The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-08-14
LIFE IS SAVED
BY HANDKERCHIEF
Aviator, Stranded in No Mans
Lane, Faces Fire of
Friend and Foe.
WAVED SIGNAL TO FRENCH
BY Fast Running Sergeant Baugham
Reaches Comrades In safety-ls
Rewarded With Military Med
al by the French.

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 q 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 I'm a let
ter he wrote recently. Paying tribute
to the wonderful spirit of his French
comrades, Sergeant Baugham said:
1--WE had been sent out to patrol
back of the German lines and to at
tack anything enemy we saw. Having
incendiary balls In my gun, / was pre-
pared TO attack q German sausage
or observatory balloon. Just as 1 was
beginning the descent to attack, / saw
a Boche airplane going In the direction
of our lines TO do Photographic work.
i 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 / got
100 met rom the Boche ! started
firing. nemy replied By turning
loose b, MS at me. / must have
got him, .tever, with the first blast,
for when l pulled up to make another
dive he was silent.
"Then something happened that
would make the coolest man on earth
cuss, and as l am not N of the best.
you can imagine that I left little un.
said. My motor stopped absolutely
dead. There was only n thing for me
to do and that was to dive. lose the
Boche and try to volplane to the
French lines. As / went past the Ger
man machine IL Immediately came
down and, putting SOM nice steel very
close to him, l did all the acrobacy I
had wei learned. When / had finished
l found that / had come down from
10000 to 1000 feet and there was no
Boche in sight.
Alone In No Mans Land.
81 then looked around for a place to
land. l saw a fairly good place off to
the right and made 1t. / then stepped
out of the machine-right on the face
of a dead German. 1t took me a min
ute 10 realize what was happening and
1 awoke to the sound OF bullets whiz-
zing past my head. That didn't disturb
me much, because / was wondering
why somebody hadn't buried the Ger
man. Looking around, however, all I
could see was dead Germans. 1t sud-
denly dawned on me that / 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 a predicament
I was in and began to think up some
way to get out of 1t. The thought came
to me that IL I was nearer the German
lines than to the French, I had better
get rid of those incendiary balls In my
pocket, for IL the Germans catch you
with them you are shot at once. l
| 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.
"The first thing / struck was a grave,
unfinished, with two of the enemy In
1t. / eased myself down into 1t, lifted
up n of the Germans and put the
| cartridges beneath him. I started
walking back to my machine. As l
got near 1t the Boche lines started
their mitrailleurs and rifles at me. and
the French, unaware that I was n OF
them. also opened up. / had to walk
500 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 I really felt the
wind. / decided that I'd have to go to
one of the lines, enemy or friend. but
Just then / heard a machine overhead.
I looked up and saw white puffs break
ing out all around It.
sionaled With Handkerchief.
ION the way the fire got SO hot ]
had to fall face down. and I didn't
move for. / guess, Ave minutes. There
being no good reason for my being
shot like a dog, l yanked out my hand.
kerchief and waved It at the French
lines.
"They finally got 1t, after ten min
utes Of waving. and / saw q French
officer reckoning me from q bit OF
woods. II there ever has been q faster
6O-yard sprint / never heard Of It. ]
ran 20 fast that / ran right into the
oficer. and very nearly knocked his 70.
volver out Of his hand. I showed him
- Identification card AndNhen mated