Heavy rains in mid-January 1915 proved just how fragile aeroplanes were at that time. FFA 25 records show that the Loerzer-Göring Aviatik B.II (B36/14) was damaged by temporary flooding that washed through their hangar tent at Stenay airfield. The full extent of the damage was not determined until Loerzer, at considerable personal risk, took it up for a test flight on the 18th and found that he had great difficulty in controlling the Aviatik.³⁵

While Loerzer was checking out his damaged aeroplane, another FFA 25 aircraft and crew became the unit’s first casualty of the war. Offizierstellvertreter [acting officer] Paul Müller was flying Hauptmann Wolfgang Schmidt on a long-range mission over the lines when he became disoriented and had to land at Behonne, some forty kilometres south-southwest of Verdun. Both airmen were taken prisoner.³⁶ Schmidt was repatriated in a prisoner exchange on 12 July 1918, almost two months short of his thirty-fourth birthday.³⁷

Aside from that loss, the slow pace of events made it seem that the war was a distant event for Loerzer and Göring. On Saturday, 23 January 1915, they travelled to Trier, Germany to obtain new photographic equipment and a replacement for their damaged Aviatik B.II. But they spent eleven days there, perhaps awaiting the arrival of their new aeroplane – Albatros B.I 990/14 – from the factory in central Germany.³⁸