1918, when Britain’s Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service were amalgamated to form the Royal Air Force,⁵⁰ Hermann Göring received a congratulatory telegram from Generalleutnant Ernst von Hoeppner, commanding general of the Luftstreitkräfte, noting that in an ‘unflaggingly pressing attack [Göring] raised the number of his aerial victories to seventeen in recent days’.⁵¹ One has to wonder when that message was composed, as Göring’s seventeenth air combat triumphs had been attained on 21 February, well over a month before the telegram arrived.

Göring’s Eighteenth Victory

In any event, during a mid-day patrol on Sunday, 7 April 1918, Göring raised his score again, when he and nine comrades attacked a British R.E.8 two-seat reconnaissance aircraft and fighter aircraft some twenty-five kilometres within British lines, between Merville and Hazebrouck.⁵² Göring went after the more dangerous target, the two-seater – in which the pilot and observer were armed with machine guns – while his men attended to fighters that arrived on the scene while he was chasing his target. Apparently, Jasta 27’s Leutnant der Reserve Stoltenhoff also attacked the R.E.8 and claimed it as his first victory, but credit was awarded to Göring as his eighteenth.⁵³ It is likely that Göring – perhaps aided by Stoltenhoff – sent down R.E.8 B.876 of 42 Squadron, RAF.⁵⁴ The fight took place less than fifteen kilometres north of 42 Squadron’s aerodrome at Choques, which the R.E.8 reached following a running battle with ‘six [Fokker] Triplanes and four Albatros scouts in the pursuing group, which agrees with the Jasta 27 numbers’.⁵⁵ During the fight, R.E.8 pilot Second-Lieutenant Harry W. Collier⁵⁶ was uninjured, but his observer, Lieutenant Eric C. Musson,⁵⁷ was wounded.