The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1918-04-30

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at him, surprised to see the first Am
erican soldier on crutches, corporal
in the United States army stood on
the Place De L'Opera in Paris, gazing
right and left at the traffic crossing
the boulevard, relates an American
newspaper man.
"Do you find any difficulty in get
ting across 2" I asked him.
"Sure," he replied. 1--WE been wound
ed but 1 don't want to be run over
by taxi or an autobus."
"I'll help you over, if you like" l
said.
"Geew it's a treat to hear some one
talk English to you in Paris" he ex-
claimed. A tall, handsome young fell
low from New York city, he was on
convalescence in Paris. He had just
come out of the hospital where he had
teen under the expert hands of DIR.
Blake, the American surgeon. He
leaned on long new crutches.
/ "Have you just come out of the
trenches ?" | asked him.
"No. I belong to the aviation unit
on the British 'front.'" he answered.
"I'm really wireless operator and
have to keep in touch with the Ameri-
can airplanes flying over the German
lines. I've done lot of flying myself,
but I wasn't wounded in an air fight.
had just got an important message
from one of our machines and had to
report to British headquarters. A pow
erful motorcycle with sidecar took
me over, but on our way we dropped
into a deep shell hole. Both the driver
and myself were hurt. I'm pretty well,
except that | have a broken knee, two
fractured ribs and dislocated hip"
"How do the American flyers like to
] meet the Germans in air fights?" /
inquired.
Gee! they simply wind the Boches
up every time," he replied. sour men
are flying Sopwith pups as they are
calls. These are extremely fast ma
chimes, and must tell you that, at
the outset, our airmen don't feel quite
at home in them. Still, flying is like
| anything else. You've got to crawl
before you can walk. One or two
/ flights suffice to give confidence to
cur airmen. We have also got big
| bombarding machines. Gothines, in
which many times I've flown myself,
usually accompany these big machines
to keep off the Germans The Boche
has got nothing equal to them.
"Have you ever fought German ma
chimes when they come to bomb the
Allied positions ?"
"Sure. We were billeted in town
now in the Germans hands. Before it
was captured the Germans used to
bomb the place day and night. Then
our Sopwiths would go up and make
short work of clearing the Germans
away. It took the Germans only six
minutes to reach the town from their
own lines, yet our flyers would be up
in time to meet them. In an equal
fight no German airman has a
chance"
"Do our machines ever cooperate
with the infantry in an attack"
ayes, we've often accompanied the
infantry, sometimes flying low as 500
feet, just above the heads of the in
fantry columns. In the fighting lately
we have had fine targets. The Ger
mans, as you know, often come UP in
massed formation. Well, we have
simply raked their ranks"
German headquarters might know
we are there, but the soldiers haven't
been told anything about us, and they
won't believe we're there in any
force. When l was picked up and put
on stretcher I was taken to hos
pital where there was a German