Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-04-16


One morning an order came in for a
scout pilot and one of my friends wa
assigned. | can tell you the rest of us
were as envious OF him as IL ii were the
last chance any of us were ever going
10 have TO get to the front. AS it was,
however. hardly more than three hours
had elapsed before another wire was
received at the mess, and | was ordered
TO follow my friend. l afterward learn
cd that as soon as he arrived at the
squadron he prevailed upon the com
manding officer of the squadron to wire
Tor me.
At the Pool Pilots Mess it was tn.
-ustom Of the officers TO wear shorts"
brooches that are about eight inches
long, like the boy scouts wear, leaving
space of about eight inches of open
country between the top of the puttees
and the end of the shorts. The Aus
tralians wore them in Salonca and at
the Dardanelles.
When the order came in for me,
had these shorts" on. and l didn't have
time to change into other clothes. In
deed, ] was in such sweat to get to the
front that if L had been in my pajamas
1 think l would have gone that way
: KS II was, it was raining and 1 threw
: an oVercoat over me, jumped into the
machine and we made record time to
! the airdrome to which had been ordered
. ia report
As l alIghted from the automobile my
80. crcoat blew open and displayed my
manly form attired in shorts" instead
Of in the regulation flying breches, AM
;he sight aroused considerable commo-
ton in camp.
Must be a yankee,'I overheard one
officer say 10 another as [ approached
NO one but a yankee would have the
cheek to show up that way, you know"
But they laughed good-naturedly as
came up to them and welcomed me to
the squadron. and was soon very much
at home
Ny squadron was one OF four sta
toned at an airdrome about eighteen
miles back of the Ypres line There
were eighteen pilots in our squadron,
which was a scout squadron, scout ma
chimes carrying but one man.
4 scout, sometimes called a lighting
scout, has no housekeeping or recon-
noitering to do. His duty is just to hgh,
or as the order was given to me, You
are expected to pick fights and not wait
until they come to your
When bomb-droppers go out over the
lines in the daytime a scout squadron
usually conveys them. The bomb-drop-
pers fly at about 1900 feet, the scouts
a thousand feet or so above them to
protect them.
If at any time they should be attacked
il is the duty of the scouts to dive down
and carry on the fight, the orders of the
bomb-droppers being to go on dropping
bombs and not to fight unless they have
to. There is seldom a time that ma
chimes go over the lines on this work N
the daytime that they are not attacked
at some time or other, and so the scouts
usually have plenty Of work to do. In
addition to these attacks, however, the
squadron is invariably under constant
bombardment from the ground, but that
doesn't worry US very much, for we
know pretty well how to avoid being hit
from that quarter.
On M first flight, after joining the
squadron, 1 was taken out over the lines
to get a look at things, map out my
location in case I was ever lost, locate
the forests, lakes and other landmarks
and get the general lay of the land.
One thing that was impressed upon
me emphatically was the location OF
the HOSPITALS, so that in case ] was
ever wounded and had the strength to
pick my landing 1 could land as near
as possible to a hospital. All these
things a new pilot goes through during
the first two or three days after joining
squadron.
Our regular routine was two flights
a day. each of two hours duration. Art
er doing our regular patrol, 1t was our
privilege to go off on our own hook.
If we wished, before going back to the
squadron.
7 soon found out that my squadron
was some hot squadron, our filters being
almost always assigned to special duty
work. such as shooting up trenches at
a height of SO feet from the ground!
I received my baptism into this kind
ant ont
the lines. and I would recommend 1t to
anyone who is hankering for excite
ment. You are not only apt to be at
tackled by hostile aircraft from above,
but you are swept by machine gun fire
from below I have seen some of our
machines come back from this work
sometimes so riddIed with bullets that
I wondered how they ever held togeth-
er. Before we started out on one of
these Jobs. we were mighty careful to
see that our motors we're in perfect con-
dition, because they told us the war
bread was bad in Germany"
One morning shortly after / Joined
the SQUADRON, three of us started over
the line on our own accord. We soon
observed four enemy machines, two
seaters. coming toward us. This type
of machine is used by the Huns for
artillery work and bomb-dropping, and
we knew they were on mischief bent
Each machine had machine gun in
front. worked by the pilot, and the OBJ
server also had a gun with which he
could spray all around.
When we first noticed the Huns, our
machines were about six miles back of
the German lines and we were flying
high up in the sky, keeping the sun
behind us, so that the enemy could not
see us. We picked out three of the ma
chimes and dove down on them. l went
right by the man 1 picked for myself
and his observer in the rear seat kept
pumping at me to beat the band. Not one
of my shots took effect as l went right
down under him, but 1 turned and gave
him another burst of bullets and down
he went in a spinning nose dive, one
Of his wings gone one way and one an
other. As saw him crash to the ground
knew that I had got my first hostile
aircraft. One of my comrades was
equally successful, but the other two
German machines got away. We chased
them back until things got too hot for
US by reason of the appearance of other
German machines, and then we called t
a day.
This experience whetted my appetite
for more of the same kind, and ] did
not have long to wait
1t may be well to explain here just
what spinning nose bend is a few
years ago the spinning nose dive was
considered one of the most dangerous
things pilot could attempt and many