Evening journal., 1918-08-13

Among the many Delawarean5 who
are winning fame with the Allied arm
les on the west front Is Lieutenant
William Leach. son Of the late James
F. Leach, OF Mt Cuba Lieutenant
Leach, who Is connected with the
Royal Flying Corps. is now at a hos
pital in Plymouth. England, recovering
from an encounter he had with a Hun
aircraft about i've weeks ago.
William j. Lyons, Of No 22ls Wash
ington street. this city. an uncle Of
the young officer has received a number
Of postal cards from the young officer
on which he states that he is recover
ing but that 70 will be some time be-
fore he takes 20 flying again.
In a letter 10 a friend In Bayonne. "
J.. sometime ago, the young oflcer
said: Il am in receipt OF your kind
letter dated June is, so 10 made excel
lent time coming across. am ex-
tremely glad 10 hear Of the Red Cross
success in Bayonne, especially as the
Red Cross helped me considerably since
was unfortunate enough 10 be wound
ed. Still ! have got three Huns my
self and shared one with another chap
before they got me- The funny part
was that / got them all within the last
three days / was there and I began 10
think ! might make some sort Of a
record.
There were ~ % US about 20 miles
over the Huns lines and I'VE saw IS
Huns east. We wanted a scrap but
were a bit skeptical about going any
further over. but at last decided 70 60
Just then another chap my flight
commander and ! were a little over
the others at about 1900 feet and we
saw - more Huns over us working
there way between us and our lines
The captain and I attacked them while
the other ten were mixed up with the
first IS. We had a pretty warm time
and their leader got on Caps tail, but
l was lucky flying Just behind him
and couldn't miss his machine. so Mr..
Hun rolled over & couple OF times and
went down smoking
by that time I had the other eleven
behind me and 70 seemed that they
shut out the light. One bullet went
through my left leg and some more
shot away my gun gear, which was
rather bad and I tried to get away, but
they riddled my engine and put that
out Of action. Things were beginning
to look real serious by this time, so
put her into q spinning nose dive TO
get away for about 5000 feet, but on
bringing her out they had followed me
down and shot me through the side and
shot the parts Of the machine through
that they had previously missed, which
was not much.
High IN the air my wound bleeds
fast on account Of the small air pres
sure, and ! could feel blood running
into my boots from my side II kind
Of scared ne, because ! was awfully
afraid OF losing consciousness before
getting down. Every time ] felt dizzy
/ would put her down vertically and
do about 250 miles an hour. and the
rush Of wind brought me 10 so ! got
down. and crashed into the trenches
lust on our side Of the line"
The young oflcer also related how
the Tommles worked hard 10 get him
away from the wreckage, and lust as
they did a Hun she'll tore over the spot
where the wrecked machine stood.
He was removed TO e hospital, where
lt was found that the shot that tore a
part OF his engine away had plougned
into his stomach An operation was
necessary TO remove It.
Since then the young officer who en-
listed in Canada last August has been
sent 10 the Plymouth hospital. He
hopes 10 secure g furlough home IN a
short time