The following day, 15 March, Göring had the more prosaic task of selecting a new pilot to replace Leutnant der Reserve Ludwig Kienlin, the pilot who had been killed on 13 March. Göring was driven to Armee-Flugpark 5 at Montmédy, where he met twenty-two-year-old Unteroffizier Wilhelm Hübener in whose brief biographical article the encounter was described:

‘Unassigned crews which had recently completed training at the various Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilungen scattered throughout Germany were demonstrating their newly acquired avocations to a small group of [aviation] observers.

‘Each of the interested onlookers was an officer sent … by a frontline flying section to use his … judgement in choosing a suitable replacement for his unit.

‘After a particularly skilful “set-down” by one of the Albatros B.IIs on the hillside landing field, one of the officers … strolled out to the training aircraft. “Allow me to introduce myself,” he said to the young aspirant in the pilot’s cockpit. “I am Leutnant Göring. I am attached to Feldflieger-Abteilung 25 and we would like you to join us at Stenay.”’¹⁸

After arriving at Stenay, Hübener spotted the airfield’s new trophy:

‘The Caudron was a prize of war and after it was towed to the Abteilung’s landing field, it became a major curiosity. All of the officers of the [5th] Army Staff paid a visit to view the relic. Crown Prince Wilhelm … came several times to putter with the captured aircraft. After a few such visits the over-worked mechanics would groan at his arrival, for they were well aware that it would be they who would have to clean off the smudges of grease and the castor oil spatters that His Imperial Highness would invariably leave.’¹⁹