The Alaska daily empire., 1916-05-11


 one hour and l5 minutes, one hour and 15 minutes of this at height of l7 200 feet
 The barometer worked perfectly and ] flow all over the neighborlng country. which consisted of dense woods, large cities and small towns, and certainly enjoyed my stay in lthe air of thls altitude, although it was terribly cold, and was glad to descend once again to mother earth.
 The recording barometer having worked satisfactorily. was given my military breyet by the officials
 At last ] received the order to so to the front That night five other pilots and myself left for a point o few miles outside of Paris where We found the six machines awaiting us the next morning
 The six of us visited the Captain in charge, who ordered us to fly that day to the aviation headquarters near ---, 150 Kilometres from Paris.
 Maps in cases and compases were furnished us A flight of ten min utes demonstrated to us that my ap- partus was In perfect condition. At I D. no. the next day, the six of us started up at few minutes inter vals on our journey. Upon attaining height of 1000 kllometers the six of us sailed from -
 The journey Q short one, seemed very long to me. Several times with the aid of field glasses l could sec far below me thousands of soldiers marching toward the battle front. Al ter flying for an hour and a half the portable hangars of the temporary aviation headquarters, just to the south of -- appeared visible. A few minutes later l was directly ov CT them.
 Shutting off the motor I volplanet down in a spiral glide. The six ol us had made the flight of 150 kilo meters without mishop
 was anxious to get Into the fray at the earliest possible moment, az immediately reported to the com manding officer, who appointed one of his juniors to accompany me as observer on my flights-the firs to be made that morning.
 The next morning at o'clock m, observer, who was able to speal good English, and l were up anC anxious to fulfill the work before us. A heavy fog was a great disap pointment to me and caused grea delay in our start.
 It was at least 10 o'clock before the Captain would permit us to gel away on our flight Our coudse haC been prepared. and 1t was the duty of my observer to make notes o the movement of the German troops Several other machines started away at the same time, Rising to a height of 1000 feet headed the machine towards --. The flight lasted 2 little more than an hour, and proved to be intensely exciting.
 At times it was impossible to sec the earth directly along the line oi battle owing to the terrible bonn bardment that was going on. The smoke was so dense 1t seemed as il we were almost flying above the clouds.
 We penetrated the German line foi a distance of half q dozen miles where the actual movement of troops was going on. the data on which were quite important to the French. There appeared to us vast columns of sol diers that in the winding roads seemed like big snakes crawling slow ly along.
 From our extreme height it was hardly possible to make out the direc tion the troops were travelling. but after circling over the point for 10 minutes, my observer detected with the aid of glasses the direction in which they were heading.
 In one hour of flying the observer who accompanied me had sufficient time to note nearly every action of troops belonging to the Germans we had flown over, and upon alighting his notes immediately were dispatch ed to the front Four machines were dispatched to raise havoc with the troops that were on the march.
 The next morning at 8 o'clock I was ordered to duplicate the flight had made the day before. The day being Q hay one it was quite diffi- cult to see the activity upon the ground underneath us from our es. tablished elevation or 1000 feet. SO a descent was made to level of 4,000 feet which made the flight a rather dangerous undertaking.
 was very surprised at not being brought down by the German fire. Subsequent examination of the wings and body showed that they had been penetrated by six bullets A small circle drawn with crayon around each hole. together with the date and time of my flight. served for future refer ence. In the early part of the after noon on the same day was ordered to make another flight over the bat ting armies. The cloudy sky proved to be excellent for both observation and bomb dropping. as 1t enabled us to fly at a ridiculously low height, my apparatus being obscured from time to time by low-lying clouds.
 After flying about half an hour at a 5000 foot altitude, we sighted the Germans few miles away. My ap- paratus was then flashing in and out of the clouds, presenting a rather ] dlllln..lA An...-oL