A DUEL TO THE DEATH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 7

A DUEL TO THE DEATH

! HOW CAPTAIN BALL KILLED

HUMAN

_ The old days when armies censed fighting.; to watch their two champions in eingie combat have come back again. ■It was on the .Western front, and the engagement that resulted'ill'the death of Immelman .the Falcon, Germany's most distinguished in very tiuth a duel—no chance meeting of men determined to slay one ; unother, but' a formally arranged encounter, following a regular .challenge, and fought by prenrrangement and without interference. The battle was witnessed with breathbss interest by the ■ men of both armies crouched in the trenches, separated by only a few feet of No Man's Lund, while the fire of the anti-aircraft guns on both sides was stilled. " ■ ' , The victor in tho spectacular fight was Captain Ball, the youthful .English; pilot .who has only two"'notches less on. the frame'of'his fighting* machine than had the Falcon, who was credited with fiftyono "downs." The story of' the. duel, which, was declared to have been one ot the most sensational events of the war, is told in a lette- written by Colonel Macklin, of the Canadian troops, to a friend. . Colonel Macklin, • who was ono of the eye-witnesses of the fight, writes in his letter, which was printed in the NewYork "Tribune.":

One morning Captain Ball, who was behind our sector, heard that linmelman tho Falcon was opposite.

"This is the chance I've been waiting for; I'm going to get him," declared Ball. Friends tried to dissuade hiiu,flsaying 'the story of Jnimelman's presence probably was untrue. Ball would not listen.

Getting into his machine, he flew over the German lines and dropped.a note: "Captain Immelman: ."I, chalalenge you to,a man-to-man fight, to take place this'afternoon at 2 o'clock. 1 will meet you over the German lines. Have your anti-aircraft guns withhold their fire while, we decide which is tho-better man. The British guns will be silent. BALL." About an hour afterward, a German aviator swung out across our lines. ImlnelmnnV'answer came:—

"Captain Ball: "Your challenge 'is (accepted. ' TheGerman guns will not interfere. I.will meet you promptly at two.

"IMMELMAN." Just a few minutes before 2 o'clock the guns on both sides ceased firing. It was as though the commanding officers had ordered a.'truce. jows of heads popped iip, and all tyes watched Ball from behind' the British lines shoot off and into the air. A minute or two later Immelman's machine was seen ocross No Man's Land. .The; letter describes the (ail of the German machine, ns painted red "to rerjreseirt.tho British and French blood it had spilled," while Ball's had a streak .of' black''paint (p .represent the nioiirn--ing. for. : hisy victims.' '. The machines ascended in ,i, wide circle; end then: " From olir tranche; there were' wild' cheers for Ball, f The Germans yelled just as vigorously for Immelman. The cheers from the trenches continued. The Germans' increased in volume; ours changed into cries of alarm; ' . Ball, thousands of feet above us and only a sneck in the sky, was doinif (he creziest things imaginable. He was below Immelman and was. annarenllv, making no effort to get above him, .tints gaining the.advantage of position. leather he was swinging around, fliis way and that, attempting, it seemed, to postpone the inevitable. • AVe saw the German's machine dip over preparatory to starting the nose dive. "He's gone,now," sobbed a young soldier at my side, for he knew Immeliiiau's gun would stare 'its raiting lire once' it was being driven straight down. Then, in tho fraction of a, second, the atbles were turned. Before Immelmnn's 'plane could get into firing position/Ball drove his machine into a loop, getting above his 'adversary and cutting loose With his gun and smashing Immelman by a hail of bullets as he swept by. Immelman's airplane burst into flames and dropped. Ball, from above, followed for" a few hundred feet, and then straightened out and.raccd for-home.- He settled down, rose again,- hurried back, and released a huge wreath of flowers almost directly over the spot where Immelman's charred body was being lifted from a tangled mass of metal. ■ ■

Four days.later Ball, too, was killed. Ho attacked single-handed four 'Germans. ■He hud shot one down ambwns pursuing the other three when two machines drop"ped from behind the clouds and closed in on him. Ho Was pockete, and war, killed—but not until he had shot down two nioro of the enemv.