Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-08-25
LIFE IS SAVED BY
HANDKERCHIEF
BY FAST RUNNING SERGEANT
BAUGHAM REACHED COMRADES
IN SAFETY-KEWARDED WITH
MILITARY MEDAL.

Washington.-Flight Sergeant James
Fl. Baugham of Washington, who was
transferred from the Lafayette esca-
drille to the Paris Air Defense squad
ron, has been reported prisoner in
unofficial advices to his mother Mrs.
Mary A. Baugham, president of the
Dixie Agricultural company of Wash
ington. Sergeant Baugham joined the
Lafayette escadrille in 1917 when he
was eighteen years old and won the
Military medal, the highest French
honor to- nOncommissioned men.
The incident that earned the ser
geant the medal was described in let
ter he wrote recently. Paying tribute
TO the wonderful spirit of his French
comrades, Sergeant Baugham said:
I'VE had been sent out to patrol
hack of the German lines and to at
tack anything enemy we saw. Having
incendiary balls in my gun, was pre-
pared TO attack a German SAUSAGE
or observatory balloon. Just as was
beginning the descent TO attack, saw
a Boche airplane going in the direction
of our lines TO do photographic work.
] put on full speed and signaled to the
other planes to follow. They evident
~ did not see my signal, for they
didn't go down with me. When l got
100 meters from the Boche / started
firing. The enemy replied by turning
loose both guns at me. / must have
got him, however, with the first blast,
for when pulled up to make another
dive he was silent.
Then something happened that
would make the coolest man on earth
cuss, and as / am not one Of the best,
you can imagine that left little I'M
said. My motor stopped absolutely
dead. There was only one thing for me
to do and that was TO dive, lose the
Boche and try 10 vOlplane to the
French lines. As / went past the Ger
man machine it Immediately came
down and, putting some nice steel very
close to him, / did all the acrObacy l
had ever learned. When l had finished
] found that | had come down from
10000 to 1000 feet and there was no
Boche in sight.
Alone in Mo Mans Land.
81 then looked around for place to
land. l saw fairly good place off to
the right and made it. then stepped
out of the machine-right on the face
of q dead German. 1t took me a min
ute to realize what was happening and
/ awoke to the sound of bullets whiz-
zing past my head. That didn't disturb
me much, because l was wondering
why somebody hadn't buried the Ger
man. Looking around however, all |
could see was dead Germans. 1t sud
denly dawned on me that I was in No
Mans Land OF all the places there
are TO land in France and Germany
had TO land between the two.
"Then / realized what predicament
] was in and began to think up some
way to get out of it. The thought came
to me that if l was nearer the German
lines than to the French, had better
get rid of those incendiary balls In my
pocket, for if the Germans catch you
with them you are shot at once.
climbed back into my machine TO the
tune of bullets and took out a load of
over 800 cartridges, threw them on the
ground and then removed my compass
and altimeter.
1.-THE first thing struck was grave,
unfinished, with two of the enemy in
it. | eased myself down into it, lifted
up one of the Germans and put the
cartridges beneath him. l started
walking back to my machine. AS [
got near it the Boche lines started
their mitrailleurs and rifles at me, and
the French, unaware that was one of
them, also opened up. / had to walk
800 feet between the lines and 1t was
no joke with all that fire concentrated
in my direction. One bullet passed so
close TO my face that l really felt the
wind / decided that I'd have to go to
one of the lines, enemy or friend, but
just then / heard machine overhead.
l looked up and saw white puffs break
ing out all around it.
Signaled With Handkerchief.
''On the way the fire got so hot I
had to fall face down, and l didn't
move for, l guess, five minutes. There
being no good reason for my being
shot like a dog, yanked out my hand
kerchief and waved it at the French
lines.
''They finally got it. after ten min
utes of waving, and I saw a French
officer beckOning me from a bit Of
woods. If there ever has been faster
5o-yard sprint I never heard of It. /
ran so fast that / ran right into the
officer. and very nearly knocked his re-
volver out of his hand. | showed him
my Identification card and then started
cursing him for shooting at me. He
had been taking potshOts at me out
there. He apologized, saying that he
could only see my head, because his
position was slightly lower than No
Mans Land.
''They took me up to the divisional