The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1918-07-26
Machine o'Brien Was Driving When
He Was Overcome and Captured by
the Huns.

Machine o'Brien Was Driving When
He Was Overcome and Captured by
the Huns.
these balloons. 1t was considered a
very important part Of our work to
keep them out of the sky.
There are two ways of going after a
balloon in a machine. One of them is
to cross the lines at low altitude, fly
ing so near the ground that the man
with the antiaircraft gun can't bother
you. You fly along until you get to the
level of the balloon and If, in the
meantime. they have not drawn the
balloon down, you open fire on 1t and
the bullets you use will set it on fire
If they land.
The other way is to fly over where
machine in a spin so that they can't
hit you, get above them. spin over the
balloon and then open fire. In going
back over the line you cross at few
hundred feet.
This is one of the hardest jobs in
the service. There is less danger in
attacking an enemys aircraft.
Nevertheless, 1 had made up my
mind to either get those balloons or
make them descend, and l only hoped
that they would stay on the job until
I had q chance at them.
When our two hours duty was up,
therefore, dropped out of the forma-
ton as we crossed the lines and turned
back again.
was at a height of $4,000 feet, con-
siderably higher than the balloons.
Shutting my motor off, dropped down
the balloons at about five or six miles
behind the German lines.
Just as 1 came out of the cloud
banks 1 saw below me, about a thou
sand feet, a two-seater hostile ma
chine doing artillery observation and
directing the German guns. This was
at a point about four miles behind the
German lines.
Evidently the German artillery saw
me and put out ground signals to at
tract the Hun machines attention, for
/ saw the observer quit his work and
grab his gun, while their pilot stuck
the nose of his machine straight
down.
But they were too ,ate to escape me.
1 was diving toward them at a speed
of probably two hundred miles an
hour, shooting al. the time as fast as
possible Their only chance lay in
the possibility that the force of my
drive might break my wings. l knew
my danger in that direction, but as
soon as l came out of my dive the
Huns would have their chance to get
me, and l knew l had to get them first
and take a chance on my wings hold
ing out.
Fortunately some of my first bullets
found their mark, and l was able to
come out Of my dive at about four
thousand feet. They never came out
of theirs!
But right then came the hottest sit
uation in the air I had ever expert
enced up to that time. The depth OF
my dive had brought me within reach
= OIL the IudCulHe Sule 1lOlh IhC 5iouhu'
and they also put a barrage around me
of shrapnel from antiaircraft guns
and 1 had an opportunity to ride the
barrage," as they call it in the R. F. G.
To make the situation more interest
ing, they began shooting flaming on
ions" at rue. FLAMING onions" are
rockets shot from a rocket gun. They
are used 10 hit a machine when it is
flying low, and they are effective up
to about five thousand feet. Some
times they are shot up one after an
other in strings of about eight, and