Evening journal., 1918-04-25
BY LIEUT.. GRANVILLE A. POLLOCK
American Flyer In the Lafayette Flying
Corps. French Foreign Legion.
-L--....-.L.-I.L LaI.

Corps, French Foreign Legion.
Copyright. 1918, n. Il. Al
Many a pilote d'aNion wins his medal
as the result OF an individual air COM
bat.
won mine by knowing enough not
to ilght-or, rather. not to flght In the
way the boche wanted. me TO.
There is a prevalent idea that the air
man Is a kind Of knight Errant, going
forth in st. George and the dragon
fashion, seeking an antagonist and bat
Ting 10 the death
As a matter OF fact the air service,
Ike every other arm. is organized 10
help get on with the war-t0 help push
the boche back where he belongs.
The Service AerOnauliquc contributes
10 this end by finding out what the
enemy Is doing, and where. and pre-
venting him from finding out what you
are doing.
War is a great poker game.
You try TO figure the other fellows
hand and keep him guessing as to what
cards you hold.
The chasse. or lighting division Of the
flying corps. TO which belonged. was
organized, flrst. to protect observation
machines carrying Photographic appsr-
atus; second 10 patrol our own lines
and attack enemy machines trying to
ily across and prevent them from see
ing our preparations.
Teamwork" and not individual dis
plays OF bravery and brilllance Is I'M
pressed on every chasse pilot
A fghtlng patrol with an observation
machine has the job Of getting the cam
era man over tho enemy objective, pro-
tecting u while II Is doing It's work,
and getting il back safely
II was on mission OF this kind that
won my CroiX de Gurre.
A patrol OF flye Of us was ordered to
take a "Bi-piaCe" back OF the boches
lines and protect It while photographs
were being taken.
We started In the early morning, six
OF us, in the regular ~" formation
the observation machine with its pilot
and observer leading and flying lowest
at the point OF the "N': GOO feet be-
hind IT, GOO feet to the right and left,
and GOO feet higher. came two chasse
machines; behind these again GOO feet
back up and out. came two more chasse
pilots; forming the ends Of the ~"
and finally. GOO geet still further behind
and GOO feet above. I ilcw-halfway be-
tween the two legs OF the ""
Thus, / was the highest machine in
the patrol. the Photographic machine
being the lowest, and directly In front
Of me, but 1900 feet below.
This Is the regular flying formation
for a patrol OF its kind.
We reached our objective In a few
minutes without adventure, only to be
greeted by a healthy bouquet OF black
puns from the anti-aircraft defenses.
The shelling grew steadily heavier.
We knew we were IN for lt, because
shelling Is an invariable indication OF
the presence OF enemy planes.
! Every boche pilot within seeing dis
tance-and you can see shell-bursts q
long way-would make a bee-line for
those black telltale clouds.
The guide Is infallible, for the Ger
man gunners use black bursts, while
the French use white.
But the -Oflloer-Obseryer" Il the bosl
on a mission like this, and there wai
nothing for the chasso pilots 20 do
but stay with the photo machine until
10 finished.
This time we lodged shells ten min
utes
Nobody was hit
Finally our photographer was salts.
fed and we swung around for home
climbing rapidly
In few minutes we were UP 70 the
i5OO0-foot level and less than three
miles from home, when we ran smash
into a boche patrol OF eight machines
that had been doing It's best to gel
to the scene OF the excitement.
The next few moments were some
OF the hottest ever.
Instantly we closed intervals and dis.
tances TO half the regular space.
Our patrol was thus so closely
punched that for fear OF collision the
boche did not dare try to dive through