Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-08-04
..;.ted Press Correspondence

A
'.ir, No sound is more familiar at
. o." front where the artillery is never
r ne sound of a shell breaking
w.. . gun muzzle and it's shrill flight
,..u..rd the enemys line to pay the
H.,nans back for some shell they
have sent.
ONLY this whish did not pass out
| ,,e, the landscape in a long parabola
-, toward the German lines. 1t went
r,,bt ND into the heavens at about the
,rple of a skyrocket-for it was
archibald who was on the job.
Six or seven thousand feet over the
tp,,tish trenches there was something
az big as your hand against the light
nina of the summer sky. This was
the target-German aeroplane. BY
hhe cut of its wings You knew it was
a Taube Just as you know a meadow
dark from a swallow.
So high was it that it seemed al
most stationary. But it was going
somewhere between fifty and ninety
miles an hour. 1t seemed to have all
the heavens to itself; and to the
British it was a sinister prying eye.
II wanted to see If they were building
any new trenches, if they were moving
bodies Of troops or Of transport In
some new direction and where their
batteries were in hiding. That aviator
three miles above the earth had many
waiting guns at his command. A few
signals from his wireless and they
he
kseated.
Other features of life at the front
NAV grow commonplace but never the
& work of the planes-these wings of
the army's intelligence. In the hide
EAnd seek digging and lodging and
4 coufltering of siege warfare the sight
III a plane under shell fire never loses
/ its thrill
If the planes might fly as low as
I they pleased they might know all that
vas going on over the lines. They
must keep up so high that through the
ayiator's glasses a man on the road is
. the size of a pin-head., To descend
low is as certain death as to put your
head over a parapet Of a trench when
the enemy's trench is only a hundred
yards away. There are dead lines in
the air no less than on the earth.
Archibald. the anti-air craft gun,
sets the dead line. He watches over
it as a cat watches a mouse. The
trick of sneaking up under the cover
, Of a monday cloud and all the other
man-bird tricks he knows.
A couple OF seconds after that
cracks tiny puff of smoke breaks
about a hundred yards behind the
Taube. A soft thistle blow against
The blue it seems at that altitude; but
II wouldn't if it were about your ears.
Then il would sound like a bit OF
dynamite on an anvil struck by a
hammer and you would hear the whizz
, of scores Of bullets and fragments
about your ears.
The smoking brass shell case is out
Of Archibalds steel throat and another
she'll case with its charge slipped IN
is place and started on its way be-
lore the first puff breaks. The aviator
knows what is coming. He knows
that one means many once he is in
Range.
Archibald rushes the fighting: it is
i HE business of the Taube to sidestep.
The aviator can not hit back except
through its allies. the German bat
Eferias, on the earth. They would take
snfee Of Archibald if they knew where
sGAs. But all that the aviator can
Ii notified landscape. From his
~ Archibald flies no goal flags. He
lie ef ten thousand tiny objects un-
: thB 4viators' eye.
\tthtba1d's propensities are entirely
kel1c. He is the vagabond OF
a~5flE lines. Locate him-and he
Svne. His home is where night
him and the days duties take
1k f3b ID the only gun which keeps
Siar hours like Christian gentle
All the others-Ereat and small
M voiced and shrfll voiced-fire
~. Hour night or day. Aeroplanes
~ UP at night; and when no
teCn tAes are up Archibald has no
Interest in the war. But he is on the
Alert Al the arst flush Of dawn on the
I6oko1k Tor game with avidity of
Ecintef dog; for the aviators are also
III early.
II # Why he was named Archibald no
4 body knows, but II there were ten
thousand anti guns In the
I hitish a4inay everyone would be
fkewxls an Archibald. When the
M Akpeditionary Force went to
y It had none. All the British
= lido was to bang away at Taubes
IA k<sSrra S1Aa ~ ro,,nAs ~ rita hyf1.
which might fall in their own
HIS Md with the field guns.
a M pie in those days for the
aeeA It wasseasy to keep out Of
rAAos Of both rifles and guns and
observe vii. II the Germans did not
Know the progress Of the British re-
treat frorn on. high 1t was their own
SsuN Now the business Of firing at
aauoes Is left entirely to ARCHIBALD.
k"nen you see how hard it , ID Tor
Ascnioald after all his practice to ket
Iauoe you understand how foolish
was Tor the field guns to try to ct
Neh'nald who is quite the ewellest
."ns IN the army. has his own private
quilt especially for him. While
the cavalry horses back OF the iine4
s eio~ seek rom inaction the AerD-
~, p,snes nave taken their place. All
$50 he romance and risk of scouting are
sn neifs' They get most of the fun
AH.. Is in this kind of warfare. If
sa. ..'sn aviator gets days leave. he
roes NOT take a train and steamer. He
s1eeS from the aviation cr,-o,cAu q hout