The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1914-12-04
SEES A BATTLE
FAR UP IN THE
AIR OVER YPREs
Correspondent Watches Lively
Conflict of Aviators From
ShrapneI Swept Road.
FRENCH BALLOON is SAVED
Aeroplanes Rush to the Rescue and
Drive Away German Taube After
an Exciting Fight-Teuton Es-
capes by Clever Ruse.

Chicago.-Edgar Ansel Mowrer, in ;
dispatch to the Chicago Daily News
gives this interesting description o
his experience on the fighting line il
Belgium:
l had not gune five miles on my way
On foot frem Furnes to Ypres last Sun
day before heard cannon booming or
my left. This intermittent thunder
accompanied me on my entire journey
| was, however, too attentive to my
difficult task to take more than pass
Ing notice of this.
The task was that Of passing the
French lines and reaching Ypres with
put being stopped, since l already had
found that the French refused to re-
spect Belgian "laissez passer" (per-
NIT to pass). I accordingly wrapped
myself tightly in a waterproof coat,
| though the day was warm, thus hoping
to conceal my too American cut
clothes and suspicious pair of field
glasses
All the Flemish are incessant pipe
smokers, and my only chance to pass
the line was to be taken for Belgian.
Accordingly, during five hours / filled,
lighted, smoked, emptied and refilled
my pipe, the effects of which were far
more deadly than anything l had
hitherto undergone.
The day was magnificently clear,
with a bright sun, which is rare in
Flanders. Moreover, the country ly-
ing back from the sea had been I'M
touched by the war. l had become
so used to seeing RACED and deserted
farms and an aimlessly wandering
population that the sight of this tiny
corner so far spared, though perfect
ly natural, produced a profound i'm
preston.
Paris Buses Like Old Friends.
In one place passed about twenty
of the Paris automobile buses, which
had disappeared from the city within
an hour after the call to arms They
had travelled far and were hardly rec
ognizable in their present mud stained
aspect, yet l welcomed them as be-
comes old friends.
Here is the camp of the Zouaves,
of all French troops the most terrible. |
Usually they are short, stocky men |
of considerable strength.
Farther along a convoy of artillery |
filed by. First came innumerable |
wagons and caissons, each drawn by
four horses; then came several long.
heavy six-inch cannon needing six ami
mails and then more caissons. Last
came few great howitzers, the guns
being dismounted from
their enormous carriages and carried
The bores of these guns must have
been ten inches in diameter, but they
we're not more than five feet in length.
Each carriage was drawn by eight
strong horses on which artillerymen
sat jauntily. A few walked beside
the long caravan.
Again / met detachment of cav
airy, mounted chasseurs in light blue
coats and red trousers and heavy
,uirassiers in breastplate and helmet,
he latter invisible under a cover Of
chamois skin. Then came infantry
and then more Zouaves.
Sees First Aeroplane.
Ate, two hours / noticed the first
French machine, which
lowered lightly overhead, circling
-ound and round. From that time on
me was continually visible. The avia-
ion station seemed to be somewhere
lmong the fields to the right Of the
Dad.
When, about three o'clock, reached
he village of Weston l remarked a
angular agitation among both the vii
ayers and the soldiers CHARTERED in
he town. Looking high in the air,
GLOWING their glapces, noticed three
uffs of white smoke and almost i'm
nediately I heard the telltale report
8 the German shrapnel burst immedi-
tely above us. At the same time two
eroplanes rose from the field to the
light of the village and flew at full
peed southeastward, rising higher
nd higher.
A<OOhiA6 lol nhCuQ III tiC I'LL GU Inv |
I the road, noticed a captive balloon {
nd far to the left tiny spark fioated
a the sky. Nothing else was visible {
) the naked eye. / dared. not use
ny field glasses and, besides, my at
ention was taken by the shrapnel
,hich was bursting directly over the
Dad must follow.
All the soldiers present chung to
he cover of trees. The peasants,
owever, were totally unafraid and
lade no attempt to follow what to me
as a natural impulse and crawl I'M
er something. II
For perhaps five miles I continued
nder constant fire of shrapnel. The
purse of the road below was marked l
/ the air above by line Of little q