Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-12-04

them now. They received orders to
take certain trenches at certain time,
and on the face Of It the thing looked
impossible. The odds were oil against
them, and they knew It, but there was
nothing for 1t but to obey their orders.
Nearly all the regiments have foot
balls with which they amuse them
selves while In rest camp, and when
they 60 into action these footballs are
taken right along with them. When
the whistle blew for the London Irish
to charge they threw their footballs
over the parapet and made their charge
dribbling the footballs in front Of them.
It was the most reckless, daredevil
thing I ever saw, and 1t accomplished
the impossible for them. As said,
by all rights the entire regiment should
have been wiped out, as the odds were
against them and they were running
right into death trap. The fact that
they went at 1t In such devil may
care way as to Joke and play with
footballs In the very face Of certain
death broke the Germans nerve, and
they gave way with practically no re-
sistance at all Instead of the reH.
ment being wiped out, as it should have
been, the men took the trenches with
losses of under 100 It was wonderful
I have referred to the work Of our
aeroplanes in various parts Of this sto-
~, but I think that nOncombatants
sometimes fail to realize what an i'm
portant and effective part the Royal
Flying corps is playing In this war.
Aeroplanes themselves are still pretty
dangerous modes Of locom0tion. and
when 1t comes to running other risks
for the sake of gaining information or
doing material damage II needs man
who does not know what the slightest
qualm Of fear is and who Is cool and
ready for action in the case Of emer-
gency to make good military aviator.
We have several aviators In our
squadrons who have made big names
for themselves. Among them are Cap
tain Strange. D. s. O.; Lieutenant
Hawker. v. e.. D. 8. O.. NJ. O., and
also Robert Lorraine the popular &C.
tor, who Is commonly known as the
"actOr-airman."
These three In particular have dis
tinguished themselves on our little
front. Captain Strange has lame
foot, but he has done some Of the finest
work of the war In three days he de-
stroyed three stations or big rail CEN
ters 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 nose dive to
within q 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 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 Zeppelin, and on
one occasion he nearly realized his
wish.
It was bright moonlight night last
summer when everything was as quiet
and peaceful as one could wish 1t to be-
A scattering rife fire could be heard
from the trenches. but there was really
nothing doing ut 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 It
came nearer we realized that no aero
plane engine could make so much noise
as that, and very soon word was pass
ed around that there was q Zeppelin
above US.
Very few Of US had ever seen Yep
pelin, and we were more than strain
ing our eyes to catch glimpse Of this
one. Judging from the noise Of the
engine, it seemed as though the thing
kept circling around over our encamp-
ment; but, try as hard as We could.
we were unable to catch sight Of 1t.
It had not been over US so very long
before we heard 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. It was
quickly lost to view, though, and soon
the engines Of the Zeppelin could be
heard no longer, so we concluded that
1t had made of. Lieutenant Hawker |
few until daylight; but, much to bis
disappointment. he failed to find the
Zeppelin.
Another aviator who became famous
was Commander Sampson Of the Royal |
Naval Air Service. At the beginning
Of the war he did so much damage
with his aeroplane that price was
put upon bis head by the German au-
thorites. We heard that the sum Of |
f1,OO0 was offered for Commander |
Sampson, dead or alive. This did not
make any difference to hin, 80 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
work. He had an armored car that he |
used to 90 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 new type OF
aeroplane come out, and 1t was beau
ty. It 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. It
has very high powered, high speed
engine and can pull right away from
any other type of machine that fiies.
1t carries one man only. who runs the
Llachine and works the gun too. 80 he
has his work cut out for him.
Before l ever saw bomb dropping
aeroplane In action I used to imagine
that the bombs were dropped by hand.
l was much surprised to flnd that such
ls not the case. The bombs are hung
on little clips under the body OF the
machine and are released by foot
pedal arrangement 1t 10 much quick
er and less dangerous method. |
The bombs dropped from the ma
chimes vary In size and weight. and
they run all the way from ten pounds