Ripley County democrat. (Doniphan, Mo.) 1905-1920, 1917-01-12
British Express Hope German
Pilot Was Not Killed or Sc
\, riously Injured.
cHINAlRY SHOWN N war
Only Question Among British AvIators
10 % to Whether Note Should He
Written In Poor German or
Good English.
By LOUIS EDGAR BROWNE.

correspondent OF chicago NeWs.)
British Advanced Base, near Amara,
Turkish Arabia. a.--"The British avia-
tors trust that the German pilot of the
Fokker airplnne which was shot down
yesterday was neither seriously In
tured nor killed"
Z This note was penned in English
hfter two hours wrangle In the avi-
alton camp over Its phraseology, and
!. ever whether 1t should be written In
had German or In good English. There
was not one dlssenter from the spirit
Of the message. The note was sealed
up In a canvas bag and dropped into
the Turkish lines addressed "The Ger
man Aviators."
The note was q return Of great
courtesy. Some time ago British
airplane tumbled to earth behind the
Turkish lines. Both pilot and observer
were killed. A few days later a pack
nge was dropped into the British aero
drome from q Turkish airplane. Safely
packed between two pillows were two
watches, two cigarette cases, ring,
eome other trlnkets and letter, which
In effect said;
"The German nviators with the
Turkish army regret the sad death Of
stwo very valiant hostile avlators. They
return the personal effects Of these
brave men, thinking that their moth
sers would like to have them"
Who says there is no chivalry In
modern warfaref
Turkish Gun Knocked Out.
When arrived at the aerodrome the
"birds' had just landed from their
morning scouting expeditions. The
daily "strnf" had been successful. Be-
tween mouthfuls Of melons they car
rled on a rapid-fire conversation con-
centrating on the topics "last nights
raid on the Turkish aerodrome," "what
happened to Fritz" and the mote to
the German aviators." They seemed
rather sorrowful because Fritz" and
his Fokker could no longer furnish
them diversion Of an evening.
"He was q brave man." said one
fiier.
eHow about the flght2 I suggested.
SIT was great CO." said one avIa-
tor. ."rhree Of our birds were up. One
was spctting for the guns and the
other two were acting as escorts.
Fritz deliberately came UP In big
avintik to take us all on. take my
hat of to that 'boche.' He was thor
ough sportsman"
When "Fritz" was sighted the fun
commenced, The three British ma
chimes went for him like streak Of
lightning. "Fritx" drove straight for
the nearest British machine. firing bis
machine gun through his propeller
The German pilot had two or three
narrow escapes, His big machine was
not mobile enough to even give him a
chance against such superior strength,
80 he descended. The three British
machines were left in possession Of
the air.
In about ten minutes a signal from
the ground flashed "hostile airplane
coming this direction" The three ma
chimes in the air prepared for battle.
In q few minutes the Tokker came Into
sight. Fritz" had gone down to get q
machine with mobility.
Clever Maneuvers In Flight.
Suddenly one OF the British ma
chimes made a dash at the Fokker, In,
tending to ram It. Both machines
were well over 5000 feet above the
earth. Had the British pilot been sue.
cessful and rammed the Fokker, both
would have tumbled to the ground.
"Fritz" apparently did not see the OBJ
ject Of the British pilot until there was
only about 200 feet Of intervening
space between the machines. The an
gle Of approach was 50 acute that the
Fokker had only one chance Of es-
cape and that was to dive toward the
earth. He turned the nose Of his ma
chine almost straight down. and tho
British machine, not being able to dive
30 steeply, passed above the Fokker.
The German pilots whole attention
was riyeted on righting his machine,
and during the 30 seconds that this
took another British machine went
underneath and found the range. On
oo ~, ~ 4hoaa ofry.lonoc fhoxo IL n fso :