Gunnison news-champion., 1917-12-28

0saFassn - uuEkl1 q onnunlB
A. M. - stnFto1 81 e Z - -
~ - ! knew - = ~ haek ~. H
~ have beea ehae Gown. ~ Uay
have I'D N aec1deat and besn 6sseo1
- 1an1 behln0 tho German nDsn. q
ony ens Of hundred things nay hnvo
hsppsasd An ~ msv = tkat -
failed % return.
Ths anti-aiFeraft gun was psaet5cany
oknown before ths beginning q this
var. and tbess y IN enormous chance
for improvement in thu bsanch e
aerial warfarA Il b very inteFesttng
70 watch IN aati-aircraft gun In action.
for ces can - the gun nred and thea
ses The shell burst . few seconds latss.
10 far a. know there h NO accurnto
way Of finding the range Of an aero
plane In notion The popular way Of
shooting At dying machine seems to
be that Of nring shells in large circle.
using the machine ~ the center. and
then closing In until the aeroplane 70
dead In line. There b the uncertainty.
however. Of knowing when to time the
shell to burst. and. % far ~ ! can zee.
II seems TO Be pretty much . matter
Of luck. heard an average quoted On
the number Of hits to the number Of
shells nred. and the dgures were one
hit out Of every 5000 shells. ! cannot
vouch for the accuracy Of this state
ment. but I do know that the number
OF hits 10 surprisingly small.
The falling Of the shrapnel from
these shells which burst In the air b
rather dangerous. ~ ! can show By
narrating an incident which happened
to us. We were out in Q car near .
village called Brandhook. and we no
ticed a. 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 II. and the shells seem
ed to be bursting mighty close to It.
Before 1t attained a point above us
II turned at right angles and made OF
toward the German lines. We contin'
ued ON our way. and little farther on
We came to where an empty auto was
standing In the middle of the road
We stopped and looked around for
signs Of the occupants. but could 6nd
none. When we had been there about
i've 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
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 Il
up as bad job and went on to camp
This win show that these pieces OF
shrapnel are not to be snecred Mt ~
being harmless.
Another favorite 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 OF 6ve
inches in length and have q sort Of
four pointed tail. They are extremely
sharp and are heavier at the point
than they are at the tall This causes
them to fall point down.
II has been proved that one of these
would. n II struck . man on horseback
square on the top OF the head. pass
through the length Of mans body.
through the saddle. through the horses
body and disappear into the ground
have seen darts that have been drop
ped, but have never been where they
were falling. and ] bad no desire to be
either,
There was . German who pulled the
greatest little game OF blun ON US. We
were at . village called Rheninghelst
when this fellow came over. and ev-
erybody remarked at how lov hs was
ayiog. Our ti-aircraft guns were let-
ting him heye 4 from al directions.
and suddenly bis engine stopped and
the machine began to tall The guns
let up. thinning that be was winged.
He fell TO within two Or three hundred
fest Of the earth. whea suddenly the
machine righted itself. and be skimmed
over % toward the Gsrman lines. He
had the audacity TO save bis hand at
% - b. went By.
Jt was ens sf TIE nsrviest things I
ever nv. He slvsd himself " the
chance cf runsips through our ars. for
Wbsn " was % low - Was out oe
re9es of ths a1h.aircraft guns.
" rpids a. pot elwlyp prove -
laNssrpuD n thy sound About thrss
q four days before I lsft ~ front ~
had . dock Of tHsnty-thrpe German
seropanss eyer our clnp, and they
dropped bombs for nearly 6fteen min
utea Everybody got under cover. and
the total loss Of Life caused BY ths raid
was enc mule u thie wsrs always
the case the Zeppelins and Avatiks
would have to 90 out Of Dusaness-
Thers was very uttla Of interest after
Loos. Every day II was the same old
routine-up 70 The drtng line In the
morning and back down again 1t
night Once In awhile We would let
ourselves In for q young bombardment
or would have rather q hot session In