Carthage courier. (Carthage, Tenn.) 1913-current, 1918-10-31

The following news item and the
interesting letter of Prof. Boyd ap-
peared in last Sundays issue of the
Nashville Tennessean, mad it is with
pleasure that we reprint the items
in full. Mr.. Boyd is a most excellent
young man and during his stay in
Carthage he made hundreds of friends
all of whom will rejoice that his life
was spared in his thrilling battle witt
the Huns, and all wish him a speed,
recovery.
The many friends of Lieut.. Thee
dore E. Boyd, recently listed in tn
casualty list as severely wounded
will be glad to hear that he is rapid.
recovering in a base hospital i.
France, following thrilling aeria
combat in which he sustained 81:
machine gun wounds.
Lieutenant Boyd is a Cheathan
county boy, but at the outbreak of thf
war was an instructor in the Smitl
County High School at Carthage
Tenn. He received his commission
in the first officers training school a
Fort Oglethorype, going immediatel!
to France, where he was assigned to
post as an aerial artillery observer.
In letter to Albert Williams, stat
high school inspector, he gives an in
teresting account of the encounte.
with the Boche in which he receive,
his wounds. In his letter he says:
Base Hospital No At,
"A. P. o. No. 900, A. E. F.,
September 81, 1913.
"Dear Albert: You may be wonder
ing why the changed address and thu
loft honIoA Y1aD1oancbiv Won
already have heard about it. johann
Doe ct ais, did, on the til of Septem-
Der, 1918, at assault me, with in
tent to murder, MAIN, disable, dis
figure, or do me some grievous bodil,
harm. They accomplished about al
of it, too, except the first. So now in
stead of being a dashing observer
am merely number seven, surgical, il
this ward. Ny clothes were all Gu
off me at the hospital, and unless .
can get my baggage from the squad
4 ron / shall be discharged sometim.
/ next winter with nothing to wear blu
an aviator's cap and Sam Brown
belt. They were all saved out of the
wreck.
Attacked BY Fritz.
1T happened like this. The squad
ron commander was plotting me on
mission rather a long way into the
German lines-in fact, further than
had ever been before. There were
three plans in all, two of US protecting
the third. My first intimation of tbs
presence of the enemy planes was tho
sudden silence of the anti-aircraft l.
was uncanny sailing along in that 10
cality without being shot at, anC
everyone knew that there was some
devilment brewing. Then / saw
/ Fritz-eight chasse planes, some dis
lance away but rapidly approaching
/ There was still time to get away By
making for our own lines. I fired to
warn the leading plane, but for some
reason as unexplained it turned
straight away from home and headed
in the general direction of the Baltic
Sea. OF course we had to follow him
and as we did so / cursed him most
feryently. We had already been some
distance behind the other two, anC
this unexpected piece of strategy lef
q still greater interval. Naturally tn
Boches cut in behind US, as they aren'
the boys to overlook anything so sof.
s as plane straying out of range of it.
fellows. We closed in as rapidly
we could, but our neighbor ahead haC
also speeded up. Three of the enemy
played around our other two planes
at long range, just keeping then
busy. The other five concentrated
their efforts on the captain and me
and there ensued that wild and chao
tic condition which is sometimes men.
toned as having broken loose in Geor
gia.
Tracer Bullets Flying.
"Tracer bullets were flying about
promiscuously, but all of them ex.
cept my own converged in my imme
date vicinity. l could not reply to al
of them, so aimed at one coming dowr
directly in the rear. 1t must have
disturbed him somewhat, for though
he had the best shot of them all he
turned off at not more than thirty
yards without having done any dam.
age. Another followed him and this
one came very close before either OF
US fired We finally opened I'D abou4
the same time, and just as the music
began l felt a dull blow in the left
foot. 1t doubled up under me. and ]
went down on the floor. / pulled my
self up again to find him gone, and
had time for a rapid look around. II
was fortunate. for one of the wasp
lsh little devils was hopefully Green
ing up under US from behind, the best
position of all for the coup de grace
He was almost ready when l saw
him, but the pilot turned our machine
sharply, l tipped my guns over and
had the happiness of pumping a score
or so of bullets into our crafty Boche
at not more than twenty yards range
watched just long enough to see
him turn his nose down, for another
one was driving on US. AS / moved
the guns something struck me in the
elbow and thereafter my right arm
was useless. / kept on firing, though
it was rather awkward work standing
on one foot and working the guns with
one arm. Three of them came at me
one at time. after that. Each one
fired streaming fame of bullets un-
til he had to pull away to avoid COLI
sion. / exhausted the ammunition
on my guns and could not re-supply
them with my one hand. So while the
last two were attacking / could only
~