BETWEEN THE RED CROSSES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 2, 27 September 1918, Page 5

BETWEEN THE RED CROSSES

AN EAST AFRICAN INCIDENT i

(By "Ail .Airman.") I The" following iiterally. true story lias -j just arrived from East and j in several ways, illuminating:— . | So far it had not boon r verj m- j terestiiig trip. The German oamj> wo , lmd been •ordered.to.'bomb had clearly j been evaouated,' andvon the off-chance i lof finding a more useful target,-we had j pushed on up tlio railway line. ■ Thou t suddenly out' drooping spirits are re- j vived by the sight of a puff of steam j nearly six miles further ahead. Is it ) a train?—or merely a bush fire? Our. j luck is in: it is a train, and m a.feW j minutes we can see that it is stand- J inc. in a little ■ railway station.; tho j platforms of which are littered with ! small black boxes, which aro being :j carried by natives towards- a long lino , of waiting transport. _It is ammum- j tion —and our hick ie indeed in 1 ! Tlion our spirits sink 01100 more, for i as we got over tho station \?o notice ; that on each sido of it and within a ,| quarter of a mile aro building bearing j a ]arg6 lied Cross. To mako sure of j hitting a train an airman must drop ■< his bombs in a lino at right-aagles to j its length, a mothod of attack wlucli ; the cunning arrangement of lied m Crosses by the Hun m this case natur- j ally, renders impossible. We are not ; out to bomb hospitals. . ]j.it my pilot is not to be beaten by a : palpable'dodgo like that. Flying down -j Ahe railway track for half a milo or. ; 'so, he suddenly turns and, switching i off his engine, dives down towards tlio i train. It is an exciting sensation, j 'Hicre is now no fear of damaging the j hospitals, but tho chances of securing - ( a direct hit 011 the train are poor, be- , cause there is only the width of it to ; aim at. But tho pilot is out to tnke j every chaiioo, and wo are soon only . four hundred feet from the ground. . Wo are just a few yards behind tlio ] train when ho pulls his little lever four j Hardly a second elapses before a, j ir r een flash and a loud hang teU us ] where the first bomb has burst—in the ; middlo of the track ten yards from the : brake van. A blinding flash and tt 1 tremendous explosion 011 the platform ; immediately after shows' that bomb 1 ■v 0 2 has found the ammunition with excellent effect. The third falls harm- ( losslv on the embankment side, M't the 'fourth, a hundred-nounder, ex- j plorlos directly on tho tender, displacing j the whole engino from tho line!' 1 "Wonder why tho Hun liadnt i'ot lied Crosses 011 that tram and 111 MS 1 ammunition boxes?" tho pilot bawls in j my ear as wo make our way . home- j """Quite obvious—blighter ran. out of ! red paint 1" I reply. ' ...j