A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1421, 8 July 1915, Page 4

A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

TOLD BY A MEMBER OF THE FLYING CORPS. We have been handed the following copy of a letter received by the Rev Raine, written by a mems ber of the Flying Corps : "Another successful little jaunt, five of us were chosen to go, Captain Courtney, Meates, (who travelled up to town from Dover in the train with Dad), sell and two subs named Andrews and Huskisson. Courtney and I got there and back, Meates came down in Holland with engine trouble, and is interned. . . Andrews lost his way in the clouds and fog and came back, and Huskisson did the same, only dropped his bombs on Ostend on the way. Our mark, by the way, was the submarine base at Hoboken, near Antwerp. Yesterday morning we were to have gone, but the weather was not good enough, and we slept at the aerodrome so as to get off at the "crack of dawn." This morning we got up about 3.30 a.m., thank goodness the weather was warm, breakfast followed, its mighty hard to get down eggs and bread and butter at that hour. We cut for the order of starting, but decided to keep as near one another as possible. 1 went off last but one at 5.30 a.m, and streaked out straight across the sea, We were pretty heavily loaded, but my buss wouldn’t climb much, I saw one machine ahead of me, but lost it almost immediately in the clouds which were very low, 2,300 ft,, and it was also very misty. Our course was right up the coast, past Zeebrugge, and then cut in across the land. . . At the mouth of the Scheldt I got clear of some of the clouds and saw Courtney behind and 2,000 feet above me, ray machine then being about 5,000 feet only. He rapidly overlook me (we were all on Avros, but his was faster) and from then on I followed him over the clouds. Unfortunately over Antwerp there were no clouds. Courtney was about 5 or 6 minutes in front of me, and I saw him volplane out of sight, I had to go on some little way before I spotted the yards myself. I next saw Courtney very low down flying away to the coast with shrapnel bursting around him. He came down to under 500 feet and dropped his bombs before he was fired on, being first there. As the wind was dead against me, I decided to come round in a semi circle to cross the yards with the wind so as to attain a greater speed. I was only 5,500 feet and they opened fire on me with shrapnel as soon as I got within range. It began getting a bit hot, so before I got quite round I shut off my petrol, and came down with a steep volplane until I was 2,500 feet, when I turned on my petrol again and continued my descent at a late of well over a hundred miles au hour. I passed over the yards at about 1,000 feel only and loosed all my bombs over the place. The whole way down I was under fire, two anti-aircraft in the yard, guns from the forts on either side, rifle fire, mitlraileuse or machine guns, and most weird of all great bunches, 15 to 20, of what looked like green rockets, but I think they were flaming bullets. The excitement of the moment was terriffic. . I have never travelled so fast before In my life. My chief impressions were the great speed, the flaming bullets streaking by, the incessant rattle of the machine gun and rifle fire, and one or two shells bursting close by knocking my machine all sideways and pretty nearly deafening me. On ray return I found my machine was only hit twice, rather vvondeiful, one bullet hole through the tail and a piece of shrapnel buried In the main spar of one wing. I have now got it out. I found myself across the yards, and felt a mild sort of surprise, my eyes must have been sticking out of ray head like shrimps ! I know I was gasping for breath and crouching down in the fusilage, I was, however, by no means clear, shrapnel still bursting around me. I jammed the rudder first one way and then the other. I banked first on to one wing tip and then on the other, now slipping outwards and now up and now down, I was literally hedged in by forts, and

only i,ooo feet up, and had to run the gauntlet before getting away. I was under rifle fire right up, to the frontier and even then the Dutch potted at me. My return journey was trying, as most of the time I had to fly at under 500 feet as I ran into thick clouds and mist. I pottered gaily right over Flushing and within a few hundred yards of a Dutch cruiser and two torpedo boats. I got back home about a quarter of au hour after Courtney, having been very nearly four hours in the air, and having covered, I suppose, getting on tor 250 miles. Have not heard what damage was done. The C.O. was awfully braced, I had some breakfast when I got back, wrote out ray report, lunch and had a very hot bath. To-morrow lam going out with Courtney to see the "war” as we have been given the day off to do as we pleased. . . . My engine gave me several anxious moments, for some reason it cut right out over the Scheldt, and I had actually given up all hope when it picked up again. It was pretty risky work flying several miles out to sea, only just in sight of land too —but our surprise (or I should say Courtney's) of the Germans was certainly complete."