The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-08-09
LIFE IS Saved
BY HANDKERCHIEF
Aviator, Stranded in No Mans
Lane, Faces Fire of
Friend and Foe.
WAVED SIGNAL TO FRENCH
BY Fast Running Sergeant 5augham
Reaches Comrades in Safety-ls
Rewarded With Military Med
al by the French.

Washington.-Flight Sergeant James
III. Baugham of Washington, who was
transferred from the Lafayette esca-
drille to the Paris Air Defense squad
ron, has been reported a prisoner i'm
unofficial advices to his mother, Mrs.
Mary A. Baugham, president of the
Dixie Agricultural company of Wash
ington. Sergeant Baugham joined the
Lafayette escadrille in 1917 when he
was eighteen years old and won the
Military medal, the highest French
honor to noncommissioned men.
The incident that earned the SER
geant the medal was described in a let
ter he wrote recently. Paying tribute
to the wonderful spirit of his French
comrades, Sergeant Baugham said:
"We had been sent out to patrol
back Of the German lines and to at
tack anything enemy we saw. Having
incendiary balls in my gun, was pre-
pared to attack a German sausage
or observatory balloon. Just as was
beginning the descent to attack, saw
a Boche airplane going in the direction
of our lines to do Photographic work.
put on full speed and signaled to the
other planes to follow. They evident
! ly did not see my signal, for they
| didn't go down with me. When / got
/ 100 meters from the Boche started
| firing. The enemy replied by turning
/ loose both guns at me. / must have
/ L Ahr 90
/ for when / pulled up to make another
| dive he was silent.
''Then something happened that
! would make the coolest man on earth
! cuss, and as j am not one of the best,
| you can imagine that / left little un-
said. My motor stopped absolutely
! dead. There was only one thing for me
to do and that was to dive, lose the
! Boche and try to volplane to the
/ French lines. AS / went past the Ger
man machine it Immediately came
down and, putting some nice steel very
| close to him, i did all the acrobacy /
had ever learned. When had finished
found that / had come down from
10000 to 1000 feet and there was no
! Boche in sight.
Alone in No Mans Land.
81 then looked around for place to
land. / saw fairly good place off to
the right and made it. l then stepped
out of the machine-right on the. face
of dead German. 1t took me a min
ute to realize what was happening and
/ awoke to the sound of bullets whiz-
zing past my head. That didn't disturb
me much, because / was wondering
why somebody hadn't buried the Ger
man. Looking around, however, all
could see was dead Germans. 1t sud-
denly dawned on me that was in Nc
Mans Land. OF all the places there
are to land in France and Germany
had to land between the two. .
Il 'Then realized what predicament
was i'm and began to think up some
way to get out of 1t. The thought came
to me that IL / was nearer the German
lines than to the French, had better
get rid of those incendiary balls in my
pocket, for If the Germans catch you
with them you are shot at once.
climbed back into my machine to the
tune of bullets and took out load OF
over 800 cartridges, threw them on the
ground and then removed my compass
and altimeter.
"The first thing struck was grave
unfinished, with two of the enemy In
1t. | eased myself down into it, lifted
up one of the Germans and put the
cartridges beneath him. / started
walking back to my machine. AS
got near 1t the Boche lines started
their mitrailleurs and rifles at me, ant
the French, unaware that ] was one OF
them, also opened up. / had to wall
500 feet between the lines and 1t was
no joke with all that fire concentrated
in my direction. One bullet passed S,
close to my face that really felt the
wind. / decided that I'd have to go Il
one of the lines, enemy or friend, bu
Just then heard machine overhead
looked up ana saw white puffs break
ing out all around it.
Sgnaied With Handkerchief.
"On the way the fire got so hot
| had to fall face down, and didn'
| move for, guess, five minutes. There
being no good reason for my beini
{ shot like dog, yanked out my hand
! kerchief and waved it at the Frencl
i | lines.
'sThey finally got 1t, after ten min
j utes of waving, and I saw Frencl
. officer beckoning me from bit o
: woods. If there ever has been taste
T 50-yard sprint / never heard of it.
; ran so fast that ran right into tn,
t officer, and very nearly knocked his re
) volver out Of his hand. showed hin