EIGHT AT 11,000 FEET.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 31 July 1917, Page 4

EIGHT AT 11,000 FEET.

AIRMAN’S THRILLING STORY

A young aviator, Flight-Lieut. E. T. Shand, now in Wellington, related a thrilling story of a flight he made from Salonika. He was escorting a reconnaissance airman, and they were flying over mountains 12,000 ft. high when attacked. He fought an enemy machine at a distance of 150 ft. Each machine poured a shower of bullets into th e other. The last he saw of the Avitik was the machine nose-diving to the earth, but whether it was because of the engine, or that . the pilot was shot he could not tell. He was shot twice in th e fingers —one through the trigger-finger —and the pilot was shot through the arny The controls were cut and things loked “ pretty blue.” At that time he was 11,000 feet up in the air, ten miles across the Bulgar lines, and at least 21 miles from the nearest landing-ground. With the machine bumping along as best she could, controls mostly gone, and the undercarriage riddled with bullets, the pilot turned her nose for home. Fortunately the engine was sound and they soon got out of range of the ‘ ‘ archie ” fire. In the lower air, where the density increased, the machine bumped very badly but they managed to flatten out —fly level with the ground. At last they landed with a shock —the pilot (who was strapped in) on his feet and he himself with his feet pointing skyward He had been hanging on to the spadehandles of his gun, and had fortunately been caught by one of the stays of the gun. They were covered with blood and dust, and the crowd of Frenchmen that ran to meet them concluded that they were both dead. The pilot retained consciousness until after the landing, and then fainted dead away, and the relator was feeling very sick through loss of blood. After they found that the ‘ ‘ dead ’ ’ were alive, the French soldiers picked them up, kissed them and propped them up against the machine to be photographed. “ Those Frccnhmen treated me better than I have ever been treated in my.life,” said the airmen, “and after the way I fared I shall always have the greatest respect, admiration, and love for the French! ”