A BATTLE IN THE CLOUDS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 22, 19 March 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

A BATTLE IN THE CLOUDS.

AMERICAN ATTACKED BY GERMANS IN MID-AIK. MIRACULOUS ESCAPE. USE OE STEEL DARTS. There is at least one. airman now sorving at the front who admits that lie has gone through an experience which ho never wishes to come his way again. He is Frederick C. Hild, an American, who, at the beginning of the war, joined the French Aviation Corps. Reconnaisance work is dangerous enough at any time, but Mr. Hild, to whom fell a goodly share of this class of work, seemed to have a charmed life, until one day, after carrying out a particularly line piec of scouting, ho suddenly found himself attacked by two German machines, both of which were more powerful than his own. The story of his miraculous escape is best told in his own words:

"One afternoon I was ordered to make a flight over the battling armies, which very neatly proved to be my last flight upon this earth," he states." "The sky was cloudy, which enabled us to fly at a ridiculously low height with comparative safety from the enemy's rifle and machine-gun fire, my apparatus being obscured from time to time by the lowlying clouds. After flying about half an hour at a 3000-foot altitude, we sighted the enemy a few milos away, and the observer who accompanied me proceeded to get ready to dispatch a thousand of the little death-dealing steel darts that we had been directed to take along. My apparatus was then dashing in and out of the clouds, which presented a rather difficult target to the enemy below. Flying at only 3000 ft. our machine could have been easily seen and detected : but the fact that we were nearly all of the time obscured by frlouds cither prevented our detection or fooled the Germans into believing that it was one of their own apparatus. Suddenly through an opening in the clouds wo sighted about 20,000 Germans directly beneath us, on the march. My observer immediately dispatched the steel darts on their deadly errand, but with what resnlt we were unable to ascertain. Almost instantly we were obscured in another cloud, and by turning the machine sharply to the right, which nearly threw out my observer, 1 instantly changed my course and foolod the thousands of Germans below, who must have emptied their rifles into open space in an endeavour to avenge the murder of many of their comrades that my apparatus must have caused. A FIGHT IN THE SKY. I proceeded to return to headquarters, steering by compass, and at the same time congratulating myself upon getting awav safely from the most dangerous nosition I was ever in. Then I pursued a downward grade in order to get out of the clouds and ascertain whether my compass was guiding me correctly. This proved to be nearly the end of my activity with the French Government, for a few moments later I sighted one of the famous German machines, an Etrich Tanbe. I decided to give chase, though both the observer and I were armed merely with a revolver apiece provided for just such an emergency. My apparatus, being capable of making 90 miles an hour, soon caught up with the German machine, who upon seeing us had headed for a bank of clouds, and my observer was just getting ready to fire, when suddenly there appeared from the bank of clouds another German machine of the biplane type, which immediately opened fire upon my apparatus with what looked to me like a machine gun. Of course, no sound could be heard above the roar of my motor. Being unprepared for such an attack, immediate action was necessary. The Gorman armored machine was now nearly over our apparatus, while the Taube had since turned about and was coming straight for us. Our position was most dangerous, and for a second it looked as though we would soon be dashing headlong into space. I then did the only thing possible: pushing my elevating lever forward my apparatus* dived head first so steeply that it nearly turned upside down, and in a moment I was a thousand feet away, quite low, but fortunately for both of us, we were well behind the Gorman lines and over country where there were few or no German soldiers to be seen; otherwise wo should have been facing further difficulties to hamper our escape.

A RACE FOR THF. SHELTER OF THE CLOUDS.

I pon arriving at the bottom of our steep descent, I levelled out my machine and soon left the German machines in the rear. Evidently they had thought that their rifle fire had found its mark and brought us down. Upon seeing that our machine was again flying normally, they gave chase immediately, hut the tremendous speed of mv monoplane soon outdistanced hdth of them. It seemed hours to me ere we were again flying inside the French lines, where it was quite safe to lower my apparatus from our obscure place of hitting. A most welcome sight to both the observer and me were the hangars upon the aviation field that loomed up in the distane\ and a few minutes later our apparatus was rolling over the ground after flying for nearly two hours, and the most thrilling and excito'ng two hours that either my observer or I had ever experienced.