"It was essentially owing to Lt. von Eschwege and the Jagdstaffel he created that we were able to hold the enemy more or less in check." So states War in the Air, a German chronicle of World War I pilots.

Von Eschwege was an arrogant 23-year-old Prussian who, with a handful of other German flyers, manned an air station in Drama, Greece—a key point along the Balkan Front. The Leutnant had as few as five planes at one time, while the Royal Flying Corps had 40 or 50. But from June 1916 to November 1917, he shot down 17 British planes and three observation balloons. Both sides referred to him as the "Eagle of the Aegean Sea."

Von Eschwege caught "balloon fever" in 1917, bagging his first bag on October 10. He got his second sausage on November 15th, and downed a British BE on November 19th. Convinced of his invincibility, the Eagle of the Aegean Sea went after another balloon on the 21st. As before, he dived at it from out of the sun, throttle down. He was just a few yards from the target when he opened up. Only this time the British gunners, the Archies, didn't shoot. The observer didn't jump. As he pulled away from the balloon, it exploded in a fiery ball that broke the Eagle's wings and sent von Eschwege to his death.

Later, it was learned that the British had set a trap for him with enough high explosives in that balloon to destroy a plane a hundred yards away! The blast was set off with an electric signal from the ground. The Archies didn't shoot because they didn't have to. The observer was a man of straw.