Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1916-05-03
PUTS PRICE ON
HEAD OF DARING
French AVIATOR
German Government Wants
"Corsair of the Air." Dead
or Alive.
LEADER OF BOMBING RAIDS
Has Caused Damage of Grievous Kind
and With Persistency That Seems
to Know No Limit-Reward of
$3.50 Is Offered.

Paris.-On the head of one man in
the French army the German govern
ment has put a price. This man has
caused them damage of a grievous
kind and with persistency which seems
to know no limit.
The sum of $4,000 marks t$6,250)
will be paid for Captain x. of the
French aviation service dead or alive.
The French government has been very
careful to avoid giving his name. and
it is believed the Germans know him
only by description.
It was Captain X who three success
sive times went to lombard the Ger
man powder and ammunition factory
at Rottweil, in Wuerttemberg. On each
occasion he performed an extraordi-
nary feat.
The sobriquet of "corsair of the air.
has been given to him. Some of his ex-
ploits partake of the ruthless vigor
of the true pirate.
Captain X is the principal leader
of the French bombing expeditions,
and he seems like hero who has
dropped out of a romantic novel. Dan
ger is his very life, and he plays with
it so that his adventures during the
war have been almost fantastic.
He began by being made prisoner
as a result of an injury to his motor
which obliged him to descend in neu-
trail country, but he succeeded in OBJ
tanning his release. When he returned
to France he was sent to the eastern
frontier for active service.
Though he demands much from his
subordinates, he sets a good example
himself. When he goes out with them
for q bombardment each of the ma
chimes carries a special sign. He takes
his position about eight thousand feet
above the object to be destroyed, while
his COMPANIONS are discharging their
missiles.
Through his glasses he watches the
results and notes the points which
have been struck and the actual dam
age done and makes record OF 1t all
In his notebook. When the others
have completed their work the captain
descends in a spiral, aims with precl-
sion and delivers the final, and gen.
erally the most fatal, blows to the
enemy property.
Guards His Flock.
He waits to Judge the effects of his
work and then he starts for home,
escorting his men and acting as
faithful dog does to the flock, hurrylng
IN the assistance of those who may
need it. 1t is not without having run
the most serious kinds of risks that he
has become the terror of the Germans.
During one bombardment he fought
with a large German aviatik armed
with two machine guns. His Whole
machine was seriously damaged Dy
shots. a number Of important parts
of the apparatus being cut and torn
hut he continued on into German ter
ritory and went direct to railway sta
ton and factory which he had set Out
70 lombard. carried out his mission
and returned safely to his base.
The first time he went to attack the
nowder factory of Rottweil was on
March 3. 1915. The journey lasted
five hours and twenty minutes. Ten
minutes after he began the attack on
the nlant a conflagration was noticed
beneath him, and he realized that ne
had destroyed at least an important
mart of it. He had brought TOUR large
shells with him and he descended very
low in order to deliver his attack so
that each of the shells struck nome.
One of them landed in the mixing
basin of nitric acid and glycerine ana
the others fell on the buildings.
FLAMES at once arose and the smoke
made a column forty-five hundred feet
high. .
His next important bombardmens
was at the railway station which the
French authorities indicated as Y. 10