The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1918-07-27

Washington, ID. C.-The story or the
nrst victory over German airplane by
an American aviator is told by the
American victor himself, Lieut.. Alan
f. WinslOw, Signal Reserve corps OF
Chicago, in notes from his diary.
which, were made public by the war
department. Written with no thought
of publication, and merely for the pur-
pose Of preserving his own impress
sions, Lieutenant Winslow neverthe-
less has produced document which
the war department regards as of
great historical value and which I'M
presses the reader by its descriptive
power. Here Is his story:
ION Sunday morning, April IA,
was 'on alert from 9 a. m. till 10
a. m, that is, /, with Lieut.. Douglas
Campbell of Harvard and California
(since designated as the first American
'aceO was on emergency call duty. We
were sitting In the little alert tent
playing cards. waiting for call. Our
machines were outside, ready at mo-
ment's notice. / was patrol leader.
At 8 AS was called to the phone, told
by the information officer. who is In
direct touch with all batteries and OBJ
servation posts, that two German air
planes were about 1000 meters above
the city, which Is only mile or so
from here. We were told they were
going east. We were rushed down to
our machines in side cars, and in an
other minute were off In the air.
~ Was Furious"
Doug started ahead of me, as I was
to meet him above certain point at
500 meters and then take the lead. l
gave him about As seconds start, and
then myself. climbing steeply in a
left-h. spiral in order to save time.
had not made complete half turn
and was at about $50 meters when
straight above and ahead Of me In the
mist of the early morning, and not
more than 100 yards away. i saw a
plane coming toward me with huge
black crosses on its wings and tail.
II was so furious to see German
directly over our aviation field that
swore out loud and violently opened
fire. At the same time, to avoid my
bullets, he slipped into left-hand re-
versement and came down, firing on
me. / climbed, however, in a right |
hand spiral and slipped off, coming
down directly behind him and on his
tail. Again l violently opened fire.
had him at n rare advantage, which |
was due to the greater speed and ma |
of our wonderful ma
chimes. / fred 20 to 80 rounds at him |
and could see my tracers entering his |
machine.
Each "0ot" His Man.
Then, In another moment, his plane |
went straight down In an uncontrolled |
nose dive; had put his engine out Of |
commission. followed In a straight
dive. firing all the way. At about 600 |
feet above the ground he tried to re-
gain control Of his machine, but could |
got. and he crashed to earth. 1 darted |
down near him, made a sharp turn by |
the wreck. to make sure he was out of |
commission. then made q victorious !:
swoop down over him, and climbed up |
again to see II Doug needed any help /
with the other Boche. for had
caught glimpse of their combat out |
Of the corner of my eye.
II rose to about 800 feet again to
see Doug on the trail of his Boche.,
His tracer bullets were passing
throughout the enemy plane. 4
little higher and was diving
down on this second German and
about to fire when / saw the German
plane go up in flames and crash to
earth. Doug had sent his German
plane down one minute after ! had
sbot down mine.
Mind you. the fight took place only