The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1918-12-26
THRILLING RAID
over HUN TOWN
Young American Aviator Tells of
Drive Over the Ger
man Lines.
SHELLS BURST ALL AROUND
Squadron Proceeds MethodicaIIy With
Its Work Under Constant Fire of
Anti-Aireraft Guns-AiI Re.
turn to Base

q L
| turn to Base.
London.-American bombing squad
rons are now bombing the Rhine val
ley along with the British The YanI
pilots and observers, like their breth
rem OF the royal air force, enter int
this sport with the same spirit tina
mas made them famous on the baseball
diamond or football gridiron of theil
own American colleges. II -
| A young American aviator has iusi
told of a trip over the German lines
and back behind into German territory
Ihe formation in which the American
airmen flew consisted of IL big bomb.
ing machines, each of which carried
l,6OO pounds of high explosives, three
machine guns and three men. This
was the boys story:
after had tried the guns on nv
machine, checked the bombs, made
sure everything was ship-shape, and
put couple of little bombs into a
small bag beside me, started my en-
CINE. The big motors growled away,
waiting for the starting flash. Soon
the signal came and we were off.
High Altitude Reached.
For twenty minutes we climbed, un-
TIL the earth was just black blot. An
other twenty-five minutes and we were
over the trenches, with the searchers
cropping about in the mists below us.
The big guns crashed away cont:nu-
ously, and we could see the explosions
from where we scared high above
them. No sooner had we crossed the
lines than the Germans started firing
at us with their anti-aircraft guns.
Once a German searchlight got right
on us with its beam of light. We fred
a couple of rounds of machine-gun
fire at the Germans who were manning
the searchlight, and it went out.
Far below us we could see the
lights Of locomotive. Finally we
reached our objective. According to
plan, we throttled our motors and
glided toward the earth to get nearer
our target. 1t seemed curiously quiet.
Then suddenly the earth seemed to
open below us. Seventeen searchlights
were turned on us by the Germans,
and their shafts of light swept all
about us. The anti-aircraft guns
made wall ahead Of us. The high
explosive shells burst on every side
of us, and the green-fire balls swayed |
and spiraled as they tried to set us on |
IRE. The American machines went |
straight on, with never waver or a |
turn. There were 80 many crashes |
that I thought more than once that we
were hit. We kept straight on.
Amid Binding Rays.
Suddenly one Of the German
'earchlights got us and the rest of the
seventeen threw around us with sud-
1enness that made their concentra-
ion feel like blow. We fired our
Machine guns until the tips Of the
Weapons got red and the glow be-
IAN to creep up the barrels. The
Whole seventeen beams were on us, al
hough we plunged and side-slipped
bout in a desperate way. We let go
he bombs when we were right over
he mark. The antiaircraft shells
we're getting even closer than ever
nd the machine was hit time and !,
gain, though not in a vital spot. Why
re were not literally blown out of
he air / do not know. After we were
veil over the mark and had dropped
II our bombs we discovered one 25G-
ound bomb which had caught fast
j the rack and failed to drop when
eleased. Consequently we swung
ack on second run and when we
ere over the place which we had
ombed we let go the last bomb and
,ored direct hit far below.
1--WE went home at nigh speed.
ye crossed our own trench lines at
bout 5000 feet up. saw some famiI-
r landmarks, headed for our own
irdrOme, fired our signal and got O
lie answer. A few minutes later we c
I'D landed. A glance over the ma
line saw two big tears in the side
the fuselage aud many holes in
lie wings.
''But we had done splendid bit of .
,mbing, and such damage as our ma.
line had suffered was by no means :
fticult to repair"