New Britain herald., 1918-08-16

tering his machine Then in another moment, his plane went straight l down in an uncontrolled nOse-diVe-I 1 had put his engine out of commission. 1 l followed in a straight dive firing all 1 the way. At about six feet above the ground he tried to regain control of ! his machine, but could not, and he ] crashed to earth. | darted down near : him, made a sharp turn by the wreck.
 to make sure he was out of commits 1 sion, then made victorious Swoop l down over him. and climbed up again l to sec if "Doug' needed any help with ] the other Hun--fOr I had caught q 1 glimpse of their combat out of the 1 corner of my eye.
 i 1 rose to about three hundred again. to see "Doug'' 'on the tail' of 1 his BoChe. His tracer bullets were
 passing throughout the enemy plane. ! I climbed a little higher, and was div ] ing down on this second Hun and l about to fire, when I saw the the Ger 1 man plane go up in flames and crash 1 to earth. "Doug" had sent his Hun l plano down ono minute after. 1 had 1 shot down mine
 Mind you, the fight took place about 300 meters up, in full view of all oli the ground and in the nearby town; and it took place directly over our aviation field. Furthermore, mine dropped about 100 wards to the right and "Doug's" 100 yards to the left of our field. These are remarkable facts for one of our majors, who, with the French army since 1915, has shot down 17 machines, neVe had one land in France-and here we go, right off the
 bat, and stage d fight over our aero
 drome and bring down two Huns right
 on it. It was an opportunity of a life time-a great chance.
 When we landed, only our respective
 m echanics were left in 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-
 tomo hiles soldiers, women, children,
 majors, ColOneIs, French and Ameri- can-all poured out of the city. In ten
 minutes several thousand people must
 have gathered. "Doug' and I con-
 graduated each other and my me
 chanic, no longer military, jumping
 up and down. waving his hat pounding
 me on the back instead of saluting,
 and yelled: Damn it! That's the stuff,
 old lid!" Then Campbell and 1 rushed
 to our respective Hun Wrecks.
 On the way there-it was only half |
 a mile-I ran into a huge crowd of
 soldiers-blue and khaki-pressing
 about one man. I pushed my way
 through the crowd, and heard some 1
 body triumphantly say to the sur
 rounded man in French: 'There he 1
 is; now you will believe he is an Amer
 ican." l looked al the man--a scraw-
 ny, poorly clad, little devil, dressed in
 a rotten German uniform. It was the
 Hun pilot of the machine I had shot 1
 down. Needless to say, I felt rather
 naughty to come face to face with my victim, now a prisoner, but did
 not know what to say. It seems he
 would not believe that an American
 officer had brought him down. He looked me all over, and then asked
 me in good French if I was an Ameri- can. When I answered "Yes," he had no more to say.
 There was a huge crowd around the
 wrecked plane, and the first man 1 ran into was our major-the commanding ofiicer-and he was the happiest man in the world outside of me and Doug" A French and an American general blew up In a limousine to con- graduate us-ColOnels, majors, all the pilots, all the French officers, meChan- lcS-eVerybody in the town and camp. All had seen the fight. One woman, an innkeeper, told me she could sleep well from now on, and held up her baby for me to kiss. I had my me- chanics take off everything availa ble- the machine was a Wreck-but I got some splendid souvenirs. The big black German crosses from the wings his rudder, pieces of canvas with holes from my bullets in them, all his spark plugs, his magnetos, his mirror, clock, compass altimeter his clumsy signal revolver, etc.-it is d great col lection.
 Doug" had set his Hun machine on fire at 300 meters and it had fallen 1 in flames, rolling over three times, and then completely burning up. There remained but a charred wreckage like | the sacrifice of some huge animal The Hun pilot had been thrown out and was badly off. His face hands, feet nostrils and lungs were all burnt, while his leg was broken. He is now in Il hospital and my Roche is probably his job of ditch digging for the rest of the war.
 They got much valuable information from my man-the other couldn't speak. He was a Pole, said he was not an officer because he was a Pole he had been an "aSpirant' and a pilot at the front for two years He said to me, with sort of sigh of H 'eIef. throwing up his hands at the E same time. "Alors, la guerre est fni pour mOii' &
 That afternoon my wrecked Hun 8 plane and charred result of "Doug's" 8 good work were exhibited in the pub ic square of the town, surrounded by q In armed guard and overlooked by a |. French military band It also was a creat day for the toWnspeople, and has \ lad a good moral effect You can inn zine it, when you realize it took place