The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-05-25
! YOUTHS !. VICTOR ]
! ovER.N0lTED.hUN
English Boy Defeats Germany's
/ Supert|yer voss in Des-
perate Battle.
DOWNS u BEFORE DEATH
Lieutenant Arthur Rhys pavlds Said
to Be Ono Of the Three Elect
Among srayest Of British
Airmen.


German airman, was brought down
there was considerable demand that
the name of the British airman who
accomplished the feat should be re-
vealed. He was Lieut.. Arthur Rhys
Davids. an Eton boy Of twenty. In
the official Gazette 1t is stated that
among his other feats he brought
down nine. enemy aircraft in nine
weeks.
But after much anxiety the boys
father, Prof. Rhys Dayids, and his
mother, both Oriental scholars Of dis
tinction, no longer have any doubt
that their son, missing since last De-
.cember, is dead.
/. In their home on Chipstead Downs
the parents and sisters mourn the
brave and daring boy. said to be one
OF three very elect among the bravest
of British airmen.
Arthur Rhys Davids, after doing
brilliantly at Summerfield, where, Q
kings scholar, he won Balliol 'exhi-
bition and the Newcastle scholarship.
took his commission In the Royal Fly
ing corps in the autumn of,1916, leay-
Ing Ills civil service ambitious until
saifer the war.
Brought DsMm Twenty-Five Germans
Young Davids had been good at
sports and he took to flying as though
born TO it. He won the NJ. G. with the
bar and the D. 8. o. after five months
in France IN April, 1917. He brought
down p Germans for certain
actually saw that number crash-but
he drove down many more out of con-
troll. Among the % were the German
superfyers Voss and Schafer.
The story of the defeat Of, Voss.
who had been credited with being the
greatest airman Of all the armies, IL
thrilling. When Rhys Davids went up
with squadron Of six and four. Ger
mans were sighted. 1t was not so easy
as 1t seemed, for Voss was among
them, and he took on three Of the
British machines. Two Of these he
put out of action, causing them to re-
turn home with their engines full of
lead. The third was the boy from
Elton.
.Voss and Rhys made 4 duel Of It.
The Hun was In q triplane, and there
was q most tremendous fight. The
story Of it was afterward told to the
family by an officer acquainted with
the facts.
II want to give voss all credit
says Miss Rhys Davids, sister of the
brave young airman, in repeating the
story. HE had fearful fight with
the three for twenty minutes. and
then my brother and VQss wheeled
round and round; and then, suddenly.
Voss crashed to earth.
Eyes, my brother spoke Of one or
two narrow escapes. On the very first
time he went up out there something
made him turn round, and to his as.
tonishment he saw Hun on his tail.
II he had, not glanced round at that
moment he would have been killed.
Worse stiu. his gun jammed, and for
ten minutes he had to get out Of this
machines way by rolling and turn
ing. Then suddenly, to his amaze
ment, the Hun turned tail and went
home. That was one Of the narrowest
escapes he had.
aNfy brother was inclined to dy
recklessly low, and that is probably
how he met his death in October, last
year. We knew he was missing, and
we hoped and hoped for eight weeks
before we had any practical certainty.
Shot "Palnted Banana"
"He had very often been in a big
fight of Is on each side, and when he
wrote home about such. he said: All
you can think OF Is pumping lead into
any machine you see and looking out
and avoiding collisions, just missing
each other by perhaps couple Of
feet. He used to laugh when he saw
the German machines painted up like
an unripe banana. He described one
of these machines, and said that when
It cane toward him he chuckled with
laughter at the curious appearance Of
it, and then let fly, He brought the
painted banana down."
And now young Rhys Davids has
himself been brought down. But he
lives memory of schoolboy British
pluck that can never die.
Among other raiders mentioned In
the Gazette is Lieut.. r. H. Ayre, r. F.
c., who during one Of his "many sue
cessful raids" bombed an enemy air
ship shed, and on another occasion
bombed a railway station from a
height Of 500 feet. He also derailed
part Of q train and poured machine
gun fire on its occupants. The mill
tary cross is awarded to him. I
Flying at the extremely low alti-
tude of $50 feet, Lieut.. r. B. Ashcroft,
NJ. C. Motifs and Derby, attacked en-
envy troops who were holding up our
infantry. A similar feat was accom-
plished by Lieut.. A. C. Gondale, NJ. c.,
r. F. c. Both those officers gain bar
to their military cross.
Radiate Happiness.
He who does his best to make ev.
erybody around him happy is the man
who surrounds himself with happinesA