Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-12
BY CLARENCE ID. CHAMBERLAIN
AND CHARLES A. LEVINE.

now come to the last lap of our
trans oceanic flight - the journey
over Europe.
AS we flew through the second
night of our journey over England
and the east, the fog reached almost
down to the ground and we had to
buck northwest wind. which forced
US out of our course. The wind had
| been pretty strong during the night,
in fact, finally we were flying through
continuous storm. the wind SHIFT
| ing from the northwest to the south
as the night wore on.
The last place we saw before the
| fog and darkness shrouded every
thing from our eyes was Plymouth
| in the south of England, which we
espied through a little hole in the FOG
| while we were flying over the Eng
| fish Channel. But after that the log
closed in solidly on all sides and, 10
make matters worse. it kept getting
higher all the time.
Headed for Berlin.
We had intended to bear north
across the channel to Paris and TO
the northeast again to Berlin. we
had about sixty-five gallons of gaso-
line left, which we calculated woulo
be more than enough to carry us
through the night until we lahueu
after daybreak Monday in Berlin.
our plan was to cruise around over
France and Germany during inc
night. lust killing time, and TO wait
for the first streaks of dayllgnt pe
fore attempting to land. we ulo iioe
at all relish the idea or coming wv
through the fog and in absolute ud1h
ness without knowing whelnel .,iS
foy reached all the way to the grouilu.
while we were trying to work
northeast toward Berlin we ran INTO
such a high fog that we were forced
70 shift our course in order TO Keep
ont of II. Finally. we had TO give
nm our attempt to ride over the STORM
and started to come down througn II.
we had reached an altitude OF 20,OOO
mr. higher and some of the clouds
around us appeared to reach as
high as $4,000 feet. The indicator OF
our altimeter recorded only up to
90 600 feet and our thermometer show
ed IS degrees below zero.
Levine Took Stick.
Chamberlin was so exhausted from
working the plane for several hours
without intermission at this high alti- |
tude that he had to turn it over to
Levine, though the latter had had
practically no night flying experience,
but he managed to get away with it.
From the height of 10000 feet, or
Whereabouts, we dropped down until
we were something like mere 800
feet above the ground. We found our !
selves flying just over the tops OF
the factory chimneys OF some German |
town which we could not identify at |
the moment. 1--WE learned afterward |
that it was Dortmund). BY this time |
the wind was blowing regular gale |
and the rain was falling steadily. |
Chamberlin thought we were over |
Essen on account of the steel mills |
we saw down below, while Levine
thought that the place was the Port of |
Bremerhaven.
We spent Is or 20 minutes flying |
around the manufacturing plants try |
ing to find one with a sign painted |
on 1t that might aid in locating our |
selves. Chamberlin looked especially |
for sign of the Krupp Works, which |
he knew were in Essen. All the time |
the red glare from flames of. the big |
furnaces lit the fog.
Though we circied around several |
locate ourselves and we were puzzled |
as to what to do until suddenly we
heard noise and saw the fash of a
rocket in the distance.
Rockets Prompted Landing.
Maybe they are signaling for us
to come down." said Levine. "And
we would better do IL, because they
might start shooting with anti-aircraft
guns"
He thought we might be near some
frontier, you see. and he did not want
the police to get after us for breaking
frontier regulations.
So we dropped down to investigate
and found ourselves over the flying
field at Dortmund, from which rock
cts had been sent up in the hope of
attracting our attention, as bort
mund, like the rest of Germany, knew
we were somewhere in the air over
Europe. We flew very low over the
| field and shouted Berlin" as loudly
as we could. The soldiers down below
all pointed eastward, so we headed
| our plane that way.
By this time we had only 10 or IL
gallons Of gasoline left, for we had
wasted lot climbing and circling
while trying to dodge the storm.
Tic lOS LLlcu
| somewhat, so it was fairly clear up to
few hundred feet above the ground,
although there was still a drizZling
rain. But we were able to get good
look at the country, and we had no
| further doubts about it's being Ger
many. because of the tiled roofs on
the houses and because the trees
seemed all uniform in size. Every.
thing was trees. and all looked very
orderly.
Gasoline Gave Out.
All the while the gasoline situation
was getting more and more serious.
On our last reserve tank there was a
sight gladd, and we both sat watch.
ing its gauge drop lower and lower
until it became quite clear that we
had no chance of getting to Berlin
before replenishing our supply. We
debated whether to pick good field
and land while we still had bit of
gas left or to go on flying until the
last drop was gone. Chamberl1n
wanted to land near some large town
| before the gas gave out entirely so
that he might use his engine in land
ing, whereas Levine was for continu-
ing until there was no more gasoline
and the motor stopped
This latter, of course, was adopted.
| We made a few more miles and
finally landed with a dead motor near
a village in the vicinity Of Eisleben.
1t was a pretty good landing; at least,
we did not break anything on the
plane. For some time nobody came
up to us, because in Germany people
do not seem to live on farms. but in
villages, and in this case they had 20
reach us from various villages some
distance away. 1t was 5:55 o'clock on
Monday morning, June 6, by local
time Q2:55 am. New York daylight
saving time).
We both got out of the machine.
| Chamherlin could scarcely stand. He