Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-08

motor wide open. and was just able TO
glide over the front line trenches. ]
landed few hundred feet inside our
lines. among the barbed wire.
"Onc morning in July. during the
battle of the Marnc, was out alone.
divcd on tho tail Of formation Of
eight Germans. | got the rear man.
and zoomcd up again above thcm-thcn
my motor missed They came up all
to do had to drop right through
them
800 Miles al Hour
put her nose down and dived. The
Spad will 60 300 miles an hour going
straight down with the motor full on.
It's the only machine that can stand
il. dropped 1000 feet in few
seconds---it was damn good thing |
did--they were pumpiuk lead all round
me. There were twelve or fourteen bul-
let holes in my plane.
l'i.ier ordinary conditions YOU cant
do that sort of thing, but when you have
to WELL | thought | WAS all right
When got homo my machines said
What's the matter? You're as white
as n ghost Then a terrible pain started
in my right ear. | foupd that dive
had broken the car. drum.
When the Eagle Ruled
''Wc definitely got the command of
the air in our sector on September II. -
said Eddie, after that date every
time you d see bochp in the air there d
be three or four Americans picking on
him. Our chief opponents were the
flyers of Richthofen's flying circus.
Richthofcn himself was killed couple
of weeks after | got to the front. but
there were about thirty five in their
outfit. all crack men. the German shock
troops of the air.
A Warm Windup
THE last planes? drought down
II was n Sunday afternoon. about the
end Of October. There were three Ger
mans flying together, and | thought
I'd 60 out and pick on them. One ol
them dove at mo out Of the sun the
blind spot of the sky-~and his bullets
were buzzing all around mo. | went
into blind loop. which. Just by a bit
Of luck brought mo on top of him.
'Iou konw in combat fyingg YOU
haven't any idea where Mother Earth
is. You become simply a part Of your
machine.
Often for fifteen minutes at time
YOU don't know whether Mother Earth
is above or below or on one side Well
] got that fellow, aud the other two had
disappeared. | felt pretty cocky and
dived down toward Dun, where found
one of our bombing planes struggling
along with n Hun on his tail shooting
him up.
The German was so busy he ddn (
sse me coming. | dived on his tail and
, my first burst shot up his motor. That
made him helpless. I didn't want 10
kill him. for he couldn't shoot back at
me also. I saw he. had II brand new
Fokkcr which wanted badly.
1t was between him and Hunland. :,
! kept edging him back toward France
| | maneuvcrcd him along and he had go
to within 100 feet Of the ground Will
nice easy spot picked out for landing
| NbeD SOInpOUe fuult dlOuH Nllu NDuu
| This busybody divcd onto Fritz ant
began shooting him up Just as he wa'
trying to land. This made me mad, ant
I fired burst across the Spad's most
to show him ! was quite in control o
the situation. But it was too late. Th,
poor bochc had been scared to death
/ he stuck his nose down and went smash
| He broke one brand new Fokker all t.
! bits IT,.
The Salute Of knights
II circlcd around about twenty five
feet above him till | saw him rraw
out of the drcckagc. He waved his
hand at me to show he was O. X. ant
few away. The next day | went ovcl
to see him. He was lieutenant. ant
gave me letter to some of the boys il