WASHINGTON - The families of two World War I enemies have been brought together by a small souvenir that a rookie American pilot took from the plane of a famous German ace.
Eighty nine years after Walter Avery and
Karl Menckhoff battled in the sky, Avery's daughter, Bette Avery Applegate, presented the remnant from Menckhoff's plane to the German pilot's son, Gerhard.
The transfer was made during a ceremony Friday at a gathering of the League of World War I Aviation Historians.
"It's back home where it belongs, and I think my father would feel the same way," Applegate, 82, said of the large cloth "M" that her father cut from the side of the plane.
The dogfight, which took place toward the end of the war over the French countryside, was the American pilot's first.
Menckhoff had logged 39 victories - far more than the five required for the official classification of an "ace." His plane was adorned with three large "M"'s, which stood for his surname and as a symbol of his prestige, according to his son.
"It was a sign since he was such a success, so the other side would see it and fear him," Gerhard Menckhoff said Saturday.
On July 25, 1918, both pilots were battling for their lives.
"Both guns jammed," Avery wrote in his diary. "While clearing the jams he got on my tail and put two bullets in my left wing. ... I was able to stand vertically on my tail and give him a good burst.
"He started to lose altitude and went down in a tight spiral. I followed him, shooting, and saw him crash in the woods."
Karl Menckhoff survived and was taken prisoner by French soldiers. Avery landed and went to the site of the crash, where he carefully cut one "M" off the plane as a souvenir.
The piece of fabric spent the next six decades in a trunk in Avery's home, Applegate said.
The family discovered it after Avery's death in 1978.
Menckhoff escaped from the French prisoner-of-war camp and made his way to Switzerland, Gerhard Menckhoff said.
He never mentioned the war and died when his son was 11.
Gerhard Menckhoff said he learned of his father's war achievements from his mother.
The families met a year and a half ago when Applegate's daughter, Jeanne Applegate Ferrari, of Annapolis, read about the dogfight and learned Menckhoff lived in Washington. After meeting him, Applegate decided to return the "M."
"I never would have thought that it would come around full circle this way," said Gerhard Menckhoff after Friday's ceremony.
He said one day he would give the cloth to his son, who is named after his grandfather.
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