The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-05-21
)LUFBERY KILLED
| IN PLANE BATTLE
Leaps 800 Yards to Death
From Blazing Machine.
FRENCH FLIER AVENGES HIM
Premier American "Ace" Shot Down
in Unequal Combat With Heavily
Armed German Machine.

NiHC0 SGTfndn mdCnine,
With the American Army in France
May 21.-Major Raoul Lufbery, re-
garded as the best aviator in the
American air service, was shot down
in flames and killed by big German
triplane, which he was attacking.
Lufbery jumped from his flaming
| machine when 500 yards above the
ground.
The Americans on the ground and
hundreds of French men and women
going to church along the country
roads were horror stricken as they
| saw the airplane, like a ball of fire,
plunging earthward. Suddenly they
saw the form of a man leap from the
machine.
Lufbery's body fell into little flow
ering garden while his airplane, still
burning, dropped to the ground 400
yards away. BY the time the first
Americans had reached the spot the
body of the famous flyer had been
taken by the French to the city hall
where it was covered with the French
tri-color and great piles of roses and
wild flowers.
The German machine which brought
Lufbery down, was armed with two
machine guns. with an operator for
each piece. 1t apparently escaped.
Lufhery'S only wound, aside from
those received when he crashed to
earth, was bullet hole through the
thumb. Apparently the same bullet
punctured the gasoline tanks of his
machine
The German machine was under
heavy anti-aircraft fire before and
after the fight. One explosion upset
it, but it Strengthened out again.
A German triplane suddenly de-
scended from the clouds, apparently
because of engine trouble, until it was
only some 1900 metres (about mile)
over the city of Toul. The American
flyers were on the alert. Some of them
headed for the fighting line to await
the enemy on his return.
Lufbery and the pilot of another
machine made after the German who
ran away. The American machines
- Y
followed him.
Eight miles from the enemy'S line,
Lufbery was seen to attack from un-
der the tail. He then drew off, as if
his machine gun had jammed. Two
minutes later, he attacked again from
the same position. Almost immediate
ly his machine burst into flames
Lieutenant Douglas Campbell gained
his second aerial victory. On the Toul
sector he shot down in flames an enc
nay biplane containing two officers.
Returning from trip over Ger
many at height of 1900 metres
(nearly three miles) the lieutenant
met a German Photographic biplane
going home. He maneuvered until he
got under the tail of the German ma
chine and then opened fire.
The German plane burst into flames.
1t fell inside the American lines,
southeast of Flirey.
A French aviator shot down an en-
emy plane back Of the Luneville sec
tor. Two men from the plane were
captured by the Americans. The Ger
mans came from somewhere in the
rear 1t is reported, although not con-
firmed that this is the machine which
brought down Major Lufbery.
Control of the air no longer belongs
to the Germans along the Toul sector.
Aerial activity there seems to be in
creasing daily, but the Germans are
not permitted to prowl about freely.
Fighting American airmen have
locked wings with the enemy and the
tally of machines brought down is
overwhelmingly in their favor.