“Have you scored a victory yet?” Marseille asked. “Not yet,” Franz said, embarrassed. Everyone knew it was JG-27’s policy to try to get a new pilot his first victory within ten missions. But for Franz, ten had come and gone. “There’s no reason to apologize for never having killed a man,” Marseille said. He poured Franz a tall glass of cognac. “As soldiers, we must kill or be killed, but once a person enjoys killing, he is lost. After my first victory I felt terrible.”
