Evening star., 1928-02-14
CHAPTER VIII.

IN TILL the Fokkers above held back.
~ Rickenbacker caught one Of the
| LVGs in a position where It had
~ to cross his line Of fire and he
opened up with both guns. The
| German plane burst into flames as the
Fokkers plunged to the rescue, ana
| Rickenbacker streaked for nome Win
t, more victories to his credlt.
On the 26th of September. 1918.
pershing'S army Jumped off" for the
opening attack of the battle of the Ar
eonne. At 4 O'Clock that morning the
Ist Pursuit Group took to the air under
orders to attack every observation bal
loon on the German front and destroy
them or force them to the ground to
blind the German artillery during the
coming infantry onslaught. Ricken.
backer tells thrilling story of his part
in this huge raid.
He had seen the huge flares In the
dark morning sky which marked the
end of as many balloons and had been
thrilled by the network OF flame on the
ground as American and French In
fantry surged over the first lines Of the
German trenches when ne suddenly
found himself in almost the tightest
place of his whole flying career. We
will let him tell it himself:
While / was jubilating over the ex-
traordinary good luck that had at
tended us on this mornings eXpedi-
tion." Capt Eddie says in his own mar
rative. Fighting the Flying Circus" Il
glanced off my right and was almost
startled out of my senses to discover
that a German FOkker was flying along
side me not a hundred yards away!
Not expecting any of the enemy air.
planes to be abroad at this early hour.
was naturally upset for a moment.
The next instant ! saw that he had
headed for me and was coming straight
at my machine. We both began firing
at the same time. It was still so dark
that our four streams of flaming bullets
cut brilliant lines Of fire through the
air. For a moment 1t looked as though
our two machines were tied together
with four ropes of fire. All my ammu-
milton was of the incendiary variety for
use against gas bags. The Germans
ammunition was part tracer. part in
| cendiary and part regular chunks OF
lead.
LAS we drew nearer and nearer. be-
| gan to wonder whether this was to be
collision or whether he would get out
of my way. He settled the question by
tipping his head to dive under me. /
| instantly made a renversement which
put me close behind him and in a most
favorable position for careful aim.
Training my sights into the center of
| his fuselage, pulled both triggers.
With one long burst the fight was over.
The Fokker fell over onto one wing and
dropped aimlessly to earth. 1t was too
| dark to see the crash. and moreover.
| had all thoughts of my victory dissi-
pated by a sudden ugly jerk to my mo-
tor. which Immediately developed into
a violent vibration. AS turned back
| toward Verdun. which was the nearest
point to our lines had recurring
visions of crashing down into Germany
to find myself prisoner. That would
be a nice ending to our glorious balloon
expedition!
Rickenbacker Forced Down.
"Throttling down to reduce the
pounding, I was able to just maintain
headway If my motor failed COM
pletely was most certainly doomed.
| for I was less than a thousand feet
above ground and could glide but few
| hundred yards without power. Provi-
dence was again with me. for I cleared
the lines and made our verdun air
drome. where one fight Of our 27th
Squadron was housed. landed with
out damage and hastily climbed out o.