The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1918-09-21
DARING WORK SAVES
LIVES OF AVlATORS
Try HAROLD T.. BECHTOL

Turopean Manager OF the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.
LONDON. Sept 2t.--Lleut. Wal
ter Chalairo. New York aviator. Is
in the American army hospital at
hartford, Eng. with big bullet
hole thru his left thigh.
II wasn't much OF n scrap he had.
This was all IL amounted TO:
ChaInire and his observer In n /,
lone two-seater whipped eight
German planes!
ChaIaire, the pilot. shot down
two Of them.
When they got back I'm
safety" the observer had eight
bullet holes in his body and
Chalnlre one. Only their gravity
tanl. was working. Ono machine
gun was damned.
Chaiaire's goggles were dented
on the rim and the glass was
cracked from IA Hun bullet that,
luckily, glanced off.
mot much OF scrap Well.
I'm merely quoting Chalairc.
He insisted II didn't amount To
anything" altho he considered his
observer, British uirman-Private
A. Humphrey OF London--"one OF
the nerviest men that ever flew
and one OF the coolest"
Piece by piece / finally succeeded
In dragging the story out OF him.
1T was in the wind that the Ger
mans were planning 10 try an Of
fensive up along the coast" he said
sort OF grand finale. after the
whippings they got down the line, to
boost their standing before the fight
ing year closed"
Huns Above md Below
Chalaire was assigned to a British
base in the north. One reconnhis-
sance machine was sent TO see
whether the Germans were trying 10
nut bridges across tho User canal.
Humphrey and Chalaire were sent In
a two scatter as escort.
Just as the fellows in the obser-
walton machine had finished their
work, five Hun planes bobbed up.
I'VE signelled for our other ma
chine to beat II, and we hung back
to keep the Huns from following.
1--WE were just cold meat for those
five Huns-or so we thought Three
climbed above us and two got just
below our tail. where Humphrey
couldn't get shot ut them.
Humphrey kept putput.puting at
the Huns above. and he must have
winged one. because suddenly one
came shooting down right ahead OF
me. Almost level with my gun he
flattened out
There was nothing to do but let
him have II. and down he went !
couldn't have missed him.
Then n broken clip damned Hum
phrey's gun. and those Germans un-
der our tail were getting on my
nerves. Topped over to the left
and TO one side, and opened up. II
was Just luck-but pinked one of
them. and he crashed down. That
left three.
Bullet Hits Goggles
"Then three more came up.
looked around at Humphrey. He
had been hit several umes-he got
eight bullets in all. But there he
was. with a Lewis gun ON HIS
SHOULDER. firing away.
"As turned. a bullet hit the rim
OF my goggles. but It was a glancing
blow. Some luck-what9
II jlgglcd the bar n minute, then
dropped in n spin about 500 feet
This gave Humphrey n chance TO
shoot at the whole bunch.
Then noticed that the engine
was going badly. The tank was
empty. tried the gravity. 1t was
still working. thank heaven.
"The Germans had dropped below
our tail again. so took another spin
down. We went so low that about
one more flop would have landed us
on the ground.
Then, just as we started "a
climb again. the Huns turned and
beat II back.
I'VE were nearing the line and
they got cold feet. guess.
we came on in and went to the
hospital
That's all there IL to IT."