THRILLING AIR FIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1916, Page 7

THRILLING AIR FIGHT

■DESCENT WITH A DEAD PILOT. A thrilling narrative of a descent;in an aeroplane from a height of 10,000 ft, after the pilot had been shot dead, and safe landing, is given in a letter recently received in England from the observer, a young officer attached to the Royal Flying Corps, bow a prisoner of war' in Germany:— "I was (he writes) captured in December, and I met twe German officers there who knew several English people whom I know, and they were most awfully kind to me. They gave me a very good dinner of champagne and oysters, etc., and I was treated like an honored guest. I came by train the next day to M , where I wag confined in a room by myself fer two days. I have now been moved into a geieral room with eight other Eajlish officers, where we sleep and eat. We are treated very well, and play hockey and tennis in the prison yard.

_ 'Poor B , i was so sorrv he was killed. He was such a nice boy, and only 19. I had a fight with two German aeroplanes, and then a shell burst vejy close to us, and I heard a large piece whiz past my head. Then the aeroplane started to case down head first, spinning all the time. We must have dropped about 5000 ft in about twenty seconds. I looked round at once, and saw poor B with a terrible wound in his head, quite dead. I then realised that tieonly chance of saving my life was to step over into his seat and sit on his lap, where I could reach the controls. I managed to get the machine out of that terrible death plunge, switched off the engine, and made a good landing on terra firma. I shall never forget it as long as I live. The sh*k was so great that I could hardly remember a single thing in my former life for two days. Now I am getting better, and my mind is practically normal again. We were 10,000 ft up when B was killed,'and luckily it was this tremendous height that gave me time to think and act. I met one of the pilots of the German machines which attacked me. He could speak English quite well, and we shook hands after a mast thrilling fight. I brought flown his aeroplane with my machine-gun, and he had to land quite close to where I landed. He had a bullet through hi s radiator and petrol tank, but neither he nor hi 3 observer was touched."