Aviator Who Brought Down and Killed Quentin Roosevelt Struts About City of Coblenz
—
By DAMON RUNYON.
(Special Cable to the Syracuse Herald.)
With the American Army of Occupation, Coblenz, Dec. 30 —
Christian Donhauser, the German aviator, who is said to be the man who killed Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt of the American army in an air duel near Chambray, France, on July 14th, arrived at Coblenz yesterday.
He is one of a bunch of fliers sent by the German army to repair and deliver to the Americans about forty chasse planes, which have been turned over to them in accordance with the terms of the armistice.
ABOUT SIZE OF TOD SLOAN.
Donhauser is a little fellow about the size of Tod Sloan. Moreover, he is about as cockey as they come.
He was strutting around town to-day in full uniform, with his blue cap slanted over his ear and his head half buried in a fur collar. On his chest he wears the gold insignia of a flier, along with black and white ribbons, indicating, that he has won the iron cross of the first and the second class. He is said to admit frankly that he is the best flier in the German army.
Quentin Roosevelt was flying with a party of four or five other American aviators in the vicinity of Fere en Tardenois in France, when they encountered a party ot German machines. Roosevelt left his group and made a fearless dash at the bunch of Boches. One of them pulled off from the group and met him.
In the fight which followed the young American was shot down. His body was later recovered, having been buried by the Germans who have always expressed their greatest admiration for his bravery.
Quentin Roosevelt's eldest brother, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., is today commanding the Twenty-sixth infantry, across the Rhine.
Donhauser told the correspondent to-day of the battle. He said:
"I was one of a party of six German aviators and on July 14th sighted six American machines east of Fere-en-Tardenois. One American who, I learned later was Quentin Roosevelt, was ahead of the rest of his squadron and off to one side. He came straight at me and I swooped down under his machine. We see-sawed back and forth, peppering away, and each trying to gain the advantage by climbing above the other.
SEES ROOSEVELT'S MACHINE COLLAPSE.
"Roosevelt made several loops and I admired his gameness. Once I thought his machine gun was jammed, but a second later he began again to shoot and I felt the bullets striking my plane. Then I mounted above him and swooped down to within twenty meters of him, firing all the time. Then I saw my opponent collapse and his machine began to fall."
Donhauser, who is a non-commissioned officer and speaks English, has relatives living in Michigan. He was credited with thirty aerial victories in the fighting after July 1st, when he entered the German air service.
The Syracuse Herald (Syracuse, New York) - Monday, December 30, 1918
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