Evening star., 1917-09-23
>rf11l Expl0its of Aces of the Air. i'm France

of planes. Adit- NJ. came back fron
America and worked for year as n
mechanician at Pau. Given his mono
plane he began to harry the Drachens
until his reputation as a dragon sley-
er became known all over the German
lines. The Drachens would collapse
suddenly at his coming; once three
planes came to attack him. so he fired
his incendiary fuses at them and they
fed. Another time he missed his ORA
chen and set fire to a Forage dump,
and when the soldiers ran UP 20 pue
the fire out. he put them out with HIS
machine gun from height OF nifty
yards. He makes IL a point never to
fly higher than 900 or 400 yards when
crossing the Boche lines, whereas most
of the aces" prefer $500 yards or more
for safety. On one occasion he set in
flames the protecting avion and the
Drachen within two minutes. On an
other occasion he was wounded in the
shoulder just as he was about to hurl
his fuse-s and the bomb missed He
swung about and was again about to
throw when another bullet hit his
thigh.
'I didn't feel that aone.' he says. IT
was too furious / had done too much
and they had done too much to me
perfect hall of incendiary bullets at
the Drachen and had the satisfaction of
seeing it burst into flames. Then I
tainted and got back behind the Brit
ish lines Heaven alone knows how!
Nv machine was ruined. German
plane was chasing me and the anti
aircraft guns were treating me to every
variety of shell in the world. it was q
miracle
The favorite stories OF the aces are
not all stories of successes. Lieut.. dn
s goes back to the earliest days of the
war when he was dying Bleriot and
was suddenly ordered to the southeast
of France to rescue machine from
the oncomtnG Boche. He was hurried
to the camp. some hundreds of miles
away struggling against retreating
civilian population and the remnants
of commissary department. When he
arrived he found six other aviators
there and no ayion. 1t had been de-
stroyed that morning TO save II from
the Boche. \ year passed before he
came over the ground again in an at
tack.
Another ace" is proudest of the fact
that he did not retreat from Belgium to
the Marne. but advanced. He was cap
tured in motor car by the Germans
and compelled to go with one of their
infantry columns. When their turn
came to retreat he escaped and re-
ioned his squadron.
Another. now dead. used always to
tell of his unique experience in trying
to lock planes with a German pilot
He had been sent up with the strictest
orders to keen German planes out OF
certain sector. because very impor-
tant parsonage would he visiting that
sector all dav on patrol he met
German. His gun jammed and ne had
nothing to do except to crash into the
German and bring both planes to the
ground He swung round. came at the
Boche full speed and closed his eyes
for the crash It did not come. The
German had fed back over his own
lines.
And finally there is the story of the
two aces who went up together one
fine autumn morning just for sport to
teach a Boche not to cross over their
landing ground. They got up to 1900
wards and the observer began to shoot
too soon. So the Boche quietly de-
scended. with the two aces after him.
They reached the ground almost at the
same time and then the Boche. who
happened to be friendly member of
the Royal Flying Corps. said. Excuse
me-
The two aces considered il too
lronic to ask to be excused because
he had not let himself be killed. But
they accepted his invitation to lunch
and poured a bit of wine over the ce-
ment of the entente cordiale.
The $4,000 aviators of the American
Army will be doing the work which
these aces" have done. They will in
addition take on the new infantry-liai-
son work of the avions, flying under
the barrage when an advance takes
place, instead of over il, and attacking
the German infantry in their trenches.
They will lombard munition dumps and
take photographs. they will scout and
will spot for guns. But chiefly they
will want to fight in the air They will
want mention in dispatches. And when
they know them. they will want to be
worthy of fighting beside the French
aces of diamonds.
Copyright 1917, by Edward Marshall)