Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-26
THE AIR BATTLE

| ao'tohSA HS"'iSi " hy III nave yet
to see.
up With Dead Engine
Speaking about the propeller
stopping, yesterday my motor began
acting badly and the propeller
stopped dead while I was 1000 me-
ters high. Fortunately, the "piste'
was right beneath me, but even at
that I had no desire to try and hit
the field that way, for with a dead
stick one has only one guess at cal
culating his speed and distance. If
he finds he has killed too much
height and cannot, therefore, glide
| to a safe landing, or. just as bad.
overshoot5. there is no motor to pull
him out o. his predicament There
fore, being at such a comfortable
height, 1 promptly stood on my nose.
the tremendous speed acquired in
this way starting the propeller
again. It's one of the tricks we
learned at Pau and I had not for
| gotten 1t, although I have never
tried 1t since then, the trick being
of little value on the front. Gener-
| ally when the propeller stops in the
air there is something radically
wrong with the motor and no
amount of coaxing will start it
again.
. When told you this was a combat
escadrille / certainly used the right
word, because every time 1 go up I
get mixed up in a scrap. Mixed
is right, too, for last night sure fell
among them-and only seven at
that. You see, it was this way:
Putnam, who is now a lieutenant in
the American Army, but still with
the escadrille. had just come down
from fight in which he knocked
three down. His motor was on the
blink. The zest of the fight was
still in him, though, and, taking an
! other plane, he was soon on his way
again, with me ambling along be-
hind. l had not been able to start
with him in the first patrol because
my motor refused to start, but when
he came down for another plane to
get back in the fight, mine was
working. Naturally. wanted to go
along. Even though my motor was
working badly, 1 hung on. hoping
the higher attitudes would make it
work better. My hopes were real
lied, for at 5000 meters she begar
singing better song. BY this tin 3
we were over Rheims and, as ,te
from fiddling with the motor, we CHI
ing the compass and ground to Keep
my direction and my leader, 4 also
had an eye out for the HuDI But
the sky seemed to be empty OF these
pests, for in all that spare of sky
and clouds we two seeme,I to be all
alone. 1t appeared so % me. but
not so to Putnam. for Suddenly l
saw him wiggle his Rings-signal
that a Boche is seen. land immedi-
ately afterwards jump up and down
on his tail-signal he was going to
attack.
L saw the Huns, too, mere specks
in the distance-seven of them and
coming our way. Several being a
little higher than us. Putnam made
a small detour, so by the time he
was behind them he was also lit
tie higher. His motor being de-
cidedly better than mine, he ran
right away from me. thus I never
did follow him on that small de-
tour. However, when he dove 1 did
also, picking out one of the two
highest Huns. He, the Hun. knew
1 was coming and acted accordingly,
for such turning and twisting you
never saw; but still ! kept coming,
both guns splitting lead whenever
got my sight on him, Closer and
closer / came, still shooting at my
nervous target but apparently no
shots taking effect. Right down on
top of him l came, only putting up
when nearly on the point of col
liding, he doing a sharp turn to
escape at the last moment. Being
right over the seven then, turned
on the motor and pointed my nose
toward Heaven to get away from
their guns. Even then one was un-
der my tail and the Hun I had
missed was swinging around into a
like position.
Proof Wanted
I have not been flying the Spad
long, so it's new plane to me, but
l had heard 1t could outclimb any
plane the Hun had-and right then
was when l was going to prove 1t;
that is, if my feelings hadn't got the
ht tier of my judgment, for, looking
back at those two Huns coming up
under me trying their best to plug
me, / got decidedly sore and deter
mined to swing right about face and
have another crack. The idea was
good, but it's execution was rotten,
for l forgot l was aboard a heavy
Spad and not a light Morane and
tried TO turn too quickly. The re-
suit was for one second / was near
ly out of control, incidentally nearly
falling on the Hun. Quickly recov-
ering control, / gave up the idea of
making any more quick maneuvers.
turned on the motor and put her to
the climbing test. Whether the
\ Spad actually outclimbed those
Huns or whether they thought 1 ac-
tually tried to ram them on pur-
pose will never be known. but the
fact remains they did not get to
such close quarters again.
!, Putnam "Sore''
Having climbed away from the
seven "vultures," 1 looked around
!, for Putnam. He was several miles
away and still clim bing. for the rea-
son that he thought 1 was Hun
! trying to climb over him. He waa
, very sore about it when he came
|, down, bawling me out principally
for not keeping up with him, ana
when 1 remarked on how badly my
,, motor was running he only blew
up again. In that case should have
gone home, which, indeed, was the
/, truth; but I was sick and tired of
, coming back to camp with motor
trouble. 1t happens so often in
some of these Spads. Therefore, as
long as she works fairly decently,
, hang doggedly onto the patrol. It's
, fool idea, l know, and some day
I'll tumble into the trenches or a
forest with dead motor, but that
would be preferred to getting the
name of being afraid to go on the
lines, as one pilot here has. Every
time he, goes aloft he comes back
with motors trouble. True. I didn't
get my Hun in the last fight, but at
, least got close enough to suit even