The timing of this air fight can only be estimated, as Krause did not provide a date or location for it. Likewise, he did not elaborate on the ‘incredible and … almost impossible manoeuvre’ Göring allegedly performed, nor did Krause indicate how he identified his opponent’s aeroplane. At this time, Göring was flying his distinctive, all-white Fokker D.VII (F 5125/18), which in a fight must have looked like an unforgettable ghostly menace, but Krause did not mention the type or colour of his opponent’s aeroplane. Further, Krause made no mention of being accompanied by a backseat man, who would have taken the photos and been armed with a flexible, ring-mounted machine gun that would have been a distinct advantage in combat in such close quarters.

Krause’s story does not comport with what reasonably would have occurred in his unit, which in 1918 was known as Escadrille Spa 2, reflecting the use of Spad and other two-seaters.²⁷ And Krause’s motives for allowing post-war publication of the alleged chivalric combat are not clear. He was already a prominent airman, having been decorated with Britain’s Military Cross, the National Order of Denmark, and the Swedish Order of the Sword, First Class²⁸. In the summer of 1918 the French news magazine Le Guerre Aérienne Illustrée²⁹ published a two-part article about his heroism and personal sacrifice. In view of those well earned accolades, one can only wonder why Niels Paulli Krause felt the need to humble himself before Hermann Göring.

Krause’s story sounds quite thrilling and would have enlivened any dinner conversation, but the likelihood that an aerial combatant (and especially the aggressive Göring) would simply let an enemy fly away strains credulity. A more realistic German view of so-called chivalric aerial combat was offered by former wartime pilot Conrad Horster³⁰ in an article published in a popular German veterans’ magazine four years before Krause’s paean to Göring appeared. According to Horster:

‘In order to make the expression “force down [an aeroplane]” understandable one must mention that aerial combats on the Western Front were settled with a certain Ritterlichkeit [chivalry]. The vanquished or wounded adversary was spared the moment he gave up all resistance and sought his salvation in an involuntary landing. Such a moment always occurred when … totally unexpected, the German pilot made a deft manoeuvre that put him right on his opponent’s neck and he had the enemy aeroplane directly in his machine gun’s stream of fire. In this situation the opponent knew that the German had only to press the firing button on his guns and in a few seconds his own crate would be fired on and at least his fuel tank would be set on fire or he would be hit. In this circumstance, therefore, the opponent gave up resistance and acquiesced to the victor that he would have to land, i.e., to be “forced down” to the ground at a minimum behind [the victor’s] lines.’³¹