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

ed and is circling down toward the
ground big flares are lighted. so as to
enable the aviator to pick his spot for
landing. The whole thing Is scientif.
ically arranged, and there are not many
accidents In this part Of the work.
One Of the most daring parts Of the
air work Is the dropping Of spies be.
hind the enemy's lines. ! believe this
goes on on both sides and In many
cases Is successful The second time
I was going on leave to England I had
made arrangements to 60 with one Of
our fellows from the flying corps. We
were to start on a Mondey morning.
and on the Friday before he told me
that he was going to make bis last
flight before going to England on the
following morning, Saturday.
He started out at 4 o'clock Saturday
morning with a man and a crate Of
carrier pigeons in his machine. and he
had orders to drop both behind the
German lines and return to his head.
quarters us quickly as possible.
AS l said, he started out at 4. and so
far as know he IL not back yet. He
may have been. shot down, he may
have had an accident and been forced
to land behind the German lines. or
any one Of a hundred things may have
happened. All we know Is that he
failed to return.
The anti-aircraft gun was practically
unknown before the beginning Of this
war, and there Is an enormous chance
for improvement in this branch of
aerial warfare. It Is very interesting
to watch an anti-aircraft gun in action,
for one can see the gun fired aud then
see the shell burst few seconds later.
So far as l know there Is no accurate
way Of finding the range Of an aero
plane In motion. The popular way Of
shooting at a flying machine seems to
be that Of firing shells in large circle,
using the machine as the center, and
then closing in until the aeroplane is
L
however, Of knowing when to time the
shell to burst, and, so far as can see,
1t seems to be pretty much q matter
of luck. heard an average quoted on
the number Of hits to the number Of
shells fred, and the figures were one
Lit out Of every 5000 shells. cannot
vouch for the accuracy Of this state
ment, but do know that the number
or hits Is surprisingly small.
The falling of the shrapnel from
these shells which burst In the air Is
rather dangerous, as can show by
narrating an incident which happened
to us. We were out In a car near a
village called Brandhook, and we no
hced as we came along that German
aeroplane was coming directly toward
US and that 1t appeared to be follow
ing the road. Our anti-aircraft guns
were playing on it. and the shells SEEM
ed to be bursting mighty close to 1t.
Before 1t attained point above Us
1t 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 find
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
dugout on account Of the falling shrap-
mel
Holes where pieces Of shrapnel had
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 It
up as bad job and went on to camp.
This will show that these pieces OF
shrapnel are not to be sneered at as
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 or five
inches in length and have a sort Of
four pointed tail. They are extremely
sharp and are heavier at the point
than they are ut the tail. This causes
them to fall point down.
It has been proved that one Of these
darts dropped from great height
would, II It struck a 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. 1
have seen darts that have been drop.
ped, but 1 have never been where they
were falling, and had no desire to be
either.
There was q German who pulled the
greatest little game of bluff on us. We
were at a village called Rheninghelst
when this fellow came over. and ev.
erybody remarked at how low he was
flying. Our anti-aircraft guns were let
ting him have it from all directions
and suddenly his engine stopped and
the machine began to fall The guns
let up, thinking that he was winged
He fell to within two or three hundred
feet of the earth. when suddenly the
machine righted itself, and he skinned
over US toward the German lines. he
had the audacity to wave his hand at
us as he went by.
"a -,o. 400 - kho oarufac< thin l
ever saw. he saved himself by the
chance of running through our fire, for |
when he was 80 low he was out Of
range Of the anti-aircraft guns.
Air raids do not always prove as
dangerous as they sound. About three
or four days before left the front we
Lad a flock of 'twenty-three German
aeroplanes over our camp. and they
cropped bombs for nearly fifteen min.
u.cs Everybody got under cover. and
.',c total loss Of life caused by the raid
.as one mule Ir this were ALWAYS
the case the Zcppelins and Avatita
would have to so out Of business.
There was very little Of interest after
Loos. Every day 1t was the same old
to the firing line In the
morning and back down again at
night. Once In awhile We would lei
ourselves In for a young bombardment
or would have rather hot session In
the trenches when we would happen to |
get there at the right time, but as far
as any important happenings there was
none.
will never forget the last day |
spent at the front. It seemed to me |