The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-11-15
tor. who is commonly known q the

tor. who IL commonly known % the
"actor-airman."
These three In particular have dis
tinguished themselves on our little
front. Captain Strange has a lame
foot, but he has done some Of the finest
work of the a In three days he de
stroyed three stations or big rail cen
tiers which were Of great Importance
to the Germans. In each case he en-
ployed the same methods. He few
over the point he was aiming for.
stopped his engine. did a nose dive to
within a few hundred feet Of the
place, dropped his bomb and got away
safely. Each time he came back with
the planes of his machine riddled with
bullets. It takes an awful lot Of
nerve to do a thing like that.
Lieutenant Hawker was the terror of
the "Avatiks" and taubes, and he has
been known to fight three Of these big
machines single handed, destroying
two and putting the other one to fight.
Mr.. Hawker longed for a chance to
get mixed up with q Zeppelin, and on
one occasion he nearly realized his
wish.
1t was a bright moonlight night last
summer when everything was as quiet
and peaceful as n could wish it to be.
A scattering rifle fire could be heard
from the trenches, but there was really
nothing doing at all. About 8 or 10
o'clock we heard the hum Of an engine
away above us, and we thought, of
course, 1t was an aeroplane. As 1t
came nearer we realized that no aero
plane engine could make so much noise
as that, and very 500 word was pass
ed around that there was q Zeppelin
above US.
Very few of us had ever seen a Yep.
pelin, and we were more than strain
ing our eyes to catch q glimpse of this
one. Judging from the noise Of the
engine, 1t seemed as though the thing
kept circLng around yer our encamp.
ment; but, try as hard as We could,
We were unable to catch sight Of it.
1t had not been over us SO very long
before we heard q motor engine start
up at the flying grounds, and word
came around that Lieutenant Hawker
was going up after it. Soon we saw
an aeroplane shoot up over the tree
tops and commence to circle around
gaining altitude every moment. 1t was
quickly lost to view, though, and soon
the engines Of the Zeppelin could be
heard no longer, 10 We concluded that
1t had made oil. Lieutenant Hawker
few until daylight; but, much to his
disappointment, b failed 30 ind the
Zeppelin.
Another aviator who became famous
was Commander Sampson of the Royal
Naval Air Service. At the beginning
of the wal he did so much damage
with his aeroplane that a price was
put upon his head by the German au-
thorities. We heard that the sum OF
$1,000 was offered for Commander
Sampson, dead or alive. This did not
make any difference to him so far as
his work was concerned, and he did
just as much damage after the fact
became known as he did before.
Nor was his activity confined to air
WIN. IN udO I'LL dIllOlcu SdI LudJ LIT
used to go out in. and the exciting
event of the day used to be to watch
Commander SIMPSONS return. He
seldom failed to bring back prisoners.
and the damage he did to the Germans
with the machine gun was fearful.
Last spring we had a new type OF
aeroplane come out. and it was a beau.
ty. 1t became known as the British
Scout" and it was in this type of ma
chine that Lieutenant Hawker defeat
ed three big German battle planes. 1t
has a very high powered. high speed
engine and a pull right away from
any other type of machine that flies
1t carries one man only. who run the
machine and works the gun too. SO he
has, his work cut out for him.
Before | eve saw a bomb dropping
aeroplane in action l used to imagine
that the bombs were dropped by hand