The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-07-17
AMERICAS FIRST AERIAL VICTORY
WILDLY RECOUNTED BY ITS HERO
Lieutenant Wnsiow Writes in His Diary Graphic Story Describing
His Exploit and That of Lieutenant campben-Given
to Public by War Department Because of
Its Historical Value.

first victory over a German airplane by
an American aviator Is told by the
American victor himself, Lieut.. Alan
#. 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 q document which
the war department regards as OF
great historical value and which Inn
presses the reader by Its descriptive
power. Here Is his story:
"On Sunday morning, April IA, /
was 'on alert from 9 a. m. till 10
n. m. that Is. /, with Lieut.. Douglas
Campbell of Harvard and California
(since designated as the first American
'ace') was on emergency call duty. We
We're sitting In the little alert tent
playing cards. waiting for a call. Our
machines were outside, ready at a mo-
ment's notice. / was patrol leader.
AT 8 :4h l 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 a mile or so
from here. We were told they were
going east. We were rushed down to
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 a certain point at
600 meters and then take the lead. /
gave him about 45 seconds start, and
then left myself. climbing steeply In a
left-hand spiral In order to save time.
l had not made. a complete half turn
and was at about 200 meters when
straight above and ahead Of me In the
mist Of the early morning, and not
more than 100 yards away, | saw a
plane coming toward me with huge
black crosses on its wings and tail.
II a so furious to see a German
directly over our aviation field that l
swore out loud and violently opened
fire. At the same time, to avoid my
bullets, he slipped into a left-hand re-
versement and came down, firing on
me. 1 climbed, however, In q right
hand spiral and slipped off, coming
down directly behind him and on his
tail. Again l violently opened fire. I
had him at q rare advantage, which
was due to the greater speed and ma
neuverability OF our wonderful ma
chimes. ! fired 20 to 80 rounds at him
and could see my tracers entering his
machine.
Each "Got" His Man.
"Then. In another moment, his plane
vent straight down In nm uncontrolled
nose dive; / had put his engine out of
commission. / followed In u straight
dive. firing all the way. AT about 600
feet above the ground he tried to re-
gain control of his machine. but could
not. and he crashed to earth. l darted
down near him, made q sharp turn by
the wreck, to make sure he was out OF
commission. then made a victorious
sw0op down over him, and climbed up
again to see II Doug needed any help
with the other Boche, for l had
caught a 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. l
climbed a little higher and was diving
down on this second German and
about to fire when 1 saw the German
plane go up In flames and crash to
earth. Doug had sent his German
plane down one minute after / had
shot down mine.
Right Over Aviation Field.
sMind you. the fight took place only
800 meters up, In full view of all on
the ground and In the nearby town;
and 1t took place directly above our
aviation field. Furthermore, mine
dropped about 100 yards to the right
and Doug's 100 yards to the left of our
field. These are remarkable facts, for
one Of u majors, who, with the
French army since 1915, has shot
down a machines, never had one land
In France-and here we go right off
the bat and stage a fight over our aero
drome and bring down two Germans
right on It. It was In opportunity of
q ufetime5a great chance.
"When VIZ landed, only our respec-
tive mechanics were left I'm the drome
to help us out Of our flying clothes.
The whole camp was pouring out, fly
Ing BY on foot. bicycles, side cars. au-
~t0mobiles; soldiers, women, children.
majors, colonels. French and Ameri-
canal poured out of the city. In
ten minutes several thousand people
must have gathered. Doug and / con-
graduated each other, and my me-
chanic, no longer military. jumping up
and down. waving his hat. pounded me
on the back instead Of saluting, and
yelled: Damn It'll That's the stuff, old
ki4f Then Campbell and l rushed
to our respective German wrecks.
4 Surprised German.