Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-08
U. S. AVIATOR HONORED
FOR DARING UNDER FIRE
Receives Croix de Guerre After
Spectacular Exploit of Photo
graphing Enemy Battery
HERO WASHINGTON YOUTH
Fooled German Guns and Reached
French Lines With Every Bone
Broken
By CHARLES F. BERTELL1

June s) ~
For "spottng" a battery Of heavy Ger
man guns In the vicinity Of Dunklrk and
photographing it under heavy fire. Kenneth
Proctor Littauer. a graduate Of the Central
hlgh School Of Washington, has been
awarded the croiX de guerre
Llttauer entered the aviation corps in
March, 1915. and received his brevet the
Following July. For about eight months he
ulu routine reconnaissance work on the
'front.' near Dunkirk flying with the Franco
beIglan escadrille. He had already won a
name Tor himself for his Coolness and dar-
Hg under fire. but II was not until re-
Gently that he came under the official eve
OF the French Government
Information reached the general I'm COM
mand OF the sector that the Germans had
installed battery of heavy guns Just be-
yond the French lines In a position where II
could drop shells almost within DunkirlS
ana cause an enormous amount Of damage.
the general decided to spot" the battery
and turn his heavy guns against it. To
spot a heavy battery well beyond the ad-
Nanced lines is always dangerous work
Young Littauer-he is only twenty-five
years old-was asked II he would under
take It, He jumped at the chance
He set off from the French base in a
heavy 'spotting" machine, although he knew
he ran great risk OF being attacked by
the enemy fighting planes, infinitely swifter
than his own
He rose to great height in a piercing
cold that numbed his hands until they were
almost useless. At height OF $1,000 feet
he succeeded in crossing the German first
line unobserved
From that dizzy height he dropped down
u 5000 feet and started circling about in
a Fala - L. 4 =
around he few, dropping still lower. For
tunately, there was not German machine
in the air.
After circling about for half an hour the
airman finally located the German battery
at the same time its gunners perceived him.
Lttauer snapped a number of photographs
of the location and simultaneously the Ger
man high-angle guns opened, The Ameri-
can was still little more than a mile above
the ground, but he knew that the German
guns had the reputation for hitting anything
below 1000 feet
Shrapnel ratified around the young pilot
as he finished his photographs dropped a
smoke bomb and scared upward, meantime
turning his machine toward the French
lines.
Littauer had to recross the German lines.
whose smaller guns now got into action.
When directly over the last German trench
piece of shrapne struck the left motor,
causing the machine to rock violently and
swerve sharply. In flash Littauer shut
off the other motor and started to drop, In
the meantime working his damaged machine
away from the German lines
The German gunners. thinking the ma
chine had been vitality damaged and that
perhaps the occupants were dead. ceased
firing. When within 800 feet Of the ground
Littauer pointed the machines nose straight
for the earth and crash followed. Every
bone in the young Americans body was
Jared The padded seat was torn from the
craft and the observer wos hurled ten feet
away. Lttauers camera was smashed, but
through some miracle the Photographic
plates were unbroken
Pictures were developed and subsequently
the German battery was reduced to silence
In citation the French War Ofice COM
mended the American for his coolness and
bravery under fire and for rendering signal
service.