The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-30

Snowden Hedley in London Chron-
icle: When 1 left Charing, Cross for
Sofia the war had already begun;
when / reached Mustapha Pasha u
had been given my ~aeroplane on the
side of the frontier n
flew it to the base there) the Turks
had already suffered three
at Seliolu, at Petra Ericklar and at
Kirk Kilisse. The investment OF
Adrianople was complete. The Bull
garian air corps was assembled at
Mustapha in an aerodrome near inc
river a. little way from the It's
equipment, considering the rapldlty
with which it had been gotten togeth-
err. was very good and thorough
There were in all eighteen machines
of various types and twelve pilots OF
various nationalities.
A certain number of Bulgarians had
already got their brevets at various
French aviation schools; amongst
them Lieutenant Petroff, who may be
termed the pioneer of Bulgarian AVA
ton. That the Organization was COM
nlete in every way is proved by the
fact that from start to finish We never
lacked a single spare part or single
drop of petrol. Flying was continual
I do not want the reader to think
that the flights ] describe were the
OnlN ONES "IllSi lJOh PA"CN
was the only actor in these opera
tons. Petroff, Sabelli (late instruc-
tor in the Hauriot school at Brook
lands), two Russian aviators, and sew
eral Bulgarians, all did splendid work.
and most of them were under fire on
more thai occasion.
From start to finish we had Won
derfully good fortune, and our only
CASUALTY from the opening of hostll-
sE..- - - ThAa a wnaiuffCo was % the
death of Lieutenant Tobracktchien,
who was burnt to death by an escape
of petrol after a fall on the airdrome,
This occurred two days before our
arrival.
I made my first attempt to fly over
Adrianople on the day after our ar
rival in a 100 horsepower Albatross
biplane, which had been allotted me,
and which / used throughout the cam
paign. AS my passenger Cor observ-
err I had NJ. Popkrissteff, a typical
Bulgarian officer and a capital fellow.
Our partnership was to last until at
ter the armistice, and we became
tremendous friends. l don't know any
experience like that of flying over a
hostile position and wondering When
the enemy was going to have a shot
at you, to cement the feeling OF COM
rateship between man n man.
- w "d0 Va Wv
to go was peculiar. l had done a trial
flight, regarding which, by the way,
the officers sent to see us do our tests
showed the greatest enthusiasm and
greeted me with applause which was
quite embarrassing in its cordially.
After lunch Colonel Vasilieff came
round and asked me if / would care to
try a flight over and around Adrian
Ople. found afterwards that this
was the polite formula of 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 n such an at
tempt. None of us, however, misun-
derstood the implication. BY $3.50
we. were off. The win was still
blowing. but / don't think it was any
colder than 1t would have been III
England at the am season.
First Trip Above AdrianoPle.
Before we left our improvised aero
drome on the west of Mustapha, we
climbed to about 1000 feet
Our course law southeast along the
river Martha, so by the city Of
Adrianople, across a corner of ths
town, then over the main road to the
very important nest of fortresses Oh
the northeast, and so in a loop home
It wasn't q very eyentful journey
There was a good deal of mist. and
this prevented satisfactory observa-
ton work. So thick was it that ] was
practically over Adrianople station
before / was aware that I'd struck
the town at all, and on this occasion
got very little view of the place
Once the fog cleared enough to give
me a glimpse Of the landmark 1 have
and as we came round on the nortf
tt swayed away from below us, ant