Evening star., 1941-12-21
BY Clayton Knight,
Wide World News.

Wide World News.
How does it feel to be shot down:
I've heard that question a thousanc
times since that day in 1918 when / gol
mine. I know how it felt in the first
World War but was curious to compare
notes with somebody who had been shot
down in this war.
I asked a young Canadian ace who
got his over England and was recuperat-
ing on leave in this country:
How does 1t feel to be shot down."
"You tell me and III tell you," he
countered
So I told him about how we were flying
behind the German lines at height OF
$4,000 feet. He had to smile at that
because most of their fights today are
twice that high and their planes 60 about
four times as fast.
NV crash? was plotting two scatter
D. H 9 and our squadron was on its way
to bomb an ammunition dump in oCcu-
pied Belgium. We did bomoing only oc-
casionally. Our real work was for the
Intelligence Corps.
We should have kept our eyes open
everywhere, I suppose, but we were so
busy watching the ground for the target
that We forgot to look up and around.
Forgetting to look above and behind
you was as fatal then as it is today
A fellow with a stiff neck had better stay
on the ground.
All of sudden. hell broke loose A
flight of German single-seater fighters
had been hiding in the sun above us,
and before anybody spotted them they
were on our tails and the machine gun
bullets were buzZing around our ears like
hornets
I could see the tracers going into the
wing alongside of my head and I in
stinctively ducked my head to keep from
getting that one in the back of the neck.
For some reason or other that's where
you always expected it.
Cockpit on Fire
I felt the motor lose power 1t had
probably been hit at the first burst
When my observers guns stopped I
thought he had been hit too. l didn't
have much time to worry about him
because Just below me. in the cockpit
which was usually dark I noticed
strange glow.
The floor of the cockpit was on fire!
And one thing We fellows feared most
was getting cooked" A tracer. I real
lied, must have ignited the fabric, and
although I knew I was falling in a
spin and that three or four of the Boche
were following me down, to get in
fire and stamped and slapped it with
my gloved hand for all I was worth.
The other fellows told me after the
war that when they saw the smoke
trailing me down they thought it was
curtains for us both. They even reported
that We were shot down in flames.
We must have fallen 5000 feet, get
.iow or other I got the fire out. Then,
knew I didn't have much chance to get
put OF the thing with whole skin. but
pit least I wasn't going to cook So
BAT up and looked the situation over.
I felt pretty cool and detached now,
as though I were sitting apart watching
an exciting show.
Just then, I saw a fokker on my tail
and another diving head on. at me- MY
observers guns had jammed and there
was nothing I could do about the fellow
on my tail, so got the nose of the ship
up and watched the fellow in front
through my sights.
Ill never forget how he looked-get-
ting bigger and bigger until his plane
filled my sights. We we're both shooting
His bullets were hitting all around me.
I felt one rip my leg, but I could see my
tracers going into him, too. Still he