The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-06-12
STEADILY WORST
HUNS IN The AIR
British Airmen Surpass Their
Own Wonderful Records.
THRILLING BATTLE STORIES

infantry and ounners Alike Filled
With Admiration by the Pluck and
4sif-eacrIncs Of the ayes Of the
Army~-Dash Down In FIocks and
Rain Bombs on the Hordes OF the
Beast VI Berlin.
SAll ranks have their tails well up,
and the superiority of British over en-
envy airmen has eve been more
Marked" said General Salmond In his
message from the battlefield.
British airmen with their stalls well
up" have surpassed all their own
wonderful records In the great strug-
gle on the old Somme battlefield. In
the air they have the Huns beaten
TO q FRAGILE" Infantry and gunners
alike have been filed with admiration
BY the pluck and self-sacriice OF the
"eyes of the army"
The London Sunday Herald has COM
piled d series Of extracts from letters
Of some Of these flying boys, written
to intimate friends and comrades at
home In the few spare hours they have
been able to snatch from the fighting.
Told In the breezy language Of the
mess room, they are as thrilling as any
thing that has been written by even the
best-kn0wn wal correspondents.
II saw a fine thing between Tenn
pleux and Peronne," writes one of
these merry youngsters. 'The Ger
mana were smashing on. Our squad
o was returning to our base empty
There was very hot stun being pump
cd at ~. We could see miles Of Huns.
our shells bursting everywhere among
them.
suddenly one Of our scouts was
winged. He dropped like a crippled
pigeon, at q tremendous pace, and
crashed horribly. At once another
chap swooped. landed, picked him up.
swung his blades, jumped In. took
her on and put his tail up to our lines.
1T was all the work Of a minute and
. Of the ~pluckiest things I've seen
this week."
All Kinds o. "stunts."
Monday was great" another air
man writes. "All the way west from
below Cambria to La Fore. anywhere
and everywhere, we had beautiful tar
gets.
sOur chaps dived. looped. and did all
quite automatically. There was no
'circus' about II.
I'VE circled In formation, dashed
down IN flocks, rained bombs on them.
and linked up with the cavalry. There
were no shell holes that could hide
the begears. We raked their hiding
places.
The sun pelted down. The row
was d@fenine. was bathed in pers-
plrati0n. We got pockets above-oh,
yesi-far worse than the Basingstoke
bump-from the guns. which lifted us
and d6pDed = 1own and about.
Tho ene6ny had = rotten day Of 1t.
sOn Tuesday morning I saw a pref
y bit Of work.
synu1ly $4,000 Germans were advanc-
~ bslow-undsr our very eyes 10000
ut above-when from the direction
Of Chauny there swung round seven
French lighting sQuadrons-105 ma
chines-gilntins n the sun.
~Ihey Unanswered beautifully.
Fancy, Jim. Z hundred planes In a ver-
deal turn It oncel They sprang a
lovely y at note. and $1,000 German
ears heard II.
TT was laughable and tragic.
Down swooped the Frenchmen with
= whix. They spread fanwise. A
mighty crescent Of 100-pcund bombs
fell. then another. then small stuff.
Hundreds upon hundreds were killed.
II saw i've thousand men fiat on
their faces At once hoping to escape.
II was just awful.
Always On Offensive.
sWe've chased the devils all over
the shop. You see. they have been
0ghting far from their base. Their
pilots accordingly were carrying big
loads Of fuel We had minimum
loads. 30 We we're always on the Of
fenslve. There has been no partial OF
luge1I n1etene supremacy about our
boz II has been : stable factor all
~ @eek.
The Germans have been using two
Qeare4 machine gums. one on each side
~ tkelf ongines, on their fighters. 9th
- xs've hro0Eht down had two fixed
Wne op The machine body, 20 that they
qua sN1hg them to aim It an enemy
TfT1pE guns eEe oe the special Span.
dan variety. firing half-lnch bullets.
sDut why don't they hitf
~Ihe Australian and American ny.
- ~ AZ. Everybody Is In tip-top
form. eeesyon aaoain soon. Tol lol
THRIFT STAMPS As PAY