The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-10-23
EXCITING TIMES AL0FT.
Harold Mayforth, Old Vermont Catcher,
Writes to w. T. Maiden.

His experiences as an American flyer
in France are illuminatingly set forth in
letter which Harold Mayforth, the old
University of Vermont baseball catcher,
addresses to his former teammate, Will
liam T. Maiden Of Church street, at pres
ent member Of the faculty and athletic
coach at Montpelier seminary Lieut.
Mayforth is attached to the oath aero
squadron of the American expedition
airy forces, and writing under date of
| Sept 20 he says;
Dear Bill: Mind you, the other day
I actually received letter from Jake
| Malcolm, so thanks to you for lacking
him up. It was short and sweet, to be
sure, but nevertheless, | was happy to
receive ii.
presume you are back at school now,
| starting another year. Hope you are
] feeling like William Maiden Of old again.
Time hops right along, doesn't il? ]
have forgotten just when | wrote you
last, but / imagine it was before | re-
ported to the oath aero squadron.
| like the squadron, Bill, the fellows and
| the work we are doing. The oath, with
the DIST and 9th Ia night reconnais-
ance squadron make up the observation
group Of the lat army. All our work
Is far into Germany at an altitude Of
around 5000 meters, and is much more
pleasant work, | believe, than that Of
an army corps squadron. The latter
operates over small sector, while we
cover large area. p, Aldrich is with
the l35th aero squadron-an army corps
squadron. When assigned to squadrons,
we were all split up,
The LIST army cleaned up properly in
the Saint Mihiel sector, as you know,
The detectives of the drive were limited
and everyone is of the opinion that we
could have gone on farther, but Gen.
Foch has his plans and they must be
adhered to. The drive was quick, strong
and most decisive. II sort of took the
Huns off their feet It was several days
before we could learn of activities in
the rear of Germany's retreating lines
|, in that pocket--it seemed they were very
slow, Their air forces concentrated ra-
Their quickly, however, and after the
first few days we never left the ground
without getting into battle with boche
planes. We travelled in formation OF
Ave planes and those scoundrels would
pounee on us with ten or dozen, and
not unless they had that number OF
|, chasse planes. We lost couple Of ships
at different times, but got as many %
theirs, If not more. Lieut.. Durand
whom ! came to the oath with and his
,, pilot were in a formation when hoped
iIpon by bunch of boches things be
) came too hot, and Goodfellow, the pilot
started to nose down with full engine OF
: in an endeavor to outdistance the Huns
but they kept on his tail and ii is be
ieyed shot Durand and Goodfellow boil
to the ground,
Another morning Lieut.. Clark and hi
pilot were scheduled with Lieut.. Asl
and myself on daybreak reconnais
sanoe into Germany. We left in Tbs
darkness in order to get our altitude anC
be over the lines just as the day wa,
!, breaking. II was a rotten morning, tn,
! clouds were in banks at $500 meters
and storms were coming up continually
! | II was necessary to fight a powerful
I wind all the way home and Clark ant
3 Bradfeld never did come in. We expec
they were driven far into Germany owe
\ the clouds and couldn't get back sgains
: the wind, gasoline gave out, or wha
: not-anyhow, they failed to return an
: doubtless now are prisoners Of war.
= First day after the start was owe
!. the lines with Ash, flying at less tha
3 700 meters, looking for trouble and dar
! near got IT, The anti-aircraft guns CAV
: us warm reception, but our speed wv
must have been making nearly 100 kilo
, meters an hour and Ash's 's"ing tn
= plane was what saved us. We hesde
= for German observation balloon an
! they put up perfect barrage to &c
!. us. Needless to say we altered OH
y course and beat 1t Never saw boch
: plane during the entire journey the
! hadn't had time TO concentrate at thi
= time. Well, now we have moved an
expect something to take place yer
= soon. | will write you again.