Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, October 24, 1918, Page 6

wee a neetin Tw eee ee ae oe 2 i 4 * ‘ . é ry ‘ e * : ‘ A ‘ 5 é PY ‘ . i “ "i 5 ‘ By ‘LIEUTENANT PAT O'BRIEN Flying mane t allied aviators: in. their combats with as “THURSDAY, OCT. 24; 1915 — including the “O’BRIEN’ LOOP.” Fighting the Hun in the Air]. uvers most frequently used by enemy fiiers, | | | CHAPTER Ill. Captured by the Huns. I shall not easily forget the 17th of Angust, 1917, I killed two Huns in the double-seated machine in the morning, another fn the evening, and then I was captured myself. I may have spent more eventful days in my life, but I can’t recall any just now. That morning, in crossing the line on early morning patrol, I noticed two German balloons, I decided that AS so00n as my patrol was over I would go off on my own hook and see | what a German balloon looked like at close quarters. These observation balloons are used by both sides in conjunction with the artillery. A man sits up in the bal- loon. with a wireless apparatus and di- rects the firing of the guns, From his| point of vantage he can follow the work of his own artillery with 4 re murkable degree of accuracy and at the same time he can observe the ene- my’s movements and report them. The Germans are very good at this| ! tine, but there was a slight wind in} | my favor, and it carried me two miles | behind our lines. There the balloons I had gone out to get had the satisfac- tion of “pin-pointing” me. Through the directions which they were able to give to their artillery they commenced shelling my machine where it lay. This particular work “is to direct the | fire of their artillery, and they ‘are | used just as the artillery observation jairplanes are. Usually two men are stationed in each balloon. They ascend | to a height of severat thousand ‘feet | about five miles behind their own lines |and are equipped with wireless and signaling apparatus. burst of their own artillery, check up the position, get the range, and direct the next shot. They watch the, When conditions are favorable they | are able to direct the shots so accu- rately that it is quick work destroying the object of their attack. It was such |a balloon as this that got my position, ! marked mé out, called for an artillery shot, and they commenced shelling my machine where it lay. If I had got the two balloons instead of the alir- chines which Were about 3,000 feet below us pick a fight with nine Hun machines, s I knew right then that we were In for it, because I could see over toward thé ocean a whole flock of Hun ma- chines which evidently had escaped the attention of our scrappy country- men below us. So we dove dowm on those nine Huns, At first the fight was fairly even. There were eight of us to nine of them. But soon the other machines which I had seen in the distance, and which were flying even higher than we were, arrived on the scene, and when they, in turn, dove down on us, there was just twenty of them to our eight! Four of them singled me out. IT was diving, and they dived right down after. me, shooting as they came. Their tracer bullets were coming closer to me every moment. These tracer bul- lets are balls of fire which enable the shooter to follow the course his bul- lets are taking and to correct his alm accordingly. They do no more harm to a pilot if he is hit than an ordinary work, and they use a great number of | Plane, I probably would not have lost | pullet, but if they hit the petrol tank, these balloons, very important part of our work to; keep them out of the sky. There are two ways of going after a balloon in a machine. One of them is It was considered a!™Y machine, for he would in all proba- | good night! bility have gone on home and not both-! fire in flight there is no way of put-| When a machine catches ered abont getting my range and caus- | ting it out. It takes less than a min- ing the destruction of my machire. | ute for the fabric to burn off the wings | I landed in a part of the country! and then the machine drops like an that was literally covered with shell | arrow, leaving a trail of smoke like a to cross the lines at a low altitude, fly-| holes. Fortunately my machine was | comet. Ing so near the ground that the man} not badly damaged by the forced lund- | with the antiaircraft gun can’t bother |ing. I leisurely got out, walked around you. You fly along until you get to the! i¢ to see what the damage was, und leyel of the balloon and if, in the| concluded that it could be easily re- meantime, they have not drawn the| patred, In fact, I thought if I could balloon down, you open fire