Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-08-09
"A" Flight, No. 3 Squadron.
Royal Flying Corps,
British Expeditionary Force.
July 7, 1915.

British Expeditionary Force.
July 7. 1915.
My dear Mother:
Your letter Of June Goth arrived
yesterday so as I have a few mo-
ments to spare (for a wonder) will
take advantage of them to reply. I
think I can safely say that the past
two weeks have been the busiest Of
my experience during the war. From
daylight until dark I have been in the
air most Of the time and I have had
some strenuous moments. For instance
only yesterday I was miles over the
enemy country. escorting a two-seater
machine on photography work with
my single-seater Bullet" There
were numerous clouds and we were
flying above these and taking photos
through the gaps, when we met up
with Hun machine who attempted to
interfere. In the fight that followed
the photo machine disappeared behind
another cloud and when 1 eventually
beat the Hun down, l could not see
my machine, but followed the direc-
ton in which l had last seen it and
when I came through the cloud, there
was my machine with no less than
five Huns around it and giving 1t
poor time We had run smack into a
bunch of them. Believe me, there
was some fun for the next few min
utes. I dived straight at the nearest
one, emptying my machine gun as l
went and he went down. In the
meantime one Of our machines hap
pened to be not far away and he came
up to join in the scr; p. He was quite
welcome, l assure you, for there We're
still four machines to our two and
the bullets were too numerous and
close for comfort and holes were be-
ginning to appear in my plane. Then
went at another, missed him, and
ran out of ammunition. While put
ting a fresh drum Of cartridges on my
gun with one hand and trying to con-
troll my machine with the other at the
same time trying to do a steep turn
towards the Huns lost control of the
machine for a minute and she went
into a spin" and dropped thousand
feet before l could pull her out of it.
When she did, l found myself right
over one of the Hun machines, he ap-
parently thought l was diving at
him and in his frantic attempts to get
out of my way he went into a spin
and did not regain control before the
machine crashed to earth. This dis
posed of another one and the remain
ing three finding themselves on more
equal terms, gave up the fight and
dived away to earth where we could
not follow. l came through alright
but the pilot of the other machine had
a bullet through his leg and his OBJ
server was hit in the face flying
fragment) but we got our photos and
didn't leave until we were ready. On
the whole, I think l rather enjoyed it,
though OF course, l was scared blue
too. This is only o ,e incident but will
give you a slight idea of flying on ac-
tive service. The Huns are more ac-
tive now since the offensive began,
but we still have to go over to their
side to find them. They wait for us
over there. but never attack unless
their machines outnumber ours at the
time.
Visited the trenches we have driven
the Huns from recently and they are
an awful mess. Our artillery is now
giving the Huns taste Of what theJ
gave us at the beginning Of the war
and since. l cannot tell you any
more. for obvious reasons, but no
doubt you have read from the papers
more than 1 could ever tell you. All I
can say is that everything is going
we'll and this is the beginning Of the
end.
l wish you would not be so pessi-
mistic over the alleged German
Naval Victory" Where is the vic
tory? They came out on another
raiding expedition, were intercepted
by Beatty with an inferior fleet until
the Main Fleet came up then scuttled
back to Kiel, losing ships all the way.