The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-11-15
PAGE THREE

tically invisible when they reach any
great height, and they al get back
home and make their landing without
very great danger.
When aeropianes are late coming In
1t Is very interesting to watch the
rockets being sent up to guide them
to their landing grounds. These rock
cts are of different colors and are sent
up at regular intervals until the ma
chine Is either safely back or is given
up for lost. When the machine Is sight
ed and is circling down toward the
ground big flares are lighted, SO as to
enable the aviator to pick his spot for
landing. The whole thing Is ~scientif-
kally arranged, and there are not many
accidents in this part of the work.
One Of the most daring parts of the
air work is the dropping Of spies be-
hind the enemy's lines. l believe this
goes on on both sides and In many
cases is successful. The second time
! was going on leave to England I had
made arrangements to 60 with one of
u fellows from the flying corps. We
were to start on a Mondey morning.
and on the Friday before he told me
that he was going to make his last
flight before going to England on the
following morning. Saturday.
He started out at 4 o'clock Saturday
morning with q man and q crate OF
carrier pigeons In his machine. and he
had orders to drop both behind the
German lines and return to his head
quarters as quickly as possible.
As I said. he started out at 4. and so
far az l know he 10 not back yet. He
may have been shot down. he may
have had an accident and been forced
to land behind the German lines, or
any n Of a hundred things may have
happened. All We know 10 that he
failed to return.
The anti-aircraft gun was practically
unknown before the beginning of this
war, and there is an enormous chance
for improvement in this branch of
aerial warfare. 1t 10 very interesting
to watch an anti-aircraft gun In action,
for n can see the gun fred and then
zee the shell burst a few seconds later.
So far as l know there is no accurate
way Of finding the range of an aero
plane in motion. The popular way Of
shooting at a flying machine seems to
be that of firing shells in a large circle,
using the machine ab the center, and
then closing in until the aeroplane IL
dead in line. There Is the uncertainty,
houovor ~ koou{pU u,hou ~ <1~o< h~
shell to burst, and, 30 far as I can see,
4 seems 70 Be pretty much a matter
q luck. l heard an average quoted ON
the number of hits to the number of
shells fred, and the figures were one
hit out of every 5000 shells. l cannot
vouch for the accuracy of this state
ment, but l do know that the number
OF hits is surprisingly small.
The falling of the shrapnel from
these shells which burst in the air ia
rather dangerous, as l car show by
narrating an incident which happened
to us. We were out in a car near q
village called Brandhook. and we no.
ticed as we came along that q German
aeroplane was coming directly toward
us and that it appeared to be follow
ing the road. Our anti-aircraft guns
were playing on it. and the shells SEEM
ed to be bursting mighty close to it.
Before it attained a point above rs
1t turned at right angles and made Oh
toward the German lines. We contin-
ued on our way. and a little farther on
we came to where IN empty auto was
c%orIir, 4, fhn pniIIlo 30 tho wonl
We stopped and looked around for
signs of the occupants. but could find
none. When we had been there about
five minutes an officer and the driver
Of the car showed up and said they
had been forced to take refuge in q
dugout on account Of the falling shrap-
mel.
Holes where pieces Of shrapnel had
entered the ground were to be seen all
around, and we tried to dig some of the
pieces up. We dug down ten inches and
had not reached them, so we gave It
up as a bad job and went on to camp.
This will show that these pieces Of
shrapnel are not to be sneered at as
being harmless.
Another fayOrite stunt with aero
planes is the dropping of hundreds Of
steel darts on bodies of moving troops
or even on towns or the men in the
trenches. These darts are -four or five
inches in length and have a sort Of
four pointed tail. They are extremely
sharp and are heavier at the point
than they are at the tail. This causes
them to fall point down.
1t has been proved that n Of these
darts dropped from a great height
would, If it struck q man or horseback,
square on the top Of the head. pass
through the length of a mans body,
through the saddle. through the horses
body and disappear into the ground. l
have seen darts that have been drop
ped, but / have never been where they
were falling. and ! had no desire to be
either.
There was a German who pulled the
greatest little game of bluff on us. We
were at a village called Rheninghelst
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