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supplies were adequate.

    Then, on November 11, the official news of the armistice arrived, and the evacuation was halted. Bodenschatz writes of the strange silence that closed on the countryside. Goering called his men together and told them he would never surrender to the Allies; he would continue with the evacuation to Darmstadt. Bodenschatz was put in charge of the trucks, and the pilots took to the air in spite of the arrival of a staff officer with orders that the squadron should put their planes at the disposal of the French in Strasbourg. Goering at first refused bluntly; if this had to be done, he said, then someone else could do it. In the end, a few machines were flown to Strasbourg, but their pilots crash-landed them as a final act of defiance against the enemy.
    In the confusion, some of Goering’s pilots mistook their route to Darmstadt and landed at Mannheim, which was one of the places where soldiers’ and workers’ councils, in active revolt against what authority remained, had taken charge of the airport. On landing, the pilots were disarmed and sent on to Darmstadt by road. When they arrived with the report of what had happened, Goering was furious. He put the entire squadron into the air again and flew the short distance to Mannheim, where, while the officers deprived of their arms landed, Goering and the rest of his pilots circled over the airdrome. The officers on the ground presented the soldiers’ and workers’ council with an ultimatum that unless the stolen arms were returned to them at once and they were allowed to take off with them unmolested, their commandant, Lieutenant Goering, would machine-gun the airdrome. The pilots were hastily given back their arms, and they rejoined the squadron in the air. Goering then led the flight back to Darmstadt and ordered those who could to crash-land their planes.
    Goering’s final record on the day of armistice is a formal tribute to his squadron.

    November 11 . Armistice. Squadron flight in bad weather to Darmstadt. Mist. Since its establishment the Geschwader has shot down 644 enemy planes. Death by enemy action reached 56 officers and noncommissioned pilots, 6 men. Wounded 52 officers and noncommissioned pilots, 7 men.
    HERMANN GOERING,
Lieutenant O.C. Geschwader.

    Goering was demobilized, with the honorary rank of captain, in the old Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, some thirty miles from Frankfurt. There, it seems, he stayed, at the villa of the managing director of the Buntpapier A.G., a firm of paper manufacturers, and the actual disbanding of the G eschwader took place in the courtyard of the firm’s premises where the officers’ luggage was stowed before being sent on to their homes. Goering and his officers spent most of their time in the Stiftskeller, the best restaurant and drinking place in the town. They were determined to keep together as long as they could. On November 19 Goering finally said goodbye, and he discovered his gifts as a speaker in a speech he made at the Stiftskeller. He spoke of the history and the achievements of the famous Richthofen squadron, of the bitter times that Germany must now endure, and of the disgraceful behavior of the German people in their attitude to those who had, as officers, sacrificed themselves for their country. He was outraged by the revolt of soldiers against authority, and by the support the soldiers’ councils were receiving in many parts of Germany. “The new fight for freedom, principles, morals and the Fatherland has begun,” he said. “We have a long and difficult way to go, but the truth will be our light. We must be proud of this truth and of what we have done.
    We must think of this. Our time will come again.” He gave the toast to the Richthofen Geschwader; solemnly they drank, then smashed their glasses.
    Outside, crowds of civilians and ex-soldiers gathered in the streets to insult the officers, who, they were now led to think, had betrayed