Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-12-04
LIEUT.. 6. {. Herring
SURVIVES THRILLS
IN AIR BATTLES
Delaware Soldier Has Remarkable
Experience Fighting on the
Italian Front.
TELLS OF THE HORRORS

Lieutenant George G. Herring, Jr., OF
Fclton. this State. 500 OF MIR. and Mrs.
Cecryc G Herring of that town, has had
a thrilling experience as an aviator with
tho Itallan ARMY, according to An intensely
interesting letter his parents have re-
ccivcd from hlm. The letter, which was
written al Eona Ill Guerra, Italy. No
vpmbcr 10. the day before tho German
amisticc was signed gives graphic
DESCRIPTION of the hardest fighting on the
Italian front. when the italan Army was
driving everything before IT
Lieutenant Herring had his training at
Princeton. ~ +. finishing at ainpo
Aviazionc sud, Foggla. Italy. Hc took AN
active part in the recent offensive on the
Italian front. and II Is Of this that he
writes. Principally, IN the letter IA his
parents, of which the following Is copy
GREAT OFFENSIVE rrscNPEn
Zona di Guerra, Italy,
Nov 10. lalS.
Dear Mother and Father Two ot Nour
letters reached nc tins evening, bearing
thc dntcs III Septcmbcr l6 and u. ro-
spcctiycly Several later letters bearing
nv address here On the front have arrived.
50 tho lcttcrs of tonight were discounted
somewhat but nevertheless Ncrc interest
ing and ver~ welcome am stall on the
Italian front ar What there ls lett ot II,
for know bv this tlmc What glorious
victory the Italians have won Now that
Austria i "a dccisivclv defeated and out 81
the war. GERMANY cannot last long, eS-
specially with the eastern border, lher
back door WIDE open | have been ON thus
front some tame nov Init did not have
much excitement until thus last offensive
started and then. take Il from me. We ha'i
enough II opened with = bang and ctoS'G
50 uulrkIy that wc were SIMPLY stunned,
and even vct cannot rcall1c its full mean
ug On my first two or threc tHps curing
the offensive, NO operated luet over INC
Pave Il waS fun to tlv around oNcr thai
river Watching the battle below, and drop
plng bombs IN most anything We saw ot
any military value Most of oar object
ives were bridges stations, anmunlunh
dumps and concentration camps i'iF-
inr the first dav or two. tho antl-air-
,r.,ft frc was fierce VIC seldom bombed
from less than 5000 meters, 10000 icCt
or ncarlS ts,o miles and from that att
t,lde could not sec much actual lighting
Later vo were ordered 10 50 lower, and
on my last rald dropped my houbs from
800 meters 900 feet The weather
during the offensive was SIMPLY terrible.
VIC had 10 fv in clouds and logs all the
time and sometimes - ram ! certainty
hone never TO fly in such rough weather
again. Some al the bumps would toss The
old Caproni like chip On the ocean
After the Austrian retreat started: Il : an
actual fact that wc could hardly kcCP uD
with our troops and had - keep Wei
posted on DIR hncs tn keep from bombing
our own troops on tuo separate oe--
caSious | Vas "a rald9 the ot!ecuVcs oi
which Wcrc taken hy our troops ID 3 hail
hour
The first sunday 81 The offensive Wa
An exciting day In the morning We we're
attacked tn an enemy cllas~c squadron
They ehni one OF our machines down. but
il landed under control he rear gunner
had 4 bullet through has hand and he oh
server. a bullet across the bridge 81 ms
nose Neither pilots were hit Explosive
bullets passed through both gas tanks but
lucklI, paSscd above the gasoline hnf
and did not explode III the tanks. We hac
!. number of holes IN our machine, onC
from arches about the sire Of football
rHRunNG F..coUNTFR II THE AIR
Two of our bo IL were shot down IL
flames Iust thrce days before the end
They died in blaze Of glory. however io'
thev brought dcwn two Of FIVE plane.
which attacked them All four member.
az The crew were dead and burnt bcyonc
recognition ] knew both boys very
we'll and did some FIXING with one Of then
81 Fogga
The enemy planes gave very httl'
trouble except for two day when they
hid around in the clouds and cut of any
stragglers who had not stayed IN lorna
+ ;jon or were not escorted by chase planes
f. / came very near losing my life on each o
the last tlso day= Both tunes our ma
chime was the only one OF nine and five re
spectivcly which reached the objective
The first day VIC were helplesslv lost in th'
mountains in fog and mist after night
Even the strongest acarchlights would no
penetrate hundred feet We flew arounC
bHndly for Is minutes among the noun
tam pcaks Finally one Of the man,
Continued on page 10