on it and the bullets you use will set it on fire If they land. _ The other way is to fly over where you know the balloons to be, put your machine In a spin so that they can't hit you, get above them, spin over the balloon and then open fire. In going back over the line you cross at a few) hundred feet. | This is one of the hardest jobs in the service, There is less danger in attacking an enemy's aircraft. Nevertheless, I had made up my mind to either get those balloons or make them descend, and I only hoped find a space long enough between shell ground that I would be able to fly on from: there. considering the matter of a few siight holes to get a start before ieaving the | | I was still examining my plane and | way to the ground. As their tracer bullets came closer and closer to me I realized that my chances of escape were nil. Their very next shot, I felt, must hit me. Once, some days before, when I was flying over the line, I had watched a fight above me. A German machine was set on fire, and dived down through our formation in flames on its The Hun was dly- ing at such a sharp angle that both repairs, without any particular thought | his wings came off, and as he passed for my own safety in that unprotected | within a few hundred feet of me I saw spot, when a shell came whizzing | the look of horror on his face. through the alr, knocked me tu the; Now, when I expected any moment ground and landed a few feet uway.|to suffer a similar fate, I could not It had no sooner strueak than I made | help thinking of that poor Hun’s last a run for cover and crawled into a | look of agony. shell hole. I would have liked to get; 1 realized that my only chance lay farther away, but I didn’t know wnere | in making an Immelman turn, This the next shell would burst, aud 1) maneuver was invented by a German— that they would stay on the job unti)| thought I was fairly safe there, so 1| one of the greatest who ever flew and Thad a chance at them. | squatted down and let them blaze | who was killed in action some time be- * When our two hours’ duty was up, | away. fore. This turn, which I made success- therefore, I dropped out of the forma-| The jonly damage I suffered was| fully, brought one of their machines ton as we crossed the lines and turned | from the mud which splattered up in| right in front of fie, and ashe: sailet back again. | my face and over my clothes. That along barely ten yards away, I “had T was at a height of 15,000 feet, con-| was my introduction to a shell hole, | the drop” on him, and he knew it. siderably ‘higher than the balloons.| and I resolved right there that the in-| His white face and startled eyes I Shufting my motor off, I dropped down | fantry could have all the shell-hole | can sttil see. He knew beyond ques- t gh the Clouds, thinking to find | fighting they wanted, but It did not thie balloons at‘about five or six miles bebind the Gernian Ines, ustins I came out of the cloud 8-1 saw below me, about:a ‘thou- , #484 feet, a. two-seater hostile ma- , chine doing artillery observation and Alrevting the German guns. This was at: a polnt about four miles behind the | appeal to me, though they live in them through many. a long night and I had | only sought shelter there for a few | minutes, | demolished my muchine and ceused firing,.I walted there a short time, | | tearing perhaps they might send over tion that his last moment had come, because bis position prevented his tak- ing alm at me, while my gun pointed straight at him. My first tracer bullet | passed Within a yard of his head, the! After the Germars had completely | an lines. |a lucky shot, hoping to get me after byidehtly the German artillery saw | all. But. evidently they concluded put out ground signals to at- Pat O’Brien and Paul Raney. | the largest of all. -Although I never | looked into this “wing” of the hospital, I was told that it, too, was filled with | patients lyifig on beds of straw around on the ground, I do not know whether | they, too, were officers or privates. The room in which I found myself contained eight beds, three of which were occupied by wounded German of- ficers. The other rooms, I imagined, had about the same number of beds as mine, There were ne Red Cross nurses in attendance, just orderlies, for this was only an emergency hospital and too near the firing line for nurses. The | orderliés were not old men nor very young boys, as I had expected to find, but young men in the prime of life, who evidently had been medical stu- dents, One or two of them, I discov- | ered, were able*to talk English, but | for some reason they would not talk. Perhaps