The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-12-21
Tales Concerning Aviators
Told Behind Lines
NEAR THE DEATH POINT
Narrow Escapes of Pilots and
Assistants While Away From
Terra Ferma
From Saturdays Daily.


Behind British Lines in France,
November 20-[Correspondence of
The Associated Press. ]-Stories Of
daring escapades of British aviators,
exciting aerial combats from which
the air. fighters escaped alive SEEM
ingly only by miracle an of brilliantly
executed raids upon German aero
dromes and troops behind German lines
are narrated in the reports of the
Royal Flying corps covering the &C
tivities of about one week. Hair
raising incidents of fierce conflicts
above the clouds or low over the Ger
man communication lines are describ-
ed in these succinct reports without
bombast, as though these narrow es-
capes from death were commonplace
and all in the days work of the air.
fighter. For example, there was the
case of British aviation officer who,
when nearly a mile above the earth,
was attacked by two enemy aircraft.
He shot. down one of them out Of
control but was himself wounded and
tainted while still high in the air.
Recovering consciousness he found
his machine upside down at an ele-
walton of 1000 feet with one enemy
aircraft still firing at him. The Brit
Usher, however, managed after a
struggle to right his machine and
land safely.
Wounded the Pilot.
In a somewhat similar instance, a
German scout attacked British air.
plane carrying pilot and observer.
One of the Germans bullets passed
through the gasoline tank of the Brit
ish airplane and seriously wounded
the pilot The British observer, how
| ever, pumped a full double drum of
bullets at the enemy scout at very
close quarters and the German went
to the ground with crash. Mean
| while the British pilot had tainted
| and fallen against the steering "stick"
in such fashion as to throw the
airplane into spin. The British OBJ
server climbed over the side and for
ward along the plane to the pilots
cockpit, lifted the pilot to his seat
and, still standing on the wing of the
plane released the steering gear
brought the machine out of the spin
and safely to the ground.
Machine Was Landed.
Two British officers were returning
from an expedition over the enemy's
! lines to locate hostile batteries when
| their machine was hit by anti-air-
| craft fire and the engine damaged
Volplaning, the machine landed 300
yards from the British lines, the air.
plane turned over and the aviators
were hurled out on the German side
of canal. Running along the beach
under heavy fire from rifles and ma
chineguns, the aviators dived into
the canal only to find it full of barb
ed wire but managed to reach the
British lines in safety. Many instances
illustrating the reckless daring of
the British aviators sent over the
German lines to obtain information,
destroy aerodromes and harry the
German reserves are contained in the
official narratives. One pilot who
crossed the lines at Ypres, threw off
two attacking machines, bombed the
Heule aerodrome near Lille and was
fired upon by two machine guns.
Machine Made Dive.
He dived at one of them, firing
with both guns of the British air.
plane, drove the Germans from their
guns, fired upon the aerodrome again,
attacked and scattered a column of
200 German infantrymen on the road.
A German two-seater air-plane was
circling 500 feet above him for an
attack. II zoomed up under its tail
| and fired into it." writes the British
aviator. ut crashed down onto the
railway"
Another British pilot had fired
hundred rounds on German troops on
the march when he was interrupted by
two enemy airplanes. He attacked
them and drove both down and then
finished the job of driving the Ger
man infantry into trenches and she'll
holes. Flying at the height of 200 feet
British aviator engaged in a re-
volver duel with two German officers
in motor. and while doing so ran
into some lines of telegraph wires
but fortunately his machine cut them.
A few minutes later he attacked Ger
| man infantry which ESCAPED his gun