South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-11-30
THE TRUTH ABOUT GERMANY
4 Forbidden Trip Through
The Air OUer Battle Lines

me on one OF the morning flights.
was up long before daybreak.
trembling and too excited 10 eat
But he told me to eat something. as
/ might get "airsick" If 1 did not
Airsickness' corresponds to sea-
sickness. and, am told causes
much the same discomfort. I did not
get airsick. so / cannot say.
Capt. Viewer was waiting for me
at 4 D. M. with a machine. lie did
not 20 20 the camp with me as that
would have made ms trip too con-
spicuous and he did not want any
person 10 know ! was going
The camp was called "Schlies-
helm" and was about or 10 miles
out Of Munich. ! don't know how
many aeroplanes were there. but
they ran into the hundreds.
capt. Viewer hurried to the camp
before 1 got there / was i'm a taxi
cab. 1 had the cab stop about a
half mile from the camp and / got
out. / hurried across the field. When
j reached Capt. Viewer he had the
leather coat and hood which / was
TO wear, ready for me- He hurried
ly helped me off with my own coat.
j pulled off my hat and thrust both
garments under the seat in the
aerOplane- then he buttoned the
bfs leather coat on me and tied
down the hood, which had heavy
flaps over the ears.
A Trip Through the Clouds.
/ climbed into the machine. both
he and / afraid every second some
person would come and discover /
was stranger and forbid him TO
take me. In the machine / sat in
front. he behind me, and a little
above me so he could look over my
head. 1 was strapped in the seat.
was afraid every minute-not of
the machine. but that some person
would stop us before we got we'll
started. But no one did. Evident
ly they all thought that capt. Wev-
er simply had a workman with him.
for every person was too busy to
watch any person else.
When we first rose off the ground
! caught my breath for then L real
lied that l might never come back.
II knew we were going over the
enemy lines. But 1 was in for it, so
i took my courage in both hands.
gritted my teeth and sat tight"
We had TO rise 5000 feet IN the
air and stay at that height most of
the time, as the ascent was made
over the Tyrol mountains. The air
currents between and among these
mountains and the suction are so
Oughly unsafe.
As we rose. / could see the Ital-
ian and Austrian armies in battle
array below me- My eyes not being
accustomed to watching from an
aeroplane, / could rot see as dis
tinctly as Capt Viewer. although he
let me use his field glasses. He could
tell me nothing up there, as the
motor roared so and the aeroplane
hummed until il was deafening.
But 1 could see, dimly the trench
es outlined in some places. 1 could
see the smoke of the firing guns. I
could see black masses, which
knew were men drift along. come
together and drift apart again.
\ Breath-Taking Whirl.
I tried to see details of the fight,
but we were too high. While in the
air no enemy aeroplane engaged
us. neither were we fired on, or l
suppose 1 would not be telling the
story as Capt. Viewer confessed that
he had small experience in lodging,
as yet. Also his aeroplane was not
equipped with guns.
We swoOped and dUcked and
dived at a lively rate and. after one
particularly breath-toaing whirl. ]
realized that 1 had "lOoped the
loop" / was not quite sure, Sd
when the trip was finished 1 asked
Capt. Viewer if that was what he
had done. and he said yes. II is not
so very terrifying, as il is over be-
fore you know it, but it leaves you,
for a few minutes. with a strange
sensation Of being sort Of non-com-
initial about your head and heels.
as though YOU We're not quite sure
which belonged where.
We were in the air three hours
I -H - -