Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-29
BOCHESFOUR TO ONE,
BUT BEAT ARETREAT
Lieut.. Grier, Of Salisbury. Writes
Wilmington Relatives of Thrill
ing Air Battle.

Wilmington relatives Of Lieut. Alex r.
Grier. Of Salisbury, Md, who is now
''over thcre," fighting as An observer in
Uncle Sans aero service. have received 4
letter from him in which he tells of re-
cent thrilling aerial combat in which he
participated The odds were -four TO one
against Gricr and bis companions in the
plano, but the Bochcs found the Ameri-
cans too tough a proposition and "bc~t
il" while the beating WAS srnd. Here ],
Lieut.. Gricr's letter:
August 8, 1918.
MY own dearest folks:
'Havo been little longer in writing
than usual but We are kept 80 busy that
there has pecn very little .imc. Living in
one place, eating at another md spending
all our spare time on the field or in the
air IL rather trying.
we are now almost in sight Of Paris
and arc able To sec il when vc get up in
the air. The comforts are not n good as
We generally have, but owing TO the
Allies new successful drive, we hope TO be
moving again soon, Ms now we are farther
from the front than we should be
I'VE have been having sorne very sue
ccssful and exciting fights in the air, the
same as the trench boys. thousand or no
intAFfN iflpW Us hf'i ftf llNitlsJs HIf ONfJ
the same sector, ne all this recent fighting
has been done IL sure is a grand md
glorious achievement the Allies drive
as fer rs IL goes and IL just shows what we
can do when we get the chance So you
can expect larger Allied onensives when
we have the needed men and equipment
ready TO do IL properly,
Our little crowd OF five Americans is
beginning To break up. The h~s nf Ms,
have been together ever since we reach
ed Garden City, all in the Same bunch of
As Later. after we had been over here
one month il drifted down TO II. and
now our five have lchen together ia this
escadrlle four months today and on the
front all That time and nobody killed or
hurt, while most of the crowd of II poor
brave comrades hive departed from life
Now. Lieut.. Smith, the senior officer
of our FIVE. has gone 20 England TO take
course as instructor, so We all feel very
low in spirit We call him Dad Smith all
the time and he was Just like dad to us,
but was little too old TO stand the avia-
tIon game and instructing was his next
best They wanted all of Us To go, but
nothing doing We cant leave our work
at the front for anything
Had n most interesting aerial com
bat last week | was with new French
pilot who had never been over the lines
before, but he is a very careful one He is
assigned TO me regularly now. Our ma
chine was very old, considering some Of
the Others. SO was very slow, as well as
poor climber Consequently we were un-
able 20 keep up with the other planes and
If you get out of formation or away from
the protection Of the other planes, the
Boche will sure Jump yon If they are
anywhere near.
w ell, four OF them jumped us from
tho rear. two driving on us at once Our
own machines were a good distance away
so II was fight of four to one | was IN
the rear.with two guns and soon as they
started for me, let fire with both guns n.
the nearest one first and then at the other
The shots were coming too fast and close
for the first one, so he went down out of
range Of my gun and back TO his original
place, ready TO try again. then let the
other have it, but right in the middle Of
the fight, one OF my guns jammei, or
rather a spring broke. as | found out
later and ! was therefore, At greater
disadvantage II was hard to hold the
good gun steady enough as both are made
to shoot together. but | shot just as fast
and near as ! could while the other Ameri-
can gunner in front brought has gun into
play Then, We just covered them with
bullets until they decided we were a little
too much for them and they beat it for
home
Il might say the bunch we were fight
ing Was bunch OF Hun aces or party Of
that Famous 'Richthofen Circus. the
most dangerous ones on the whole from {
and they sure were scrappers. We only
received l3 balls through our plane, put
the best Of 1T all is, our pane was partly
new one,
Well folks, It's late, so must ring off
| am enjoying the best of health with
plenty of excitement Hope you are all
we'll and happy Give my best To every
body and lots of love for YOU, dear home
folks Goodbye.
tsN0urS