Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-11-24
VIVID DESCRIPTION Of
FLIGHT OF AVIATOR
(By Lieutenant Dancourt, Aviator
with The Ercnrh ARMY

(By Lieutenant Dancourt, Aviator
with the French Army.)
Lieutenant Dancourt, one of the
two aviators who dropped bombs or
the krupp works of Essen has writ
ten the following account of his ex.
perience, which appeared in a re.
cent issue of the New York Times:
Indeed it was very simple as you
will see by these extracts from my
logbook, where / consigned some OF
my impressions during my journey.
l would remind you first that two
French aeroplanes, one plotted by
Captain Beauchamps, the other by
me, effected the raid. Our prepura-
tons and the way planes were fitted
cannot be described here. being, am
afraid, considered as a military Sc
eret, but it might interest you to
know that the machines were of Brit
ish design.
Although the distance to be covered
was pretty nearly 500 miles, il was
not to brighten me. had had ex-
tensive training for seven years, and
have always been specialist for
long distances. rs witness inv partici-
patton in the Circuit de Paris, 500
miles; La Coupe Pomery of 1912 $40
miles; the Paris-Bcrlin race in 1918,
600 miles, and my great journey,
Varna, Constantinople. Konia, Adana,
and finally Syria. over 5000 miles.
You can understand that after a
journeys of that length the idea of
going to bomb Essen seemed to me
very feasible. OF course there were
huns planes, but, as you will see,
that did not prevent us doing what
we wanted to
Now, here are my notes, which
are brief but complete. Taking them
was nearly my own distraction dur
ing the seven hours that my flight
lasted.
IL a. m.-My friend Beauchamp
has just gone and l followed two
minutes later, 1000 yards up, 1000
5000, we kept on getting higher and
higher. The weather is clear with
just few clouds over 5000. The air
is distinctly cold We continue going
round and rouni meeting every few
seconds some friendly planes which
either go toward the Boches' lines or.
return from there. AT last we reach
the proper height, get nearer each
other, exchange few signals. when
flying side side at fifty yards
from one another, and we 20 straight
At first orientation is easy. There
is yellowish zone without any vepi
tation where the earth has been
ploughed by millions of shells, bury
ing the living and throwing out the
dead. Broken lines run here and
there. There are various trenches or
ways of communication. All this
district is marked b. thousands upon
thousands of craters which come out
with uncanny clearness. The opaque
fog of smoke shows there must be
an artillery fight in progress but
don't hear anything. My engine, 60
ing beautifully. makes a devil of
row.
- MI P, M.-Full over the
Boches' lines
We are seen and tho anti-aircraft
guns start. a curtain fire, little
forward, but too high, while puffs of
the II make line of smoke which I
have got to cross. Soon the shots
become, more and more numerous
Three hundred shots at least must
have been fired in a few minutes
time.
After a time l get right into the
smoke of the bursting shells and 1
can near pieces of steel whistle near
very near. Oh! A Boche gunner rec
tiles his range, but he is too low now.
So | go higher still and l pass
NOW. there are shots on my left
which burst with black smoke-1O5
calibre shells. This is getting more
serious.
The shots get nearer l point to-
ward the left slightly and all of a