The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-03-25

lIBy Henry Wood, United Press Stan
| Correspondent
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES,
Feb. l4.-(By mail. )-These are the
two greatest stories In the history
vof French aviation.
1 Both took place in the early years
of the war, but have never before
been told.
! Competent authorities In french
aviation circles declare that IN the
whole brilliant era OF military ava
ton that has followed with all OF us
startling development and achleVe-
ments of aces, there are not TWO
single exploits that equal THESE
Trey are as follows:
+, Story Number One.
| Lieutenant d'Amecourt, who hao
! already made reputation for him
self by taking photographs OF the
German trenches and Notifications
! from a very low altitude, and Ma
chine Gunner Weller who had be-
! come equally famous as macnine
= gun sharp.shooter, went up together
{ in the early part Of October, 1915,
To take photos and make recon
| Nuisance Of the Champagne battle
! field.
Hardly were they over the German
lines. when their machine, one OF
the early French types that was $40"
and cumbersome, was attacked by a
| German Fokker. The latter was one
of the newest and fastest types with
a motor that made some $50 revolu-
tons to the minute. The victory Tor
the German promised to be an easy
one, and the two Frenchmen knew
it as well as did the German.
Easily outclimbing the French ma
chine, the German rapidly secured
the ascendancy necessary for attack
and rained in hail of machine gun
fire on the French machine. With
everything his own way in the matter
of speed, vancouver and control he
then came down to level to see
how much damage he had done.
He found the French machine. al
though plainly riddles with bullets
still fighting and flying. With ges-
) ture to the two French that meant
.I1l get you this time" he again
climbed quickly upward, secured the
ascendancy and rained another hail
of bullets.
Again he descended to level of
the French machine to see II the
latter was out of business, and again
he found it still further damaged,
but with both d'Amecourt and Weller
,, gamely fighting. Another gesture
from the Boche aviator, another
climb upwards, another hail of fire,
and another descent to ascertain the
.. damage he had inflicted.
The performance was repeated
, , time after time, Weller feeding his
machine gun constantly and dame
!. court manouvering the "old bus the
hest he could in the face Of the
; speedy Fokker.
With every volley from the Boche
> plane the French machine became
more and more riddled until finally
all of the supports of the machine
gun were shot away and the latter
fell into the bottom of the gun com
: partment. Almost simultaneously,
the German aviator made another
, descent to see if the French machine
had enough.
Equally simultaneously Weller dis
> covered that he had only four cart
ridges left in his machine gun.
y Without an instants hesitation he
5, snatched the latter up from the body
: Of the car and in the absence Of tri
: pod or any other support clapped il
u into the shoulders Of d'Amecourt who
. was at the pilots seat.
i 'Sit tight" he yelled. land steer
straight into the Boche. I've only go'
four cartridges left and I'll save then
for a sure hit"
The German came down to the leve
of the French plane to look 1t over
] iD'Amecourt drove straight for him
! and when at a close distance. Weller
= with the sureness OF craftsmanship
for which he was famous, opened hrt
= with his last four cartridges.
Before the fourth cartridge wa:
fred the German aviator was pierced
by one of them and his machine ca
;, reened to the ground
story Number Two.
A double motored biplane of French
iaviation squadron Cos had taken tn
air piloted by a mere corporal and I
machine gun operator. Their tasl
was to observe the fire OF a batter.
and regulate each shot of the latte
. bvi wireless messages from their bi
= plane.
l. Hardly had they begun their tasl
:. when they were attacked by FOkker
The one order which observation
= airplanes must observe regardless o
- cost is that no matter what happen
they must remain at their post OF dut!
~ in the air and keep up the service the.
- are performing as long as either tn
~ pilot or the observer remains alive.
> The two men defended themselVe
. in their heavy biplane against IN
. speedy Fokker the best they could Ii
the heat of the fight the bullets from
THE Germans machine gun completei
severed the left foot OF the corpora
- plotting the French machine.
@ Mastering the pain, he snatched u
s., tthe conner ring of Soixante-quinz