Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-07-12

and / resolved right there that the in
fantry could have all the shell-hole
fighting they wanted, but it did not
appeal to me, though they live in them
through many a long night and I had
only sought shelter there for a few
minutes.
After the Germans had completely
demolished my machine and ceased
firing, I waited there a short time,
fearing perhaps they might send owe
a lucky shot, hoping to get me after
all. But evidently they concluded
enough shells had been wasted on n
man.. 1 crawled out cautiously, shook
the mud off, and I looked over in the
direction where my machine had once
been. There wasn't enough left for a
decent souvenir, but nevertheless / got
a few, "such as they were" and read
lily observing that nothing could be
done with what was left, 1 made my
way back to infantry headquarters.
where l was able to telephone In a
report.
A little later one of our autOmo-
biles came out after nj and took me
back to our airdrome. Most of my
squadron thought 1 was lost beyond
doubt, and v expected to see me
again; but my friend, Paul Raney, had
held out that / was all right, and as
l was afterwards told, said, Don't
send for another pilot; that Irishman
will be back. if he has to walk" And
he knew that the only thing that kept
me from walking was the fact that u
own automobile had been sent out to
bring me home.
1 had lots to think about that day,
and I had learned many things; n
was not to have too much confidence
in my own ability. One of the men in
the squadron told me that l had bet
ter not take those chances; that it
was going to be a long war and l
would have plenty of opportunities to
be killed without deliberately wishing
them ON" myself. Later l was to learn
the truth of his statement.
That night my 'fight"-each squad
reoLi is divided IDtp three flights. con-
sisting Of SIX men each-got ready to
go out again. AS / started to put on
my tunic I noticed that I was not
marked up for duty as usual.
I asked the commanding officer, a
major, what the reason for that was,
and he replied that he thought / had
done enough for n day. However,
1 knew that If I did not go. someone
else from another flight" would have
to take my place, and / insisted upon
going up with my patrol as usual, and
the major reluctantly consented. Had
he known what was in store for me, I
am sure he wouldn't have changed his
mind SO readily.
As it was we had only five machines
for this patrol, anyway, because as we
crossed the lines one of them had to
drop out on account of motor trouble.
Our patrol was up at s p. m, and up
to within ten minutes of that hour it
had been entirely ~uneventful.
At 1850 p. M, however, while we
were flying at a height of $4,000 feet.
we observed three other English ma
chimes which were about 5000 feet
below us pick a fight with nine Hun
machines.
I knew right then that we were in
for it, because I could see over toward
the ocean a whole flock of Hun ma
chimes which evidently had escaped
the attention of our scrappy country
men below us.
So we dove down on those nine
Huns.
At first the fight was fairly even.
There were eight of us to nine of them.
But soon the other machines which /
had seen in the distance, and which
were flying even higher than we were,
arrived on the scene, and when they.
in turn, dove down on us, there was
just twenty of them to our eight!
-Four of them singled me out. I was
diving, and they dived right down after
me, shooting as they came. Their
tracer bullets were coming closer to
me every moment. These tracer bull
lets are balls of fire which enable the
shooter to follow the course his bull
lets are taking and to correct his aim
accordingly. They do no more harm
to a pilot If he is hit than an ordinary
bullet, but If they hit the petrol tank,
good night When a machine catches
fire in flight there is no way of put
ting it out. 1t takes less than a min
ute for the fabric to burn off the wings
and then the machine drops like an
arrow, leaving a trail Of smoke like a
comet.
AS their tracer bullets came closer
and closer to mel realized that my
chances of escape were nil. Their very
next shot, I felt, must hit me.
Once, some days before, when I was
flying over the line, I had watched a
fight above me. A German machine
was set on fire, and Owed down
through our formation in flames on its
way to the ground. The Hun was div
ing at such a sharp angle that both