There can be no doubt that celebration of two aerial victories in the officers’ mess eclipsed Göring’s own special event that day as finally, he received his pilot’s badge.⁵¹ Once again, he had attained the mark of status that he wanted.

On flights at the end of October and early November, Göring flew with Rittmeister [Cavalry Captain] Eduard Ziegler, an officer for whom FFA 25 leader Leo Leonhardy had high regard. As Leonhardy later wrote, the unit had a ‘really hard worker in … old Rittmeister Ziegler, who I got from the staff of an infantry brigade. This man … secretly trained as a pilot at the nearby Armee-Flugpark and eventually flew two or three times a day as observer with … Göring against the enemy and finished off many an enemy aeroplane, which then adorned our hangars as trophies.’⁵²

Leonhardy’s praise was well intentioned, but Göring never attained an aerial victory with Ziegler, who went on to command FFA 25 and, later, a bomber unit.⁵³ Göring and Ziegler flew a series of local air defence missions that were called Sperreflüge [blockade or barrier flights],⁵⁴ intended to keep enemy aircraft from penetrating German lines. These flights of rotating shifts of aircraft were supposed to maintain a form of defensive perimeter in the air. Ground operations in World War I became static and led to a vast network of trenches from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border and the ‘barrier flights’ were seen as their aerial equivalent. Barrier flights could not and did not serve that purpose and when they were suspended temporarily, Göring was able to truly shoot down an enemy aeroplane.

Göring’s First Aerial Victory

What became known as the Second Battle of the Champagne ended on 6 November 1915,⁵⁵ but German ground and air units remained on alert. Hence, on Tuesday, 16 November, Göring and an observer from FFA 34, the previously mentioned Leutnant Bernert, departed Vouziers at 1:30 p.m. on a flight to enable the observer to obtain current photographs of French positions at Tahure. Flying in Göring’s trusty Albatros C.I C 486/15,⁵⁶ Bernert concentrated on the natural defences of the city’s banked hills and a portion of the city with a heavily wooded area. Some thirty-five kilometres east of the great commercial and industrial city of Reims, Tahure remained a prime target in any action against the larger community. Almost an hour into the flight, the Albatros was attacked by a French Farman biplane. A fight ensued, after which German ground observers reported seeing the French aeroplane fall from the sky. The news travelled fast and upon the Göring-Bernert team’s return to Vouziers, they were hailed for scoring FFA 25’s ninth aerial victory.⁵⁷

Göring and Bernert each were awarded confirmation for an aerial victory in this action.⁵⁸ That practice was deceptive, as it inflated the total count of enemy aircraft brought down; with later refinements, the system of awarding aerial victories granted each crewman in a two-seater a half-victory in such events. Whether the Farman claimed by Göring and Bernert was destroyed or put out of commission is questionable, as French records show no air combat losses at all that day.⁵⁹ It is possible the French aircraft appeared to have been hit and made it safely to a friendly landing spot. In any case, all of Göring’s subsequent records listed the 16 November 1915 engagement as his first confirmed aerial victory. Under the old system, it was also the second victory for Leutnant Bernert, who apparently shot down no additional enemy aircraft.⁶⁰