Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-21
STORIES OF THE WAR
With the Flying Squad.

! v see 'em, or hear 'em,'' said Tommy" Brennan, of the Royal Flying Corps; but any mar who tells you he can fly over an Archie and get a flaming onion right ;.heade cf him without 6ucking and wishist. they wouldn't come so close or maiSe so much noise. has never been up in an aeroplane. Take it from me-
 Yes put in Gilray, and every time you duck your old winger ducks with you. As aBren' over there says, it wouldn't be so bad if you couldn't see and hear 'em. Generally speaking you don't hear ti.em unless one hap pens to break within thirty yards or so of you. It's when you get down close to them and look right at them splitting fire at you, that's when you have got to nave every nerve in your ! body tuned to the iniiiute."
 |, Brennan wore upo:i his left sleeve the gold stripe of the wounded "Gil' rad been on the official list of the killed in action some weeks ago, out somehow or other came back to life. When Brennan was Init" and finally came down safely within his own lines, 1t was found there were no jess than eighty perforations in his wings.
 T was so interested in looking over their trenches I guetss I got a little too low" he explained.
 There IS nothing more interesting in all London than to sit through long autumn evening talking to the y8ung- sters of The wonderful aviation service Great Britain has almost miraculous ly built up since the wur began.
 We've got the Germans now where they have to fire blindly or shoot by the map" these intrepid men of the air will tell you. "Of what use are their wonderful guns ii they don't Enow EI Waat they are shooting at? They don't dare send a plane over our iites. They don't even dare. approach. The minute they show themselves we have an overwhelming number of ma chimes to send after them and they beat it for home again as fast as they can go. They can't take a photograph of our new positions Their batteries have been driven from the heights and they cant observe. It is a big dif- ference from the first days of .he war"
 Associating much with Britain's flying men one will soon learn that an Archibald" usually called "Archie" for short, is an anti-air craft gun.
 Archie barks at you'' sad Bren- nan. He goes i,Foof. wool wool He isn't comfortable to listen to, either, but it's when you get down a little nearer to earth and the machine guns get to working that you feel you have got to do what you set out to do right quickly and get started to some quleter spot just as fast as the air will get out of your way and let you through. You can't imagine low much that old atmosphere gets in your way when you are really in a harry
 When you get on speaking terms with s machine gun you know that it talks with putt, putt, putt" The ordinary hand rifle, which often takes a shot at you when you get too close crack" just as everyone expects a rifle to go.
 "A flaming onion? We'll, that looks for all the world like an eight candle power electric light bulb coming at you. Then ali of su,.en it breaks 1n- and float through the air like so many blazing aerperts. They are very dis agreeable, these Onions. Their one de- sire inc life is to set you ablaze and explode. fgour petrol tank.s GOne thing the American always has to remem- per over here is that gasoline, or just plain gas" as the motorists and fly ing men call 1t at home, has no place in the English lexicon. It is 'petrol'' just as lieutenant, althought spelled lieutenant, is pronounced '1eftenant. ]. Several of the young wing s1b- alterns were waiting for the Hickey DOGS" to come over the other night when they fell into a heated discussion as to whether you H ouId rather have a shell break right ahead of you, right beneath you CT right over you. There were these who contcnded it was best to have it break right in flont, for then the explosion would spread the fragments and let you pass Safely through the spot where the blooming beast cracked"
 The others contend that a shell 1reaking on the level with you indi- cated that Archie had his fuses timed just a bit too accurately for pleasure flying and that it was safer to take chances from the fragments coming from beneath or above This was one discussion in which the in- nocent bystander had no part. He learned, however. thdt shrapnel from an "Arcfie'' jumps at you with a
 bang; that it locks like a white puff-ball as it breaks in daylight and like the starry shower of a rocket as it explodes by night.
 When "shrap" eXplodes beneath the tail of your machine you feel as if you were going to loop the loop in the wrorg direction. WhSn it breaks in front, you feel as if you very much wanted to do "Hipfap" backwards in