The Washington herald., 1913-05-25

When I left charing Cross for Sofia the
war had already begun; when 1 reached
hustspha Pasha / had been given my
aeroplane on the Bulgarian side Of the
frontier and new it to the base there) the
Turks had already suffered three defeats
at Sellolu, at Petra Erkiklar and at
Kirk Kflisse The investment Of Adria-
pople was complete. The Bulgarian air
corps was assembled at Mustapha dn an
Rerodrome near the river little way
from the town. Its equipment consider
ing the rapidity with which II had been
rnt together, was very good and
borough. There were in all eighteen
machines of various types and twelve
ptlots of various nationahties.
A certain number of Bulgartans had al
ready got their breyets at various French
aviation schools; among them Lieut.
Petroff, who may be termed the pioneer
of Bulgarian aviation. That the orsani-
cation was complete in every way Is
proved by the fact thst from start to
finish we never lacked a single spare
part or single drop Of petrol. Frying
was continualI do not want the reader
to think that the flights I describe were
the only ones which took place or tnat
was the only actor in these operations
PetrofY. SabelH date instructor in the
HaIrrnot School at Brooklands), two Rus
sian ayiators and several Bulgarians, ali
did splendid work, and most OF them
were under fire on more than one oc-
casion.
Eronn start TO finish we had wonder
fully good fortune, and our only casualty
from the opening of hostilities up to the
arnistice was the death Of Lieut. To-
hrscktchien, who was burned to death
by an escape of petrol after fau on
the aerodrome This occurred two days
before our arrival
/ made my first attempt to ny over
p Adrianople on the day after our arrival
in a lOO-horsepower Albatross oiplane,
which had been allotted me- and which
1 used throughout the campaign. As my
Messenger (or observerD 1 had NJ. Pop
r:-yteff, a typical Bulgarian officer and a
capital fellow. Our partnership was 10
last until after the armistice, and We De-
came tremendous friends l don't know
an experience like that of flying over
hostile position and wondering when the
enemy are going TO have short you
to cement the feeling OF comradeship be-
tween man and man.
The way in which We got an order to
go was peculiar. In the morning, Win
the new biplane, had done trial flight
regarding which, by the way, the ofncers
sent to see us do our tests showed the
greatest enthusiasm and greeted me with
applause which was quite embarrassing
In its cordiality After lunch Col Vasi-
lief came round and asked me IL / would
care to try a flight over and round
4Adrianople. / found afterward that this
was the polite formula for delivering an
order. In fact. we were scarcely ever
commanded to do this or that, but only
mildly asked If we should like to make
such and such an attempt None OF US.
however misunderstood the implication.
By $50 We were of. The wind was still
blowing but 1 don't think it was any
colder than it would have been in Eng
land at the same season.
First Trip About Adrianop1e.
Before we left our improvised aero
hrome on the west of Mustapha we
climbed TO about 1900 feet Our course
Law southeast along the River Martha,
SO by the city of Adrianople. across
corner of the town. then over the main
road to the very important nest of fort
resses on the northeast, and so in loop
home. 1t wasn't a very eventful journey.
There was a good deal of mist. and this
prevented satisfactory observation work
So thick was it that l was practically
over Adrianople station before l was
aware that I'd struck the town at all,
and on this occasion L got very little
view of the place. Once the fog cleared
enough to give me glimpse OF the land
mark l have mentioned-the Mosque of
north il swayed away from below us,
and we couldJ distinguish the puffs of
smoke from the cannon in the field. On
the whole 1 was grateful for that mist,
for / took the place at a ridiculous alti-
tude little over 1000 feet, and had II
been anything like clear weather We
must have offered a very fair mark to
the enemy; not indeed that l think an
aeroplane can ever offer a really good
,arLy- N
tance is too difficult to judge for that.
Still, in future l was careful to make
myself as difficult a mark as possible.
do not think, however, that we were
fired on at all during this journey.
though of course, a rife bullet might
have come very near. and so long as It
missed the planes We. should not have
noticed it. Though l crossed the place
twice arterward, once dropping bombs,
never did get a shot to my knowledge
tfll in a dense fog when crossing on my
way 10 Chorlu / was fired at several
times This time the atmosphere was so
dense that we couldn't see beyond the
nose OF the machine. My compass. which
had been placed too near the magnetic IN
the sef-starter on my engine was out of
order and / was compelled to fly fairly
low in the hope of picking up a lead
Suddenly, sharp and distinct above the
noise Of the engine heard below a series
Of rapsI say ''raps' because at the mo-
ment / was reminded Of somebody rap
ping violently with their knuckles on a
wooden table.
guessed its meaning Immediately; that
sound was shrapnel exploding, and l.
started climbing at once; but three or
four times more we caught that percus-
sfve crack before we rose out of hear
ing. It was certainly queer sensation,
the queerer because of our isolation up
there in the fog with nothing visible to
ourselves save the machine and the roll
ing clouds of vapor above, below and on
every side of US. We had heard a re-
port that the garrison possessed some
Krupp anti-seroplane guns, and the
shells may have been fired from these,
or may have been sporting shots from
some other piece of artillery trained to
as high a trajectory as possible.
Bomb Dropping.
Just why they let US pass over un-
noticed on several occasions when we
must have presented a comparatively
good mark, and then elected to fire at us
when we could only have been audible,
! am at a loss to conjecture. Possibly
We were flying lower than We thought;
possibly the noise of our engine was con-
veyed downward by the fog and they
thought we were nearer than We were.
Anyhow, 1 know both Popkrissteff and
myself were very reassured when We had
climbed to some 5000 feet and heard only
the purr OF our engine