The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-30
English Airman Tells Of Flying
Over Adrianople in a Biplane

we could distinguish the puffs of
smoke from the cannon in the field.
On the whole | was grateful for that
mist, for l took the place at a ridicu-
lous altitude, little over 1000 feet,
and had it been anything like clear
weather We must have offered a very
fair mark to the enemy not indeed
that I think an aeroplane can ever
offer a really good mark; it moves
too rapidly and its distance is too
difficult to judge for that. ,
Still, in future l was careful to
make myself as difficult a mark as
possible. .
l do not think, however, that we
were fired on at all this journey,
though of course a rifle bullet might
have come very, near, and so long as
it missed the planes we should not
have noticed it. Though / crossed the
place twice afterwards, once drop
ping bombs. l never did get a shot
to my knowledge till in a dense fog
when crossing on my way to Chorlu
l was fired at several times. This
time the atmosphere, was 81 dense
that We couldn't see beyond the nose
Of the machine. My compass, which
had been placed too near the mag
neto in the self starter on my engine
vas out of order, and I was COMPEL
Gu 10 LILY 1dlIly low III the uopS u
picking up a lead" .
Suddenly, sharp and distinct above
the noise ofthe engine, 1 heard below
a serious of raps-I say "raps" be-
cause at the moment l vas reminded
of somebody rapping violently with
their knuckles on a wooden table. s
l guessed its meaning Immediately;
that sound was shrapnel exploding,
and I started climbing at once; but
three or four times more we caught
that persuasive crack before we rose
out of hearing. 1t was certainly a
queer sensation, the queerer because
with nothing visible to ourselves save
the machine and the. rolling clouds
Of vapor above, below, and on every
side of us. We had heard a report
that the garrison possessed some
Krupp an~ti-aeroplane guns, and the
these. or nay have been sporting
shots" from some other piece of arr
tiilery trained to as high a trajectory
as possible.
5enh Dropping.
Quite why they let us pass over UNI
| 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 aud
ibie, ! am al a loss to conjecture.
Possibly we were flying lower than
we thought; possibly the noise of our
| engine was conveyed downwards by
the fog and they thought we were
nearer than we were. Anyhow I
know both Popkrissteff and myself
were very treasured when we had
clumbed to some 5000 feet and heard
only the purr of our engine. l
Most of us took our turn at bomb
dropping. / did so both at Adrianople
and Tchatalja. The first of my ex-
periences was a representative one.
The day chosen was very clear; the
| clearest we had, l think; and Pop
krissteff and / got off about s a.. m,
the latter holding on his knees three
ordinary percussion s%harpnell shells.
We rose to about 1000 feet after we
left the aerodrome, but long before
we reached that altitude we could
see ove Mustapha and the rolling
downland beyond it, the city OF
AdrianopIe, like a. blotch of purple
gray, and the four white minarets Of
the mosque.
we flew our usual course. passed
over one of the main forts on the south
at about 5000 feet, then turned of
to our left and crossed right yer the
town, an indistinguishable tumble u
houses, minarets, and domes, cut by
intersecting streets, and so or till we
were over the cluster of important
forts on the northeast of the place
From these occasionally a puff oi
smoke was distinguishable, and here
| thought it we'll to carry out my OPP
erations. as the works lie closer to-
gether, and my chance of producing
some effect was therefore the better
Our machine wasn't fitted with any
mechanism for the discharge of mis-
siles (nor. indeed, were any of tbs