The Bismarck tribune., 1918-05-29

%Tmy-DaUU OoWn " TlVCNS anu
Rain Bombs on the Hordes Of the
Beast Of Berlin.
"All ranks have their tails we'll up,
and the superiority of British over en-.
emy airmen has never been more
Marked" said General Salm0nd In his
message from the battlefield.
British airmen with their tails well
up have surpassed all their own
wonderful records in the great strug-
gle on the old Somme battlefield. In
the air, they have the Huns "beaten
to frazzle." Infantry and gunners
alike have been filled with admiration
by the pluck and self-sacrifice of the
"eyes Of the army"
The London Sunday Herald has com.
piled a series Of extracts from letters
Of some Of these flying boys, written
to intimate friends and comrades at
home in the few spare hours they have
been able to snatch from the fighting.
Told in the breezy language Of the
mess room, they are as thrilling as any.
thing that has been written by even the
best-known war correspondents.
~ saw q fine thing between Tenn.
pleux and Peronne," writes one OF
these merry youngsters. "The Ger.
mans were smashing on. Our squad.
ron was returning to our base empty
There was very hot stuff being pump
ed at us. We could see miles Of Huns,
our shells bursting everywhere among
them. H.
"Suddenly one Of our scouts' was
winged. He dropped like a crippled
pigeon, at tremendous pace, and
crashed horribly. At once another
chap swooped, landed, picked him up,
swung his blades, jumped in, took
her off and put his tail up to our lines.
1T was all the work of n minute and
one of the pluckiest things I've seen
this week."
:. i. All Kinds Of "stunts!"
"Monday was great" another air.
man writes. "All the way, west from
bel0W Cambrai to La Fore, anywhere
sndb bssvftyWpere' sA9y4e we had beautiful tar
"our Chaps diyedl, looped., and did all
quite automaatt atlcal1ly,a tic all1ly,a There was no
Circus about it lppn acN2@>29
I'VE circled in formation, dashed
down in flocks, rained bombs on them,
and linked up with the cavalry. There
were no shell holes that could hide
the beggars. We raked their hiding
places. ST.. ,
''The sun pelted down. The row
was deafenlng. I was bathed in pers'
piration. We got pockets above-oh,
yes!-far worse than the Basingstoke
bump-from, ,the, guns, which lifted us
and flopp4eqdd US; down and about. aie s
80 a"'The enemy had rotten day Of it.
nn"Qp Tuesday morning, I saw pref
"Fully 25,000 Germans were advanc-
ing below-under our very eyes 10000
feet abOve-when from the direction
Of Chauny there swung round seven
French fighting squadrons-105 ma.
chines-glinting in the sun.
"They maneuvered beautifully.
Fancy, Jim, a hundred planes in a ver-
tical turn at once! They sprang a
lovely r fiat note, and $4,000 German
ears heard it.
ut was laughable and tragic.
"Down swooped the Frenchmen with
a whlz. They spread fanwise. A
mighty crescent Of 100-pound bombs
fell, then another, then small stuff.
Hundreds upon hundreds were killed.
II saw five thousand men fiat on
their faces at once hoping to escape.
1t was just awful.
Always on Offensive.
"We've chased the devils all over
the shop. You see, they have been
fighting far from their base. Their
pilots accordingly were carrying big
loads of fuel We had minimum
loads. So we were always on the Of
fensive. There has been no partial or
intermittent supremacy ABOUT our
boys. It has been a stable factor all
the week.
''The Germans have been using two
geared machine guns. one on each side
Of their engines, on their fighters. 9th
ers we've brought down had two fixed
guns on the machine body, so that they
could swing them to aim at an enemy
above.
1.-The guns are Of the special Span.
dau variety, firing half-inch bullets.
"But why don't they hit?
"The Australian and American fly
ers are Al. Everybody is in tip-top
form. See you again soon. Tol lol :!
old boy"