Share The Love: Erich Von Stalhein

He's the man we love to hate, the one who always shows up just when Biggles and his friends least expect him ("like a confounded jack-in-the-box"), the one who never seems to be able to kill Biggles, even in Baltic where he actually has Biggles in a front of a firing squad. (Really, Erich? Are you just that incompetent or just that sentimental?)

In Flies East, the first book where Biggles meets him, Erich is described as tanned, wears a monocle, and walks with a limp. Oddly enough the limp and the monocle (as well as the cigarette holder he uses to smoke) seem to gradually disappear over time, although his hatred of Biggles doesn't (or at least up until the point when they bury the hatchet in the appropriately named Biggles Buries A Hatchet.)

Erich claims in Looks Back that he was also in love with Marie as Biggles was (isn't that just the greatest coincidence ever? And really, why didn't he just take her and have done with it and save us all--and Biggles--the agony and heartache?)

Is anyone a secret Erich fan? Would the series be different without him? Or do you hate him beyond belief? Share the love/hate in the comments below!

Algy Quote of the Week

"Algy stood beside the Camel and watched the Halberstadt until it disappeared from sight. 'Those soulless hounds at the Air Board need boiling in oil for sending a fellow like Biggles on a job like this,' he muttered huskily. 'Still, I suppose it's what they call war,' he added, as he climbed slowly into his cockpit."

--Biggles Flies East

Possibly the only time during the entire war that Algy really got emotional.

Unlike Biggles, Algy wasn't really what we might describe as "sensitive". He got angry, and then he shot things or bombed things, but his emotions rarely depressed him or put too much strain on his nerves. That's what makes the quote above so amazingly special. He would never say as much to Biggles' face, of course, but it shows just how deeply he cares.

Biggles Flies East
Image links to Amazon

If you haven't read Flies East before, definitely try to get your hands on a copy. It's plain and simple Biggles and Algy, when both were young and naive and in their prime, and there are some great great bits showing just how strong the bonds of friendship were between them.

Character Close-Up: Erich Von Stalhein’s First Appearance

No hero would be complete without an archenemy, and Erich Von Stalhein is Biggles’. He first appears in WWI, in the book Biggles Flies East, where Biggles is working as a German spy who is secretly working for the British (try figuring out that last sentence without getting a headache!)

Erich Von Stalhein
Image from yabs.isambard.com.au/

“In appearance he was tall, slim, and good-looking in a rather foppish way, but he had been a soldier for many years, and there was a grim relentless about his manner that quickly told Biggles that he was a man to be feared….wounded early in the war…[Von Stalhein] walked with a permanent limp with the aid of two sticks, and this physical defect added something to his sinister bearing….he was dark, with cold brooding eyes that were hard to meet and held a steel like quality that the monocle he habitually wore could not dispel.”

--Biggles Flies East

I’m somewhat surprised by this, because I had always assumed that Erich was around the same age as Biggles, as he was the same rank (Captain) when they met. However, rereading the above paragraph makes me think that he must be quite a bit older. The fact that he was wounded “early in the war” suggests that he has at least a couple of years on Biggles, as does the fact that he had been a soldier “for many years”.

Incidentally, I had assumed from Flies East that the Von Stalhein limp was fake, because there is a bit towards the end where Von Stalhein is seen to drop his sticks and run with some agility, but either Johns forgot, or something else happened to Von Stalhein in WWII, because in some of the air police books he is seen to limp again.

By the way, what is it with Johns and monocles?

Biggles Flies East
Image links to Amazon

Biggles and Erich don’t exactly hit it off at first sight:

“Biggles sensed a latent hostility from the first moment that they met, and felt it throughout the interview. It was almost as if the man suspected him of being an imposter but did not dare question the actions of those who had been responsible for his employment.”

--Biggles Flies East

No fool, our Erich, which makes it even more surprising that he doesn’t seem to have ever been promoted after meeting Biggles. He constantly refers to Biggles as “Major Bigglesworth” throughout WWII (and also in some of the air police books, I believe), and Biggles similarly always refers to him as Hauptmann Von Stalhein. Surely Von Stalhein would have gotten some sort of recognition for his hard work? Or was Biggles responsible for his continued lack of promotion?