on it. He chose an elaborate display of red and white, with checkerboards and stripes both encircling the fuselage in a wide band and painted on the upper wing above the cockpit. His sister's name, Hertha, was on the side of the cockpit. First kill On 16 July, an exceptionally hot spell of weather settled in—so hot that it sometimes detonated incendiary bullets within aircraft cockpits with fatal results. During a two-day stretch, at least seven German airplanes were lost to ammunition cooking off. Flying in this killing weather, Noltenius found himself one of three German pilots attacking a French Breguet 14 on the 18th. As he wrote in his diary: "Alternately, I was over him or under him and behind him...anyway, at an altitude of 2500 metres I took good aim and pressed the trigger. Then a body broke free of the seat and the observer fell out. It was an abominable sight, and I can only say that I was extremely sorry for the poor devil.... The horror of his machine gunning the observer to death was compounded by his commanding officer, after they landed. According to him, unseen by Noltenius, the French pilot had futilely raised his arms to surrender. Also, Noltenius' combat claim for this victory was denied; the credit was given to another pilot. A string of victories On 3 August 1918, Noltenius pushed through drizzly weather to unsuccessfully attack a drenched enemy observation balloon. Noltenius chalked the failure up to experience. His first victory was over a Sopwith Dolphin, on 10 August. His second, ten days later, initiated him into the ranks of balloon busters as he destroyed an observation balloon. As his victories continued, on 2 September, he became an ace, scoring his fifth and sixth victories. On 3 September, Noltenius claimed another victory, only to find it was also being claimed by his commanding officer, Hermann Frommherz, who took credit for himself. The next day, Noltenius submitted another claim; that victory was also awarded to another pilot. A disgruntled Noltenius requested transfer to another squadron. Meanwhile, Noltenius turned again to balloon busting. On 14 September, he attacked an observation balloon without knowing it was booby-trapped. The balloon full of high explosives was detonated from the ground during Noltenius's attack. The flaming explosion singed much of the fabric from his plane's wings, and left melted balloon fabric trailing from its spars. While Noltenius