ROOSEVELT WAS BRAVE
With the American Army of Occupation. Dec. 28.—(Delayed)—A description of the fight in which Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt, son of former President Roosevelt, lost his life in an American airplane, was given here today by the man who killed him,
Christian Donhauser, German ace. Donhauser was one of the aviators sent to test surrendered German machines.
Donhauser declared Roosevelt an inexperienced, but most courageous pilot. The German was placed at a disadvantage several times during the encounter and Roosevelt sent twenty shots into the German machine without destroying it. Then Donhauser gained the advantage, he declared, and fired thirty shots in the Roosevelt machine from a distance of twenty-five feet. Roosevelt, he asserted, was dead before his plane began flaming.
The American could have flown to safety several times, the German continued, but chose to return to the attack.
American flyers as a whole, Donhauser claimed, were too reckless, many times penetrating as far as thirty miles behind the German lines.
Many American flyers had become quite skillful and were well known to the Germans and feared by them. He mentioned
Eddie Rickenbacker and
Jimmy Meissner.
Donhausen is a diminutive man, standing four feet in height and weighing but ninety-four pounds. He is twenty-three years old and is credited with having shot down thirty airplanes since July. He has relatives, he said, living in Michigan.
He expressed a desire to join the American army, because, he said, there is no more flying in Germany.
The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) - Monday, December 30, 1918
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