The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-02-13


than the French could decide wheth-
er to destroy the field or save it,
according to Sergeant Frank Lind.
say of this city, who abs just re:
turned from service overseas with
the 474th Aero Squadron.
Here is Lindsay's story: ut was
on the Chateau-Thierry front short
ly after the Americans had started
their big smash that turned the tide
of battle against the Germans along
the entire front from Ypres to
Rheims. Our flyers had been oper-
ating from a base in the rear of
the Chateau-Thierry sector and had
been more than holding their own
with the Hun birdmen.
Get Out of Touch.
After the doughboys had broken
through across the Marne and were
driving Fritz before them, they ad-
vanced so far that our flyers sort
of got out of touch with Heinie.
That is, the distance between our
field and the front lines became so
great that we could not operate sat
isfactorily and in numbers equal to
the Boche The German planes be-
came more active and literally
swarmed over the American lines.
They got to coming over in such
numbers that for short time they
had it on us, and were so bold that
often they came down over the
American trenches as low as so feet,
and were literally sweeping our lines
with their machine guns.
Something had to be done, so a
detachment Of which ! was a mem
Der was sent ahead to locate a land.
ing field and new camp for our
squadron. In that particular sec.
tion it was hard to find a landing
field level enough and big enough
to suit our purpose, but we finally
found a wheat field of about 150
acres 1t was a beautiful piece of
ground, as level as a floor, and
was the biggest field of any kind
l saw in France.
Wheat Ready for. Harvest.
The wheat was-iust rirening, and
it was a dandy crop at that 1t
didn't take the American officers
long to decide that they must use
the wheat field for the new aviation
camp, but the trouble was that the
wheat was in the way, and besides
it represented something like 5000
bushels of grain that France need
ed Some French officers were there
and were for destroying the wheat
in order that our machines could
come over, become established and
get into action. Everybody knew
how badly they were needed up at
the front
"Our officers said, How about
harvesting this wheat The French
men said there was not time and
that the German birdmen would
have everybody in the front line
killed before it would be possible
for any set of humans to get that
field harvested. Our officers knew
better and they got busy right now.
Enter American Binder.
Trucks were sent at once for the
rest of our men. Shortly after they
arrived, here came a couple of ca
terpillar tractors each hauling an
American binder. Where they dug
up those binders is mystery to me
and always will be, but there they
were, just like the ones that are
used by the hundreds in Oklahoma
every year.
"Our commanding officer lined us
up and made us a little talk. He
told us had badly the men in the
AAOhN lihO hCCuCQ Tic H6lp VI
battle and scout planes He told
US what the German flyers were do
ing to our boys up there and said
that this field was the only landing
place available.
"'You see that field of wheat,
boys? he said. Well, that's got
to come off of there. Now you boys
know as we'll as l do what you can
do with it and how quick you can
do it. Now hop to it.
Wonderful! Wonderful!"
"Out across that field went those
binders and we swarmed out after
them like ants. There were II big
Packard trucks on the job and the
drivers didn't hardly have to stop to
be loaded. We snatched that field
of wheat off in mighty short order,
stacked it all at one end of the
field, established our camp and had
planes landing on the field in ex-
actly nine hours from the minute
the binders arrived at the field