Omaha daily bee., 1916-10-31
WHEN ARCHIE SENDS
UP AN ONION, DUCK
English Airmen Tell of Perilous
Flights in Bomb Swept
Clouds. !
HOW BRAVE MEN THINK

HOW BRAVE MEN THINK
| Correspondence Of The Associated Press.)
London, Oct. N.-"Its all right SO
long as you can't see 'ens or hear
EN-" said Tommy" Brennan, of the
Royal Flying corps; but any man
who tells you he can fly over an
Archie and get a flaming onion
right ahead of him without ducking
and wishing they wouldn't come so
close or make 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 'Bren' over there says,
it wouldn't be so bad If you couldn't
see and hear EN-. Generally speak
ing you don't hear them unless one
happens to break within thirty yards
or SO of you. It's when you get down
close to them and look right down at
them splitting fire at you, that's when
you have got to have every nerve in
your body tuned to the minute"
i "l'll never forget the first time
they got close to me-" declared, boy"
lTylie. my only thought was that
III would never Shoot pheasant
again. | knew exactly how a bird
must feel when a hunter opens fire."
i Brennan wore upon his left sleeve
the gold stripe Of the wounded." Gil'
/ had been on the official list of the
killed in action some weeks ago, but
somehow or other came back to life
When Brennan was "hit" and finally
came down safely within his own
lines, it was found there were no
less than eighty perforations in his
wings.
Gets Too Low.
4 N"I was SO interested in looking
over their trenches | guess l.got a
little too low" he explained.
There is nothing more interesting
in all London than to sit through q
long autumn evening talking to the
youngsters Of the wonderful aviation
A service Great Britain has almost mi
raculously built up since the war be-
gan.
! 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
il they don't know what they are
shooting ati They don't dare send
a plane over our lines. They don't
even dare approach. The minute
they show themselves we have an
! overwhelming number of machines to
send after them and they beat it
for home again as fast as they can
60. They can't take photograph
!, OF our new positions. Their batteries
have been driven from the heights
and they can't observe. 1t is big
difference from the first days Of the
war"
Associating much with Britain's
flying men one will soon learn that
an Archibald" usually called EAR
CHEZ for short, is an anti-aircraft
gun,
4 - Archie Banks.
"'Archie' barks at you" said Bren-
nan. He goes wool, wool, wool
He isn't comfortable to listen to,
either, but its 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 quieter spot just as fast as the
air will get out Of your way and let
you through You can't imagine how
much that old atmosphere gets in
your way when you are really in a
, hurry
Il When you get on speaking terms
!. with machine gun you knpw that
|, it talks with putt, putt, putt" The
|. ordinary hand rifle. which, often
, takes a shot at you when you gel
, too close to the trenches, goes crack
crack, crack" just as everyone ex.
!, poets rifle to go.
,, "A flaming onionl Well, that looks
for all the world like an eight-candle'
power electric light bulb coming al
you. Then all Of sudden it breaks
into nice little ribbons of fire thai
dart apd float through the air li.e
so many blazing serpents. TheyNare
1. very disagreeable, these onions. Their
. one desire Nm life is to set you ablaze
and explode your petrol tank" One
thing the American always has to re-
! member over here is that gasoline
J or just plain "gas" as the motorists
, and flying men call it at home, has
no place in the English lexicon. |,
is petrol" just as lieutenant, al,
though spelled lieutenant, is pro-
nounced "lcftenant."
When Shell Bursts.
!, Several OF the young wing" SUBJ
alterns were waiting for the Hickey
boos" to come over the other night
when they fell into a heated discus.