Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-08

was soon very much at home.
MY squadron was one of four sta
toned at an airdrome about eight
cen miles back of the Ypres line.
There were eighteen pilots in our
squadron, which was a scout-squad-
ron, scout machines carrying but
one man.
A scout, sometimes called a fight
ing scout, has no bonn dropping or
accommodating to do. His duty is lust
| to fight, or, as the order was given to
me, You are expected to pick
fights and not wait until they come
to you !"
when bomb-droppers go out over
the lines in the daytime a scout
squadron usually convoys them. The
, bomb-droppers fly at about twelve
thousand feet. the scouts a thousand
| feet or so above them to protect
them.
If at any time they should be at
tacked, 1t is the duty of the scouts
| TO dive down and carry on the fight,
the orders of the bomb droppers be-
ing to go on dropping bombs and
not to fight unless they have to.
There is seldom a time that ma
chlnes go out over the lines on this
work in the daytime that they are
not attacked at some time or other
and so the scouts usually have pIen.
| ty of work to do. In addition tC
these attacks, however, the squadron
is invariably under constant bonn.
bardment from the ground, but thai
doesn't worry us very much, as we
know pretty well how to avoid beine
hit from that quarter.
On my first flight, after joining
| the squadron, / was taken out over
the lines to get look at things, mar
out my location in case / was ever
lost, locate the forests, lakes. and
other landmarks and get the general
! lay of the land.
One thing that was impressed
upon me very emphatically was the
location of the hospitals so that in
| case L was ever wounded and had
the strength to pick my landing ]
could land as near as possible to q
hospital. All these things a new
pilot goes through during the first
two or three days after joining q
squadron.
Our regular routine was two
! lights a day, each of two hours dur.
alton. After doing our regular
patrol, it was our privilege to go of
on our own hook, if we wished, be-
| fore going back to the squadron.
1 soon found out that my squad
ron was some hot squadron, our ffiers
being almost always assigned to spe-
cial duty work, such as shooting up
trenches at height of fifty feet from
the ground! l received my baptism
| into this kind of work the third time
1 went out over the lines, and
would recommend it to anyone who
is hankering for excitement. You
are not only apt to be attacked by
hostile aircraft from above, but you
are swept by machine gun fire from
below. l have seen some of our ma
chimes come back from this work
sometimes so riddled with bullets
that wondered how they ever held
together. Before we started out on
one of these jobs, we were mighty
careful to see that our motors were
in perfect condition, because they
told us the war bread" was bad in
Germany"
One morning, shortly after join
ed the squadron, three of us started
over the line on our own accord. We
soon observed four enemy machines,
two seaters, coming toward us. This
type of machine is used by the Huns
for artillery work and bomb drop
ping, and we knew they were on mis-
chief bent. Each machine had a
machine-gun in front, worked by the
pilot, and the observer also had a
gun with which he could spray all
around. d.