Paragould soliphone., 1921-08-29

at Howden.
 We then went to work in the single hanger opposite, where tho R-32 was moored to the ground and being stripped to he destroyed. She was built of wood instead of metal as is now used Her sister ship. the R-31, met with a mishap during the war by breaking her back.
 Later the British Admiralty turn ed the R-32 into running condition with the aid of the American off cers and personal and gave it to the American crew as d training ship
 We all felt pretty rotten about these things, because she hadn't any lift Lift" means that the ship was too heavy to take the air While flying in the R-34 you could walk through the corridors and a man 30 feet ahead of you would dis appear and come back into sight again, due to the ships buckling and twisting, and you couldn't hear man talking to you because of the cracking of the wood "(Corridors refers to the keel of the ship where the gasoline tanks were stored and water ballast, crews quarters and officers quarters.) " We arrived at Howden in com mand of Lieutenant Ponnoyer. We were met by British lorry which took us from the railroad station to the air station and the seargants' mess Then we went ill there and had supper The greeting was any thing but cordial, There were about 400 soldiers at the station.
 Then we got our quarters and we started to work the next morning. We worked under the British com mander, Thomas of the R-33 and our duties were to work on the ship making repairs, under orders from British officers.
 No Sleeping Quarters.
 The first flight we made in the R-33 under Captain Thomas was a 24-hour flight over London and vi cinity Half of us went on that ship, the others taking trips. During that trip there were no sleeping quarters for the Americans. We slept by grabbing a nap sitting any where we could, while the English had regular berths. None of them offered to share their quarters with us.
 The food was bad, but no one could complain about that. because they had no way of preparing any better food than we had.
 When we got back the crew we had left to get experience and keep watch said the British crew deliber- ately let the nose of the ship run into the side of the hanger and break.
 Every English enlisted man is a radical, and none of them work in the interest of the government. They said Let her break into the side or break up. They were annoyed be- cause their liberty had been restrict ed while the ship was out, waiting | for her return to be put back into the hangar Then, too they were jealous of the Americans because , the latter received more pay We always had to go on leave two at a time, for fear of being molested by civilians or soldiers | The pay of the Americans being so much more than the English
 made them angry and that's why
 they didn't want to work extra lhours while we were learning
 Tells of Defects in Airship. We were in Bedford six days | Two days before we left Bedford
 they had the Keel of the ship thor
 oughly completed and an inspection proved that they hadn't any safet, | factor.
 ! The breaking point had not beer
 established. The bag, when blowl
 up, had torn from the girders. Un til then the maximum strength O
 the girders was not known. Culliman and l were detailed C
 find out how many girders ha
 been broken. approximately 12 gir
 ders out of 25 were broken b pressure caused by the imitation c the bag. The ship was moored to tn ground at forward and aft ends. an the bag was inflated at the cente of the ship to it's capacity causing lift in the one section between tn stern and bow lashed to the ground which caused it to buckle an burst.
 Instead of taking out of tn completely damaged section, the merely replaced some parts of tn broken girders by splicing. I had seen this and said to Jin mic Culliman, this will never last. It is just like any splicing, two piece put together with reinforcemer ! over the broken part.
 We were transferred back to How s den We got the R-32 turned ovt