WOUNDED SAVED BY AEROPLANES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2691, 10 February 1916, Page 6

WOUNDED SAVED BY AEROPLANES

UNIQUE INCIDENT IN GREAT ] SERBIAN RETtREAT. , (R. Franklin Tate in the "Daily ] News.") ] The later stages of the great Serbian retreat were 110 less terrible than the f earlier ones. On November 24 the ' 150,000 fugitives collected together at c I nsrend fdund themselves cut off from £ iUonastir and Montenegro. The only f issue left open for escape from the 1 clutches of the enemy was the . almost 1 inaccessible range of mountains—over ( 3000 feet in height—across NorCliern A]- c bania to Scutari, a distance of over 100 £ miles. Here the retreating army had c to bury or destroy its last motor-cars, 1 lorries, cannons, munitions, and mater- ' ial generally to prevent them falling « into the enemy's hands. As for the wo- a men and children who had dragged them- e selves so far/ there was no.'longer any £ hope of their escaping by flight across £ tho inhospitable mountains. c In the midst of the panic Colonel o I'ournier, the French Military Attache, a collected together all the French mis- s sions of Serbia (with the exception of o the medical mission, which had'liad time v to escape to Montenegro by way of Jako- t vitza and Ipek)-— : aviatons,. motor me- t chanics, and .wireless telegraphy opera- c tors, making in all a detachment of over 200 Frenchmen, viz., 3 sailors, 94 motor a mechanics, 125 officers and men of tho c I'lying Corps, and o telegraphists. The t officers collected together all their pe- C cuniary resources—lß.ooofr. (£72o)— i, for the purchase of horses and provi- t In this way tiliey managed, by c paying exorbitant prices, to lay in a I stock of oats, 10 livo sheep, and 70 n horses already exhausted by two months' incessant retreat. The most serious problem was the rescue of the sick and wounded. It was impossible to think of carrying them pcross the mountains. It was equally impossible to think of deserting them. In this predicament Colonel Fournier thought of the aeroplanes, of which there were still half a dozen iii fairly good condition, although they P had been flying in all weathers for the last two and a half months. It was decided to send the worst cases by aeroplane, to Scutari. It was a bold project, brilliantly and successfully accomplished, and probably the first instance of flying craft being used for ambulance