The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-05-14
L. P. Mckinley Tells of Bow
Who Proved Mettle After
Crashing to Earth
WITNESSED DARING
RAID BY THE FRENCH
Metal Piled Up Against Men on Mar
row Front Gives Return of Ninety
Prisoners-Killed 100 of Enemy and
Lost But Two Men.

Lost But Two Men.
NEW YORK, May 1.-THE ''never-
say-die' spirit Of the American avia-
tor on the French front is illustrated
IN the following story told by Lindsay
T. Mckinley Of this city, who has just
returned after spending some time with
the Grand Fleet and watching British.
| French, and American battlefronts. Mr..
Mckinley also witnessed a daring
| French raid on German trench in
which the French lost only two of their
number and captured 90 prisoners. An
account of his experiences will be pub
llshed in the Forthcoming issue of the
Columbia Alumni News.
Speaking of a night flight made bv
American aviators, My Lindsay saws:
1.-The field was flooded with light
when SIX Americans scared up into the
night III airplaneS, and while we could
no longer see them, we could hear the
throo of their motors away up in the
| dark. One by one they returned. We
started to leave the field, when sud
| denly there was a flash and down into
the light crashed one of the planes. 1t
| landed on its nose, turned over several
times, and collapsed in heap of
wreckage.
| : We jumped into a car with the cap
tain and surgeon and rushed to the
spot, Out from beneath the splintercd
plane crawled an American. He was
bruised and his clothes were torn. but
he was not seriously injured
. He saluted his captain and said:
am awfully sorry this happened. As
| ! was coming down, the light blinded
me. | lost control for a moment and
we crashed
The captain said: That s all right,
my boy. just go to bed and forget it. >
but the young fellow spoke up: THAT
ism the point, captain. | want to 90
mp again and | want to 20 up now
| want TO show YOU and the map who put
that hight into my eyes that | can
make good.
- In five minutes that boy was up in
another plane. He made the flight. He
landed safely! There you have the
spirit of the Americans
This is Mr. Mckinley : account of
the trench raid he saw:
''This raid had been planned two
weeks back. French planes were sent
| over the German lines.\ They brought
back scores of photographs which
showed to the expert eye the position
Of every German trench. every line of
communication, and every gun Secret
| ly the French modified vast Numbers
Of guns. They figured the range from
their guns to the German trenches
from their guns to the German lines OF
communication, from their guns TO the
Geiman guns. Specially picked men
were rehearsed for the attack. There
were picked bombers, picked choppers. ;
| picked hayonet men-thev even ar
ranged for certain raiders to conceal
| themselves III No Man s Land to escort
to the rear the prisoners they knew
they would take
| Finally the day of the attack came
At given moment a sizzling hell of
metal sped over. The bursting shells
wrecked the German lines They emf
of help They kept the German artil
lery out of action The Germans who
remained alive rushed into their dug
| outs.
. \ moment later the French went
over the top. They entered the Ger
man lines; they bombed, they bavonet-
Ell, they killed In an incredibly short
time they returned, leaving 100 Ger
mans dead and bringing back 90 pris
oners. And when they came to flo
ure up the cost they found that only
two French soldiers had been killed
and one of them had lost his life be-
cause he was so eager to get at the
Germans that he ran into his own shell
| fire
This whole action was based On
the massng of metal against men. And
1t seems to me that if such an action
can be carried out on a 500 ward front
with proper mobilization of material
and guns, it could be carried ont on .
/ i've mile front or 80 mile front The
German may be a slow thinker. no
may be hopelessly enmeshed in mill
tarlStlc regime; but | believe that be-
fore long such methods would penetrate
| his dull brain, smash his morale. and
! make an early allied victory possible. ;,