AIRMAN IS POPULAR HERO IN GERMANY
Photographs of Immelmann in Greater Demand Than Those of the Kaiser.
IS GREATEST AVIATOR
Already Has Brought Down Thirteen Battleplanes of the Enemy.
Special Cable to The Tribune.
ROTTERDAM, May 27.Just now photographs of
Immelmann, knight of the air, have replaced those of the kaiser, the crown prince and even Field Marshal von Hindenburg in Berlin shop windows.
The great aviator receives letters in such quantity that he has had to employ a private secretary to handle them. Included are numerous offers of marriage, the senders ranging from giddy young frauleins to elderly maids and widows.
He has been decorated with the highest order, the "Pour le Merite," established by Frederick the Great, who hated the German language and used French.
He has received an autograph letter from the kaiser. The emperor sat down to congratulate the flier on his twelfth victory. While he was writing news was brought that the number had just been increased to thirteen. The emperor struck out "twelfth" and substituted "thirteenth," remarking. "Immelmann shoots quicker than I can write."
Given Special Work.
Immelmann is a crack shot, and was selected for special work on that account.
He first appeared on the fighting front in January of last year, flying a two-decker, and then proving his ability as a marksman, was given a fast monoplane.
It is stated that he scored a victory in his initial flight in the single-deck machine, and, subsequently, was one of the first airmen to use a Fokker.
A recent interviewer thus describes him:
He is a modest, reserved soldier, with large, quiet eyes. He is a Saxon and a master shot. Of the dangers of the fight Immelmann does not speak. That is his own affair. Danger and luck are his personal experiences, and he keeps them to himself. As a flier he acts courageously and quickly, and speaks as little as people of action generally do speak.
Praised by Britons.
In search of Immelmann on the western front a representative of the Berliner Tageblatt came across two English prisoner airmen whose machine had just been brought down within the German lines. Their names are given as Percy Shaw, 20, and Ernest Coleman, 22.
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