In the Way of the Reich. Paula Astridge
middle-ear infection.
‘You’ll never be able to fly again,’ his family doctor told him.
To which Udet answered: ‘To hell with that! If I can’t fly I may as well be dead.’
So Udet set himself the task of improving his damaged sense of balance. A task made a little easier with the help of his long-term girlfriend, Lola Zink. Along with his astounding array of accolades came Lola’s undying devotion and new-found desire to become his wife. That same array of accolades, however, opened Udet’s eyes to his vast options and made him cool on the whole idea of tying himself to one woman for life.
This swift change of heart was ironic as it had been he who had relentlessly pursued Lola for four fruitless years at school. Back then he would have laughed out loud had he any notion that one day he’d be in a position to casually cast her aside. She was every schoolboy’s dream. But the truth was that now she bored him, as did everything off the battlefield.
Tantalised as he still was by her kisses and caresses, he was strangely unmoved when she coyly knocked back his more intimate advances. Her commonplace propriety had him heave a sigh, not of frustrated yearning, but of excruciating tedium. He found himself wondering what else the relationship could give him. She wasn’t exactly the most scintillating or intellectual of companions, and now was making it clear that she wasn’t prepared to fill the awkward gaps in their conversations with any sort of physical exchange. Obviously, if he wanted to go beyond Point X, he had no choice but to ask: ‘Will you marry me?’
He threw the half-hearted question at her as they strolled through the streets of Munich. She linked her arm through his when she answered: ‘Yes.’ Her grasp all the more tight and possessive now that he was sporting his dashing new uniform and Blue Max.
‘I’ve got him! I’ve got him!’ Lola was thinking with savage, feminine satisfaction.
Now that her instincts for financial security were satisfied she was able to rest easy, safe and sound in the knowledge that both she and her husband-to-be had effectively been pulled from the field of play.
This could not have been further from the truth as far as Udet was concerned. He had only just begun to fight and had no intention of sitting out the game of life on the bench while lesser men played the field.
Yes, the flattery of Lola’s love had gone to his head. As had all the rest of the adulation he had received over the last few months. In fact, he was riding high in all respects ever since Richthofen had put him in command of his Jasta 11, one of the four squadrons of his Fighter Group One. To top that off, the Red Baron had gone one step further by offering him his close friendship; a brotherly bond that stripped away all the social constraints of aristocrat and commoner.
‘I’m sending you on a few weeks rest and recovery Ernst,’ Richthofen said, when Udet had finally admitted to having a severe middle-ear problem. He had hidden and put up with the infection for months until it had him buckle over in pain. It was a throbbing agony that, for fear of being grounded, he had ignored until he’d shot down a further five enemy aircraft and started to see double. At which point, he’d felt duty bound to confess, but had put up a solid argument against Richthofen’s advice.
‘I am not going to leave the front,’ Udet insisted.
‘You’ll be more trouble to me than you’re worth if your balance gives out for good,’ the Baron said, following up his seeming lack of sympathy with the command.
‘Now go home and get better. But make sure you do it fast, because we need you here and I’ll miss having you around.”
Udet knew exactly what he meant, because two weeks later Richthofen was dead. His sudden passing left a black void in Udet’s world that would have him miss his friend for the rest of his life.
The earth shook beneath his feet when he read the Flash Bulletin. Hot off the press, it was slapped on the Council Chamber wall, right in front of Udet, as he and Lola wandered by. The two of them had been laughing, sharing the joke of walking past the King of Bavaria’s residence on the Theatinerstrasse where Udet had just received the military protocol of having the guards fall out and present arms in honour of his Blue Max. So thrilled had he and Lola been with the ritual that they had decided to promenade past the gates seven more times to enjoy a series of encore performances. Udet’s happiness, however, was brought to a jarring halt when Richthofen’s death notice was thrust in front of him.
ACHTUNG! ACHTUNG! BARON VON RICHTHOFEN SHOT DOWN AND KILLED!
The bold headline came at Udet like a punch in the face. He reeled back in disbelief. Yet that dark moment’s acute shock and disbelief was only half as bad as the long-term sense of loss and emptiness which was to engulf him for years to come. Quickly, he grabbed for Lola’s hand to steady himself and grasp at something, anything that was real and would stop him hurtling into an abyss of despair.
CHAPTER FIVE
By the time he returned to the front, that despair had mutated into a hard-edged acceptance of life and its harsh realities. One of which was that Hermann Goering had taken over the command of Richthofen’s Flying Group One.
‘Goering’s not fit to even stand in such a great man’s shadow,’ Udet said with flagrant contempt to his fellow officers. He had no fear of being rebuked, as every one of those fellow officers from Jasta 11 felt the same and were bucking against High Command’s choice of a successor.
‘Certainly not,’ Lieutenant Carl von Schoenebeck agreed. ‘Especially when one considers his lack of pedigree.’
Schoenebeck was still smarting over the recent death of his friend, Wilhelm Von Reinhardt who had been first in line for the job. Reinhardt’s death when test-flying the latest model biplane had left a hole in the Air Service’s hierarchy, which Goering had just filled. So Reinhardt’s fellow pilots not only had to suffer the sadness of their friend’s loss, but the social injustice of having the arrogant, untitled Goering forced upon them as his substitute.
On the sore subject of class structure, however, Udet kept his mouth shut. With his own blue-collar background, he could hardly criticize Goering for his slightly less than patrician credentials. Besides, that inbred Blue-Blood Boys’ Club had nothing to do with his gripe against Goering. It was simpler than that. He just didn’t trust the man. At best, he believed Goering to be no more than a pale reflection of Richthofen, At worst, a liar.
There was no question that Goering was the most charming and intelligent of men, and without doubt the most captivating of conversationalists. Nevertheless, Udet had good reason to believe that Hermann had fabricated a few of his ‘kills’ en route to his Blue Max, embellishing his means of achieving them at the expense of other, far better men.
The bottom line was, though, that Richthofen had counted Goering among his closest friends and out of respect for the Baron, Udet decided to keep his suspicions to himself and to not speak out formerly against Goering or his promotion. These were sentiments shared by the rest of the men of Jasta 11. Despite their private protests, it was simply not done in the ranks of the elite to publicly bad-mouth a fellow flyer, especially when his expertise and dedication was not in question.
Stifled or not, however, those objections of theirs were still there, smouldering away beneath the surface and Goering knew it. So he decided to tackle the men of Jasta 11 head on:
‘I am aware of the fact that there are no better flyers than those I see before me now. Most of you are arguably better than I,’ he said. ‘That is why I am hoping, for Richthofen’s sake, that I shall be worthy of walking in his footsteps and of gaining your confidence and trust. Between us there must be no division as it is essential that we give our best. At this critical moment in history all of us must work as one, for there are grave times ahead and we must face them together for the glory of the Fatherland.’
It was a speech which made many of Udet’s fellow officers tolerate his command, and one which had Udet change his mind about Goering and offer his unerring support. Support from a man of Udet’s substance was exactly what Goering needed now