Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-01

request for same, they promptly gave
me new one, which only had hole
in where a mouse had made a war
breakfast. They even apologized for
| the hole, but l said that was all
| right. If someone got inquisitive 1
could explain it away by telling how
close Boche bullet had come. [
| was only too glad to get it, because
my French combination is entirely
| too hot for summer.
Warm Work
| These spads are very warm any
! way, and even at 5000 meters heavy
| clothing is not a necessity, so YOU
| can imagine how warm it is at 1000
| meters on a bright sunny August
/ day Whew! but its hot! And do
/ you know, when one comes down
| from the cool region of 5000 meters
and drops in this hot air at 1000
! it's some change, and reminds me
! of diving into deep water, only re-
| Nersed After one has dove down
| some six feet the water isn't so
warm anymore. and if the searcher
| after GOODNESS keeps on going he is
! liable to think he has mistaken his
mothers refrigerator for the swim
| ming hole. It's the same in the air,
| only the heated part lies under
1 meath. Honestly when l came down
/ the other day into this warm air
/ it felt thick. so hot it was.
One could even tell where ii
started by the blackish haze, and en-
hitting that haze, maybe l didn't
get bumped around. But flying in
| all kinds of weather as we do, get
ting bumped all over the map is so
n "a ..fa
important enough to comment on.
When one wing goes down we me
chanically pull it back, or if we are
interested in something else at the
moment, let it drag. No, we
wouldn't fall. 1t would surprise you
at what an angle sideways an air.
plane can fly without going "off on
wing. When we hit a hole there
is nothing TO do but sink, and a
bump nothing to do but bounce.
And speaking of air holes, l don't
think an aviator really knows what
one is until he has an archie" plow
up right under his plane.
A Real Hole in the Air"
Ihat is a real air hole, made to
order, you might say (the pilotes are
rare, however, that would order then
at that place, 1 Think, for the
force of the explosion blows all the
air from under you. OF course. it
only lasts for several seconds, hut
it's the most helpless three seconds
man ever spent. The plane inst
wobbles down until it strikes air
that is not all shot to pieces. For
tunately. every time this happened to
me, which has been quite often nv
the way, l have been very high ca
that it did not matter much whether
1 tumbled 200 meters or 1000.
But here i go rambling along saw
ing nothing and writing a lot. Let's
see, we were in town when 1 strayed
by the wayslde and began, talking
about air holes.
Hard Luck
Well, one bright young thing avan
tried to sell me cane. Imagine III
And me going to the front the newt
day! l could not see where l couId
! use IT, as L am not expert enough
yet to play air polo, even with iba
incentive of a Huns head for he
ball. Judging from the number of
| times / have missed with two guns 7
can't see where mallet would no an
improvement. In case you NAV he
worrying about my being kissed
again, 1t may ease your mind to know
that the particular uniform thai
caused that calamity(?) was lost in
the shu the tirst time we moved
The other day | gave my black uni
| form to the tailor to press. with
| the result that he went to Paris ana
when he came back my pants were
gone, and all the official machi,erv
| l have set in motion has not un-
| earthered them as yet. You GER
| tainly will agree with me that the
| fortunes OF war are not much in my
| favor.
Really, I feel quite certain 7 shall
wake up some morning and find my
| right boot gone and my left sock.
We left The next morning on time.
| the Frenchman, owing to their life
long habit of drinking. not Deine
drunk, but only a little hit up.
Surely, We flew away! We always
move that way. A map is given
Ms. our new "piste" pointed oi,t~
"allez, en- route" and away we on
Our baggage is taken in trucks As
nv plane YVES still at Melette having
! the motor changed. I was given an.
other plane in which to ride to my
| new home.
The Obstinate Motor
For one whole hour we tried TO
get that motor to talk, but thsre
was nothing doing, and since ali my
comrades had long since departed.
| was given a different machine. The
| facilities for mounting a map were
! few in the limited space in a spsd,
where most of it is taken up with
| important deals, so having studied
| the map before hand l had a gem
eral idea whittier I was bound.
| Fortunately another escadrille bound
for the same place was taking off,
at the same time 1 was, so to pre-
vent brain fag and to be sure / was
right, l swung in behind their for
nation and followed along. They
took an entirely different way from
the one 1 had intended followine. so
I soon was at sea as to my exact
whereabouts with onnly a vague idea
of tho direction: To make things
worse, the sky was dotted with in
Vulnerable small clouds, so white
and thick and tiny that it reminded
one of a cotton field. This COTTON"
patch was quite large and extended
as far as the eye could see. Nat
uraliy, it hid lot of ground, which
prevented me from picking ont tIte
y 4 L. i