Signature under Photograph reads: Gunther Plüschow
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Signature under Photograph reads: Gunther Plüschow |
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OF THE PILOT FROM TSINGTAU My Experiences
by Gunther Plüschow 600 - 610 Thousandth Printing Verlag Ullstein, Berlin |
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With Illustrations by
All Rights, in particular those of translation, are reserved.
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Preface.....................................................5 The Joys and Woes of Aviation......................7 Wonderful Days in Tsingtau.........................20 Call to War — My Dove...............................27 All Kinds of Pranks by the Japs.....................45 My War Plan...............................................52 Hurray!.....................................................59 The Last Day..............................................65 In the Muck of the Chinese Rice Paddy...........74 Mr. McGarvin's Fish Poisoning.......................83 They get Me!.............................................103 Behind Wall and Barbed Wire.......................113 Fleeing......................................................143 Black Nights on the Thames.........................149 A Stowaway ..............................................181 The Path to Freedom...................................183 Back in the Fatherland!................................186 |
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to the 610th Printing The Adventures of the Pilot from Tsingtau: the words ring brightly and temptingly. Back then, when the book was first published, it reverberated with an intensity which hasn't been achieved since. Europe was at war. Trenches ploughed up the east and west and everyone knew this could go on almost forever. Amid the monotony of general staff reports a small volume came out signed with the name of a German naval lieutenant who, as reported in various accounts, was far away on the Chinese coast where he distinguishied himself by conducting reconnaissance flights over the Japanese besieged city of Tsingtau. It was also reported that he was back in the homeland following imprisonment by the English. In this book he related his experiences. There were many, many ups and downs as the brief newspaper reports implied. An odyssey through the swamplands of China and the palace of the Mandarins, over the ocean and into America, then over the Atlantic Ocean and the fortress of Gilbratar and into the harbor for London, the last asylum for refugees saved by scouts, now wearing the filthy rags of a jobless man rather than an officer's uniform. Gunther Plüschow wrote factually in true documentary fashion, |
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gripping in its refreshing naturalism. His rendition describes the desperate battle for freedom. There was courage and delight in the risks he took. He displayed the brightness and fearlessness of youth and a knightly sense of sportsmanship which he also saw matched in his opponents. Within a few years the small book sold 600,000 copies. It found enthusiastic reception with the younger generation. It went beyond Germany, was translated into Japanese, some of whose people remembered well the tricks played by the blond German marine pilot during the siege of Kiautschou. It was translated into English, in the same London whose press took a long time recovering from its astonishment over the mysterious disappearance of the "Hun." For some time it was out of print, however the "Pilot of Tsingtau" was continually requested. Now the book shall be issued in a new edition, anticipated by those who remained loyal and wanted to increase its countless, grateful readership. Not as a war diary but as a novel which surpasses any fantasy and gives our youth their newly awakened greatest desire: exciting adventures full of unconditional realism. Berlin, 1927 The Publisher |
Imaging and translation by Susan Kriegbaum-Hanks
Project begun April 3, 2018
Project completed May 24, 2019