Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-11-16

United States and was the frat man
TO race horseless carriage against a
morse. He has spent more than fifty
thousand dollars experimenting on air
plane devices.
THE history of the airplane has
shown a wonderful development for
the machine. Where a few yearr ago
II vas considered q feat for a machine
to fly the English channel, scores sail
across In the air now.
Lieutenant Cummings will be re-
membered aa having addressed the
Liberty loaa workers 1t one Of their
iuncheons held while the recent cam
paign was In progress, speaking on
| his experiences in the Royal Flying
corps. Speaking today OF his expert
ences he said:
The morning Of March 2, 1916, I
was ordered up to try to locate a GER
/ tain staff headquarters that had been
/ reported moved said Cummings. II
| climbed 10 1900 feet before crossing
our front line. II was muggy day.
| with heavy clouds at about 3 1000 feet.
At a point where by observer calcu-
lated from his chart we should be able
TO strike the location we wanted. I
dropped through the cloud
Two German Taubes we're right
there. One was 500 feet below and a
! little distance ahead of me- The other
was about half a mile away and com
ing toward me at horizontal speed.
There was no way of turning tail,
which by the way, is the thing TO do
when you are out on such a mission
and danger to your plane looms up.
Il took q straight nose dive for the
plane below and ahead At 300 feet
my observer opened fire with the ma
chine gun, which operated through the
hub Of our tractor-type machine. AT
100 feet something took effect on the
enemy plane, and 1t dropped Then
started climbing and speeding as fast
as possible toward our own lines.
by this time the other Taube was
directly over me and pursuing the
same tactics toward us that we bad
used on his comrade My observer was
shot dead, and I was seriously wound
ed in the back, the stomach. and twice
in the leg.
"All this was in view of our own
lines. BY some extraordinary good
fortune, | managed to cross our lines
and to land--though I cannot remenl-
Der the landing for by that time I was
unconscious.
y woke up In the emergency dress
ing station, and thence proceeded
through the hospital routine. | was
nine weeks in the hospital, and go days
a conyalescent in London. Their
through the kindness of the American
ambassador / received my discharge
/ and was invalided out Of the service
THE plane l had brought down hat
accounted for nine of our pilots, an(
Tor my successful fight with it I re
> ceived the Distinguished Service or
/ der"
Lieutenant Cummings Joined til,
Princess Patricia regiment on Aug. 80
: 1914 In England he was transferred
] TO the Royal FLYING corps. After eigh
= weeks preparation, he was ordered Il
D the front, aud was one of the frs
) corps to fly plan across the chan
nell
, lie was assigned to the Ypres secto
. to do accommodating. raiding. observ
ing, repelling Of German air raids
? sp0tting locations of troops and suppl
q trains, and artillery and staff head
/ aquarters.
= The work of keeping tabs on stat
!, headquarters. in which he finally wa
severely wounded, is one Of the mos
= important functions Of the aviator
Lieutenant Cummings said. Thes
headquarters are shifted repeatedly
: and it is the aviator's job to spy then
! out and hsrass them
Lieutenant Cummings flew back an
= forth over the field of the second bat
tie Of Ypres, while his old regiment
e the Princess Pats, were nearly ami
Il hilated in their stand against the frs
e gas attack sprung by the Germans.