Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1914-10-08
AIRMEN DIE AFTER
DUEL ABOVE EARTH
Russian Aviator Brings Down Aus
trians and All Drop from
Clouds to Death.
EPISODE OF A FIERCE BATTLE
officer, Pretending In
jury, Telephones from Rear
of Russian Line 20 Direct
Artillery Fire.

Copyright, 1914. by Press Publishing Coz
PETROGRAD, oct. 7-(Special Cable
gram to the New York World and Omaha
Bee.)A rough wooden cross marks the
spot in Galicia where Nestcroff, the cele-
brated Russian aviator. fell from his aero
plane after winning a duel with an Aus
trian flying machine.
! The day before Nesterorr sacrificed his
! life. three Austrian aircraft had flown
over the Russian forces and dropped
bombs. When they appeared again, Mes
teroff flew to a height of about 1000
meters. As one of the Austrian machines
approached, Nesteroff descended In a
spiral line striking the Austrian areo-
plane a glancing blow. so that it dropped
to earth like a stone.
NesterOff Falls to Death.
| For a minute or two. Nesterofrs ma
chine appeared to be uninjured, for II
continued to move along smoothly. Then
| it seemed to have received a violent
shock. 1t lurched unnaturally and fell
headlong. Nesteroff was spilled from his
seat and struck the earth before his
machine did.
His body was picked up in swamp
short distance from where the bodies of
two dead aviators of the Austrian air
craft were found.
Ruse OF Austrian.
How an Austrian army officer. by lying
ION the battlefield and pretending to be
badly wounded, operated a telephone and
furnished details of the Russian army's
approach, is told of by the commander
of Russian company brought here for
l. cd
during the battle near Djukovistchi on
the Russian-A Austrian frontier.
The Russians, in the face of persistent
machine gun fire. had pushed the Au-
strians back for a great distance and
finally came within 100 PAGES of them.
The subsequent sharpshooting Of the
cars men was so effective that the
Austrians fled heller SHELTER. In the
distance could be seen the rear lines Of
the Austrians retreating. The Russians
gave chase.
Found n "N s~nded" Man.
I'm passing over a field" said the
wounded Russian officer, in describing
the telephone incident. I'VE noticed a
wounded Austrian officer of artillery.
His leg was bandaged, and he was groan-
ing as though in great pain. Without
paying any attention to him. we pressed
on at a running speed. Suddenly a can
non shot exploded near us. then a sec
ond and third The company ran down
a ravine and lay low. minute later
the shots began to fall around us. Just
before us was a deep swamp. We turned
to the right and hastily occupied a small
hillock In less than half a minute the
artillery shots followed again.
Discovers the Wire.
Your honor. cried the section leader
a wire,
I'VE perceived a telephone wire on the
ground which we Immediately cut. Al
the same time our battery opened fire
and soon silenced the enemy. We were
soon relieved by the reserve company
and retreated to the hollow where we
were to rest. -
ION the way back took two men with
me and resolved to find out where the
wire led to. We followed it and 1t brought
US to the artillery officer with the band
aged leg We lifted him up and found
that he had small telephone apparatus
under him. We took off his bandages
There was no wound
In the fighting which followed. the
Russian officer was shot through the
hand and shoulder. He was taken to
Xenia hospital, Rovno, where Sister OF
Mercy dressed his wounds. The next day
when leaving the hospital for Kieff. the
officer learned that the Sister was Grand
Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. His com.
ment was: II could only pray to God tC
bless her, sweet Sister of Mercy" Many
Russian warriors will remember her name
with gratitude and tell their children what
a great task she took upon her, ''ths
sister of the emperor, Sister Of Mercy