Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-07
Flying With ShaHer
LIFE ON A QUIET DAY
LETTERS FROM A DAUPHIN COUNTY MOTHER

was pronounced like egg. on
would have to be present to really
know how funny it was, but you
can imagine how l laughed when
he said twenty eggs" for IS.
Plenty of Carrots
The Boche may be efficient. We
hear enough about that character
istic of his anyway, but he GER
tainly fogot n most important thing
when he came through here-not a
doggone carrot has been disturbed.
and as far as my observation in this
vicinity goes there is going to be
a record crop. Thus l can see Il
hard winter ahead of me, for you
know how much l love carrots. Only
yesterday we had some of this dis
appointing vegetable for dinner.
The cook tried TO make them tasty
by putting milk dressing on them,
which was about as successful. in
my estimation. as mixing water with
"pinard"-it don't help the "pinard
any and only spoilS the water. l
called il a disappointing NeSetaole
because it looks so much like
sweet potato. but it certainly don I
taste like one. Golly! what wouldnt
| give for a sweet potato, and TO
think that not Il one has passed by
my mouth since leaving America.
Just received that magazine you
promised me and which you re-
marked would please me so much.
was wondering at the time l read
your letter just what there would
be in that magazine that would
please me so much. Having read
the article l know now. 1t could be
no other than the one written so
humorously by Irwin s. Cobb on
The Advantage of Being Homely.'
get the point, mother, but YOU
needn't rub it in, for Cobb is sure
right when he says it's an advan-
tage-espeCically in war. Certain
it is that battle scars could spoil
no beauty of mine.
After the Huns
Sorry 1 cannot give you any thrills
in this letter. Former letters should
give you enough to last awhile any
way. Besides nothing has happened
of late except one fight, whose alb
sence of result made il of no i'm
portance.-However it may inter-
est you. There were seven of us,
which is quite a bunch of fighting
planes 10 maneuver in a body. and
after some chasing around over the
"piste" We finally headed for Sois-
sons, grouped fairly close together.
Arriving at that place We headed
east and soon were over Rheims
where We ran into some Huns, flying.
as usual in one of their efficiency
formations. l had heard of this
particular type of formation before
but had never actually seen it.
The Boche were arranged in lay
ers. five flying very high. four 1000
meters lower and six more very low.
Even you can see the advantage of
this arrangement. for the only alb
safe patrol TO attack was
the high one, and that would not
te doing any good, because all the
time the lower patrols would be
carrying out their missions. So We
started down on the middle layer,
but the usual gun jam occurred in
my case and l pulled up TO fixed il.
As it required all my attention 1
had lost my patrol by the time it
was fixed, but the air seemed TO be
as full of Spads that night as Boche;
and l soon ran plunk into an es-
whose noses were painted
blue-ours are red-and with them
the lowest patrol of six.
Guns worked all right, but although
l made an awful allowance for that
Boche's speed my bullets seemed to
have no effect. on coming up from
this dive l found my red-nosed COM
rades again and we started home.
When we arrived there We were Civ
en- quite a lecture by the patrol
leader. who is very officious
Frenchman and delights in laying
the law down TO us. Anyway. We
were balled out for losing the patrol
during the fight and to prevent il
a
pilot will have a position assigned
10 him as 10 his place in the forma-
ton. and no matter where they go
he must keep that position. Such
being the case. l can see where 1
either cut somebody's tail off tryins
to keep in position, or be so busy
following the leader I won't have
time TO shoot. l brought down
biplane Boche the other day with a
lieutenant's plane. Both guns work
ed perfectly, never jamming onco.
In fact they made so much smoke
l lost the Boche. He crashed though,
which makes my second official VIC
tory. Truly Dad, you can stick your
chest out now and crow a little
louder. Looks as if the prophecy
Edgar Forney wrote to his mother
at Dauphin is coming true. part of
all decora ed up. Already l have
ceived a "Croix de guerre" with two
palms-at least 1 will be when the
cita tions come through.
The Jammins Gun
Speaking of guns jamming, here
is a little incident about a pilot
from an escadrille near us. This
Frenchman had attacked a balloon.
and as you put it his gun jammed
at the critical moment, but he had
come ten miles into Germany to
get this target practice" and he
was going to make that balloon burn
il il took both wheels and a wing.
II nearly did. too, for. still diving
steeply at the balloon and naturally
going at a terrific speed he pro-
ceeded to fix that eXasperating gun.
He gave all his attention to il, too.
he did not notice the
balloon was getting almighty close.
The next thing he knew he ran into
il. That a man could do such a
thing and live to tell about it sounds
but he brought the black
cross, which is painted on the side
Of every Boche balloon. back on his
plane This tale came from the cap
Ldl4i VI Jul 6AONPs AtSAA "AAN'-~
word l would never doubt. How's
that for a cure for a jammed gun.
eh Dad? Sure he got the balloon.
but would you advise me to follow
the same line of action the next
time my guns go on strike? I'm
not so sure but I might do the same
fool thing, for having gone after
balloons several time I know Just
how a flyer feels when the balloon