Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1918-07-04
oUTwTTNG THE oBrA

4 send for another pilot; that Irishmar
5 will be back. if he has to walk" Ant
, he knew that the only thing that KEEP
7 me from walking was the fact that ou
' own automobile had been sent out tt
! bring me home.
! had lots to think about that day
and I had learned many things; one
was not to have too much confidence
in my own ability. One of the men in
the squadron told me that I had bet.
ter not take those chances; that ii
was going to be long war and |
would have plenty of opportunities to
be killed without deliberately "wishing
them on" myself. Later / was to learn
the truth of his statement.
That night my "hight'-each squad
ron is divided into three flights, con-
sisting of six men each-got ready to
go out again. AS / started to put on
my tunic I noticed that I was not
marked up for duty as usual.
/ asked the commanding officer,
major, what the reason for that was,
and he replied that he thought / had
done enough for one day. However,
I knew that if / did not go, someone
else from another flight would have
to take my place. and I insisted upon
going up with my patrol as usual, and
the major reluctantly consented. Had
he known what was in store for me, /
am sure he wouldn't have changed his
mind so readily.
AS it was we had only five machines
for this patrol, anyway, because as we
crossed the lines one of them had to
drop out on account of motor trouble.
Our patrol was up at p. M, and up
to within ten minutes of that hour it
had been entirely uneventful.
AT 1850 p. m, however, while we
were flying at a height of 1900 feet,
we observed three other English ma
chimes which were about 5000 feet
below us pick a fight with nine Hun
machines.
1 knew right then that we were in
for it, because could see over toward
the ocean a whole flock of Hun ma
chimes which evidently had escaped
the attention of our scrappy country
men below us.
So we dove down on those nine
Huns.
At first the fight was fairly even.
There were eight of us to nine of them.
But soon the other machines which I
had seen in the distance, and which
were flying even higher than we were,
arrived on the scene, and when they,
IN turn, dove down on US, there was
Just twenty of them to our eight!
Four of them singled me out. I was
living, and they dived right down after
ne, shooting as they came. Their
racer bullets were coming closer to
ne every moment. These tracer bull
cts are balls of fire which enable the
hooter to follow the course his bull
cts are taking and to correct his aim
accordingly. They do no more harm
o pilot if he is hit than an ordinary :
ullet, but if they hit the petrol tank, (
God night! When machine catches /
re in flight there is no way Of put
ing it out. 1t takes less than a min
tie for the fabric to burn off the wings
nd then the machine drops like an n
rrow, leaving a trail of smoke like a Il
omet. n
AS their tracer bullets came closer s.
nd closer to me 1 realized that my a
lances of escape were nil. Their very a
ext shot, 1 felt, must hit me. h
Once, some days before, when I was a
wing over the line, 1 had watched
ght above me. & German machine m
as set on fire, and dived down W
trough our formation in flames on its fl
ay to the ground. The Hun was div 8,
g at such a sharp angle that both OF
S wings came off, and as he passed tt
thin few hundred feet of me 1 saw T.
e look of horror on his face. W
Now, when l expected any moment tie
suffer a similar fate, 1 could not
lip thinking of that poor Huns last fir
ok of agony. ga
l realized that my only chance lay ar
making an Immelman turn. This
lneuver was invented by German tn
e of the greatest who ever flew and WI
10 was killed in action some time be-
re. This turn, which 1 made success
lily, brought one of their machines
hit in front of me, and as he sailed
ing barely ten yards away, I chad 49,
e drop" on him, and he knew it. ne,
His white face and startled eyes 1 -
n still see. He knew beyond ques-
n that his last moment had come,
cause his position prevented his TAX ;,
; aim at me, while my gun pointed y.
aight at him. My first tracer bullet .,i 49,.
ssed within yard of his head, the A. A.,
mu
the