Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-06-23

were coming thick and fast. and did
not pay much attention to the two
specks.
had just shifted my controls and
headed for the artillery machine,
when a shadow flicked over my bus,
and 1 glanced up to see two little red
planes directly overhead and diving
on the artillery machine at terrific
speed. Ny machine was too slow to
come up soon enough to be of any
machines from another squadron
dropped down on the nearest Hun
without warning. The other Alba
tross Strengthened out of his. dive and
flew of to the southwark. ! was try
ing to see the finish of the battle be-
tween the first Hun and our two scout
machines, when Sits began to appear
in my planes and l heard the stutter
of Nordenfeldt.
AS 1 turned to face the enemy, he
dived below the tail of my bus ana
started to strafe me from below,
reach him. I commenced to nose the
machine down in order to pick up
speed, and after gaining sufficient
Roadway, l started loop, side-slipped
when on top Of the loop and as l
Strengthened out and the Hun began
to loop in his turn to dodge us. my
gunner opened on him. We missed
him. and Fritz, who had plenty of
fight left in him, came back for more.
My gunner was putting fresh drum
of cartridges in his gun. and Fritz
was climbing rapidly preparatory to
making another dive.
+
i turned the Machine so that /
could bring the front gun to bear upon
him, and gave him dozen shots. He
was in better position for me than l
had hoped for, and he went into
spinning nose dive, bursting into
flames as he passed US. My gunner
started to empty his second drum into
the Hun, but I stopped this by putting
the machine on a heavy bank. There
was no use hitting the man when he
was down-or on his way down, per-
haps / ought to say. I now had op-
portunity to watch what was going on
around me. and the first thing 1 saw
was the other Albatross falling, our
two scout planes hot on his tail. They
followed him, firing madly. until he
burst into flames. He crashed close
by the machine 1 had brought down
just in front of the British trenches
in mo mans land
morale in the air, l headed back for
our aerodrome. Shortly after we
landed the major came down, with
Cottingham. his gunner. badly wound
ed in the leg by large chunk Of
petrol tank cottingham was very
pleased. He had "Blighty touch"
which meant England and a long
leave. For the rest of US it was Just
one more Job done. with plenty Of
work ahead Of us.
All through that July of 1916 we
rrfad Ont h0rnh raids nearly puarv
night, when the weather-was good,
usually attacking railway centers
not more than fifty miles behind the
lines. These places were always sure
way to and from the Somme front.
Sometimes we could use our own
discretion in picking detectives to
attack When my turn came, and
was permitted a free hand. I gen.
orally chose ammunition dumps or
caused me the greatest amusement
and satisfaction was one I made by
my lnoe on the big German aero
drome at Douai.
eight twenty-pound Hale high-ex-
plosive bombs fastened in the bomb
racks under the wings. In half an
hour I was planning down over the
town toward YARD the ad big sheds 1ne and when
dropped the first pill" 1 opened
up the motor as I did so, and turned
to observe the result of my shot To
my disappointment, the bomb ex-
ploded just in front Of the hangers
awkward hole. ! descended to 200
feet and tried again, and this time
1 had the satisfaction of seeing the
roof blown Off the largest shed. The
Huns on the field were crazy. A-As
were banging. machine guns were
scattering. and searchlghts were
frisking across the sky. But / was