Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-08-12
WON'T
FORGET THIS DAY
RiCkenbacker Tells of Notable
Occasion in Air Fight With
the Boche.

Copyright 1915 by the United Press)
WITH THE AMERICAN AIRMEN
IN FRANCE, July 10 (By Mail)-
There was n day in the history
forget, especially Jimmie Meissner,
one of the best gimpers. 1t was
Jimmie Meissner day. / guess, and
If he wasn't scared to death it's be-
cause Jimmie doesn't know how to
be scared"
prominently in Jimmie Meissner
day." as he saved Meissner's life
twice inside of an hour. Hence. he
Is qualified to tell the story.
Jimmie and 1 were waiting for
some homecoming English, bomb
ers," began Riceknbacker, when we
got separated, somehow. The Eng
spotted them first. Then l saw a
squadron of German planes harass-
ing the Englishmen.
"I dove off toward the flock of
German planes, and just as I got po-
sition to pique on one of them. l 10
ticed an American plane diving on
one German with three more Ger
mans diving on him. 1 could sec he
was in danger by the streamer bullets
which passed on all sides of him.
$50 I piqued on the most danger
Gus Boche., and got him but as 1 did
so l saw the American plane fall APP
parently out of control, for it was one
of the best leaf falls l a yer seen.
You can't stop when something goes
down, so I began climbing for alti-
tude and scouting around for some
thing, 1 felt like piQueing on some
Hun. after seeing the American plane
drop.
II was feeling pretty sore when I
saw an American plane with one wing
torn off cfrt1OolinU fnuarI hnpan He
vas having a hard time of 1t and los
ing speed all the time, as well as get
ting lower and lower. 1t was a pa
thetic sight to see a gimper In such a
fix and be unable to help him. 1
went up near and waved my hand to
encourage the gimper and he waved
back. Then | locked around and
saw a German biplane bearing down
on the damaged American machine,
which was going slower and slower
and could not go any way out of q
Decline for home, other than down.
Down would have been in Germany.
S I Unanswered for position and
got 1t. Just as I let the German
have 1t he had opened fire on the
American, who was Jimmie. and 1
could see by the streamer bullets that
the German was. going to get Jimmie
If 1 didn't get him.
Fortunately, / did. and he went
crashing to the ground, leaving Jim
mie struggling along, always lower
and lower with a regular cloud of
black German archie puffs all about
him. I lowered and did some loops
and turns over the German gunner's
heads. The ruse insulted them and
they turned most of their arches my
way, which did no harm, since l had
plenty of speed and was in little dan
ger. But 1t saved Jimmie, who was
nnzv pninp fnrrfh1v Slow and fho foot
that Germans are so easily insulted
helped n lot.
Just as Jimmie was crossing the
lines l noticed another American
piquing down on him. 1 could not
imagine why he would pique on n
and I maneuvered to attract his at
tention.
Later we learned this gimper was
q man from the squadron. He saw
Jimmie with one wing torn off and
thought he was a German Taube. He
was just about to let Jimmie have It
when he noticed the couuards on.
Jimmie's tail. So Jimmie had another
close squeak that day.
I'VE all got back all right-Jimmie
by nothing short of q miracle-and
felt a lot better about it. We never
Strengthened the story out for several
days. when by an accidental bit of
gossip at the table 1 learDed the
Boche 1 first piqaed on that day was
the one which vas after Jimmie. The
American plane which went down out
OF control also turned out to be Jim
mie, who was doing a falling stunt
to fox tho Germans. 1t was n pretty
piece OF work. for I surely gave the
plane up for good. He had fattened
ont near the ground, come up for al
titude, got in a fight, collided
with a German, who crashed
and was struggling home when / ran
him the second time