The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-23

Behind British Lines in France, March 23-''Would you care to go up?" asked the polite British officer in charge of the big kite balloon, one of the long line of captive sausages, the Eyes of the Army which swung as though pendant from the clouds all up and down the fighting line from the British channel to the Swiss bor- der.
 Certainly" replied the correspon- dent. So an extra warm overcoat and muffler were brought out and donned and most important of all, the. para chute harness was fitted on.
 By this time the balloon had been connected up to the winch and every thing was ready. The officer hoisted himself into the car with an agility born of long practice, while the Visi- tor was assisted to his place by the lear men," who then hooked the par achute harness to the parachute which hung just outside the little wicker car.
 Jutting out from one side of the car was a board on which was pasted a large scale trench map of the district. In pockets inside the car were maps, air photographs, and field glasses. On the rigging of the car was dial to show the altitude and an indicator registering the force of the wind in miles per hour. Just above. dominat- ing all, was the huge bag of floating fabric, only kept in place by the crowd of soldiers holding the handl- ing guys. The slender cable and it's sister telephone wires stretched lazily across the grass to the winch on a big motor lorry nearby.
 The observer fixed the telephone receiver to his head. He tested the line by calling up the winch party, the exchange, and the chart room at the Balloon Section headquarters Satisfied that all was ship-shape, he waved his arm to the Flight Sergeant on the ground, who ordered crisply: Let up hand over hand" and then: Walk forward the winch"
 The ground began to sink away. The first impression was that the bot tom of the basket was going to fall out For a few moments this impress sion was so strong that it was physt- cally impossible to look over the side. The view was excellent, but the mood to appreciate it was absent. The of ficer's enthusiasm, as he pointed out different objects of interest in the landscape, seemed somehow over done.
 Gradually this first impression of insecurity passed. The altitude dial, comfortably close at hand, now indi- l 4I 1oo1 hoy 9 | 800 feet. The thermometer already showed a drop of twenty degrees. But the balloon was still rising. There is a light ground mist" explained the officer. land experience proves that under such circumstances better re- suits are obtained from higher alti- | tudes." So it was not until the point CT signified 4,20O feet that he tele- phoned down the order Stop the winch and the business of the day began.
 Artillery observation was the of ! ficer's appointed task. A British bat tery was going to ''take on'' a German battery, and the observer made his preparations accordingly. He had the positions of the two batteries marked on his map, but he wanted to make sure of the position of the bal loon. So he leaned out over the side of the car, verified his landmarks, and telephoned the results to the chart room.
 "Let me know when they are l ready" said he. There was a pause. Then short monosyIlabic conversa- tion, and the balloon officer gave the order Fire and adjusted his 1 glasses to his eyes.
 For the next fifteen minutes the of ficer was too busy to pay any atten- ton to his passenger. He was engag- ed in ranging" but from time to time he passed down a remark which showed that he was not confining his attention to ranging guns, but had also an alert eye for flashes of enemy guns anywhere within his range of observation. The range of vision was roughly estimated twenty miles.
 After the first order to Fire a boom in the distance indicated that the order had been obeyed. The bal loon officer drowned slightly. and tel ephoned a correction. A moment la ter the battery announced again that it was ready, and this time the re-
 suit was better. The process con- tinued. Once the observer asked to be put into direct communication with the battery, and the exchange arrang- ed accordingly. Apparently the result of this conference was satisfactory for soon the observation came through as correct.
 A few more rounds and the balloon requested the battery to start firing
 another battery was sprung up and ranging done on another target to see
 that the guns were shooting correctly Now and again the observer passed down a message to the effect that "Blank-Blank is active" Blank-Blank was another hostile battery, not at present engaging attention. Some times he interpolated a little message for the chart room such as:
 Flash observed two five minutes left of Blank-Blank," Blank-Blank being a landmark easily found on the map, so that the flash position could
 be marked on the chart room for at tention later.
 There were four hours of this work
 before the officer gave the order r Haul down." A slight jerk showed
 that the descent had begun, and fiji
 teen minutes later terra firma was
 reached and the balloon was off up.
 wards again with a fresh crew.
 1 Down in the chart room, the re-