Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-06-11
Escadrille M. S. P. 1856,
Secteur Postal 12.
April ~, 1918.

April IL, 1918.
Dear Mother:
This certainly is the end of a per-
feet day, for 1 have never seen such
beautiful sunset since l left the
"Heights'-all blue and red, with
the smoke from burning Rheims CIV
ing just the right touch to make a
most beautiful picture Three times
| have l flown to-day, totaling four
hours in the air, and / sure am going
to enjoy my trundle bed "ce soir,"
even if it has bob wire for springs
and canvas for sheets. AS Putnam
just remarked. so much has hap
pened to-day that he don't know
where to start, and l don't wonder,
for he was in two fights, and to top
it off, his motor stopped dead and
he landed in some trenches near
camp.
had my own troubles, too. My
motor has just been taken down
and cleaned, and 1 quickly discov-
cred l had to learn it all over again
and to think 1 knew it's every
whim before! Anyway, when we
went out the first time at IL o'clock
lieutenant came along. My motor
would not work at all, and kept spit
ting and coughing like a consump-
tive; something fierce; but l dog
gedly stuck, hoping it would run
better after a while-a hope that
was not realized. We had been up
and down the lines once when
swinging around Rheims we saw
some white shrapnel way down at
the other end of the line, so Putnam
stands on his tail and begins climb
ing to have a look, for the white
shrapnel denotes a Boche; so did I,
but fiddle as 1 would with that dog
gone motor, she would not pull me
past $500 meters. Not being able to
climb up, 1 ambled along below in
the hope that if they found the
Boche andd rove him down l nigh
get a crack at him-and then 1
tried my gun to see If it was work.
ing.
Some Fighting
After shooting twenty times, and
liking the gun after every shot, l
stopped calling it a machine gun, for
| was working it by hand. They both
being fixed quickly, up l went to try
them, diving down at the target with
gun going full blast. 1t worked fine,
and was happy again until 1 was
informed that one of my bullets had
nearly hit a mechanic, something L
could not understand at all because
the hangar was quite distance from
the target and my shooting surely
wasn't that bad. So l jokingly told
them it was stray Boche bullet
Just then Putnam came back with
tale of diving on seven Boches,
when his gun stuck. We soon had
our zings refilled with gasoline and
our guns fixed, and with anotherI
American named Guy started out
again at p. m. We bumped along
out to the lines, my engine still act
ing queerly, with me trying my best
to fix it. Anyway, / was keeping up
with the patrol. For nearly an hour
we flew up and down our sector
without seeing anything but Boche
balloons, and we had no orders to
attack those, and then away over
on the German side we saw six
Boches,'a little higher than us.
Up went Putnam and Guy, climb
ing nearly vertical to get above them
so they could attack. I stood on my
tail too, but it was no go, for the
motor would not pull. Seeing that 1.
could not climb, 1 contented myself
level as the Boche, watching my two
comrades dive to the attack.
The Attack
The Boches scattered like quail,
and no sooner had they punched
again down came the two Ameri-
can hawks again. Just at this time
| Joined in, rather long range to be
sure, as my motor was bad, but my
gun was working, and getting the
sight on one Hun 1 let drive. Ac-
cording to Putnam and Guy, two