Another book that has remained unread on my shelf for far too long is this fabulous piece of literature, Double-Decker C.666 by Georg Wilhelm Haupt-Heydemarck. As much attention and focus is paid to the allied participation in the air war over Europe during 1914-1918, it is a welcome change of pace to read a realistic memoir from the other side of the lines. Haupt-Heydemarck’s other works include Flying Section 17 and War Flying in Macedonia, the latter being not yet in the collection (yet!) but the former having already been read by myself. Having read both of these books by the imaginative German observer, I can tell you with unquestionable certainty that I believe he is a masterful storyteller and linguistic genius and I am sure you will come to the same conclusion after reading his works. As pilots, we can learn numerous lessons from these aviators on how to conduct ourselves in the cockpit, handle emergencies with reasonable temper, and appreciate the finer things that make aviation what it is. Wires howling in the wind, the vibration of the oily cylinders felt through the stick and rudder pedals, reflection of the sun seen in the vibrating fabric, and the slipstream playing at your leather helmet.
The author being an aerial observer in the first half of the First World War, he tells wonderful stories of flying against the French with his beloved pilot, “Take” Engmann, over the western front. There is no shortage (207 pages to be exact!) of gripping tales in this page turner, with palm-perspiring dogfights against French Nieuports, battling temperatures that reached below thirty degrees, bombing enemy positions in the early morning hours, and settling nerves during unrelenting “archie” barrages at altitudes surpassing ten thousand feet. All of these situations and more are written in unique detail that place the reader directly in the cockpit with the author, with hands seemingly on the author’s machine gun or his aerial camera to snap the ever important photographs of the ground behind enemy lines. As noted earlier, Georg Wilhelm Haupt-Heydemarck has a special talent for authoring books in this manner which can be noticed in his other book on flying over the western front, Flying Section 17. A prime example of this detail can be examined as he explains the operation of his camera over a French target: “I scan the aerodrome again through my glasses and discover that there are six hangars. Formerly there were only four; that means reinforcements. Quickly I extract the camera from its rack. Everything is ready-withdraw the shutter from its plate-grip the handle with the left hand-finger of right hand on the release-press camera firmly against my chest-focus objective-click!-photo taken-change plates-rewind focal plane-put camera back-job done.” (Haupt Heydemarck. Double-Decker C.666. John Hamilton Ltd., n.d.) This level of description is not spared on each page and in more than a few cases there are photographs included to show exactly what he is talking about in that moment.
This book has much to offer to both the academic and the passionate enthusiast due to its remarkably precise detail regarding all aspects of their missions from before takeoff to after landing. Things such as the mission brief, debrief, weather, squadron atmosphere, flying clothing and more are all mentioned in this gripping memoir. It was very neat and rather rare to read about the relationship between the pilot and observer in the cockpit of a German two-seater as well, an interesting note being the pilot is typically in the ranks instead of the observer like in the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force. Heydemarck demonstrates this relationship in every chapter of the book as he brings the reader along each mission with the resulting effect on the reader being an inability to put down the book or not turn the page. Even down to the human characteristics of how his pilot celebrates a successful bomb drop or escape from enemy aeroplanes is put into words.
There is no doubt that this piece of First World War aviation literature would make a fantastic addition to the library of the war historian or pilot of any kind and I give it the highest praise. It has seemingly endless exciting stories that would appeal to anyone who picked it up and no shortage of lovely details for the reader to enjoy. Not only can the academic use it for an accurate source for their own research, but the pilot readers can gain a vast appreciation for the aviators’ shoulders on which we modern pilots stand and perhaps carry that legacy into the cockpit today.
