Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-01-02
AVIATOR
vOLPLANES $4,000 TT.
Attacked BY Four Germans
Three Miles High in the Air.
Hit by Anti-Aircraft Gun.


Graphic details of an airplane battle
$4,000 feet in the air, in which Corporal
Leonard M. Reno of Chicago fought alone
against four German machines and then
with a disabled craft volplaned $4,000
feet to earth reached Reno's family here.
The cablegram from Paris said: Pros
trate in hospital here until November list
Reno survived the fighting in the
dead" motor was badly injured internal
~ when his airplane struck the earth,
He was operated on in DunI1rk and
later removed to Paris.
His brother, Harry Daniel Reno, re-
ceived the following letter:
Dear Dan-Pve written you sketchily
before about my accident but haven't
given you the fun story because the hos
pital folks. would not let me write at
length.
That smash-up, however, was the big
gest thing that has happened to me over
here. OF course, I couldn't tell you the
real story any more than | could de-
scribe the Grand Canyon, but here are
some of the details:
First let me correct the false impress
sion the newspapers have got that l am
in the Lafayette escadrile. I'm not. I'm
in the French squadron escadrille No.
Mistakes Foes for Comrades. .
I'VE have two patrols one cruising at
the 5000 foot level and the other up 49,
600 feet
Wen, that day I was on the 5000
chaps / was sailing around in the
clouds. Nearby I could hear the drontng
OF other machines, and supposed they
were my squadmates. But when [ poIled
my nose out of the clouds, [ met four
German machines.
THE boche pilots grinned wider than
q darcy reaching out for watermelon
when they saw me.
They were leisurely in their pursuit
thought they had me dead to rghts-and
started to play with me like q cat chas-
hCII of
They closed in.
My only chance was in acrobat:cs.
Il resorted to all my best tricks loop
ing-t he-loop, vertical spirals, upside
stunts 1 told you about in my other .ct-
7 climbed to $4,000 feet, dropped to
And finally I got away.
but JUS then an anti-aircraft gun in
Fort Hodhurst hogan blazing at me.
THE gunner was a good shot His
shrapnel punctured bth the main gaso-
line tank of my plane and the emer-
gency tank.
The airp!ane I was driving was one,
OF the new Spad type of one-man fight
ing machines, which is replacing the old
Newport; Ours is the only squadron
completely equipped with Spads. The
United States is building the Spad type
for use over here.
when the gasoline tank on a Spad is
struck you touch lever and the tank
drops clear from our machine, thus
preventing the machine from catching
fire. I touched the lever didn't know
til then that the emergency tank was
Blu, it was. and the engine. ofcourse
was dead" So I started to voIplane
when YOU volnlape, you can't nick
landing place with any great certainty
Your machine is like leaf futtering to
earth.
II aimed for an aviation field on Bel
gian soil, Near the edge of the field
were two houses and several large trees
The machine tiopDed onto the field
Just beyond the houses. Her nose was
in the ground and she stood upright like
a sewing machine shuttle on a monu-
ment. I was strapped in of course. and
luckily didn't get smashed all to pieces.
There was much straining inside of
me and I seem to have been hurt intern
ally-just how seriously I don't know
yet,