they were forbidden by the officer in charge to do so. In addition to the bullet wound in my mouth I had a swelling from my forehead to the back of my head al- most as big as my shoe—and that ix Saying considerable, I couldn’t move} an inch without suffering intense pain, | and when the doetor-told ‘me that I had no bones broked.I wondered how a fellow would feel who had. German officers ‘visited me that morning and told me that my machine went down in a spinning nose dive from a height of between 8,000 and 9,000 feet, and they had the surprise of their lives when they discovered that I had not been_dashed to pieces. They had to cut me out of my. TPACOI RE which was riddled with shots and shut- tered to bits. A German doctor removed the bullet from my throat, and the first thing he said to me when I efime to was, “You | are an American !*— There was no .denying It, because ; the metal identification disk on my wrist bore the inscription: “P. O'B. U. 3, A. RB. F.C." Although I was ‘suffering intense ] enough shells had been wasted on, one | the Hun machine's attention, for L-taw thé observer quit, his work and ab his gun,'while their’ pilot stuck le noge’ of his machine straight a ; Z But they were too late to escape me. WWas diving toward them at a speed | of: probably two hundred miles an| diour, shooting all the time as fast a>/ possible. Their only chance lay in the possibility that the force of my drive might break my wings. I knew my danger in that direction, but as} ‘soon .as I came out of my dive the Huns would have their chance to get me, and I knew I had to get them first and take a chance on my wings hold- ing out. ‘| Fortunately some of my first bullets found thelr mark, and I was able to | come out of my dive at about four thousand feet. They never came out of theirs! But right then came the hottest sit- uation in the afr I had ever experl-/ enced up to that time. The depth of my dive had brought me within reach of the machine guns from the ‘ground, and they also put a barrage around me of shrapnel from antiaircraft guns and I had an opportunity to “ride the barrage,” as they call it in the R. F. C.! To make the situation more interest- ing, they began shooting “flaming on- ions” at. me, “Flaming onions” are rockets shot from a rocket-gun. They fre used to hit a machine when it is flying low, and they are effective up to. about five thousand feet. Some- times they are shot up one.after an- other in strings of about elght, and they are one of the hardest things to go through. If they hit the\machine, | it Is bound to catch fire and then the Sig is up. All the time, too, I was being at- tacked by “Archie’—the antiaircraft gun. I escaped the machine guns and the “flaming onions,” but “Archie,” the antiaircraft fire, got me four or five times. Every time a bullet plugged me, or rather my machine, it made a Joud bang, on account of the tension on the material covering the wings. None of their shots hurt me until I was about a mile from our lines, and then they hit my motor. Fortunately, I still had altitude enough to drift on to our own side of the Mnes, for my motor was completely out of commis- sion. They just raised the dickens with. me: all the time I was descend- ing, and I began to think I would | gtrike the ground before crossing the | man. I crawled out cautiously, shook | | the mud off, and I looked over in the | } direction where my machine had once | been. “There wasn't enough left for a | | decent souvenir, but nevertheless I got | a few, “such as they were,” and read- ily observing that nothing could be done with what was left, I made my | way back to infantry headquarters, | | agony, the doctor, who spoke perfect me. “You may be all right as a sports- man,” he declared; “but you are a | &——< murderer just the same for be, | {ng here. You Americans who got into | this ‘thing before America came into | the war are no better than common |; English, insisted upon conversing with N | murderers and you ought to be treated | jby a bullet from a machine gun, ané | they examined it with great Interest. | When they brought me my uniform I | found that the star of my rank which | |had been on my right shoulder strap | had been shot off clean. The one on | my left shoulder strap they asked me for as a souvenir, as also my R. F.C. | badges, which I gave them. _They_al- | ; Lieutenant O’Brien in | é } | RICHARDS & CUNNIN where I was able to telephone in a | report. | | | - A little later one of our automo- Machine O'Brien Was Driving When He Was Overcome and Captured by the Huns. | biles came out after me and took me | back to our airdrome. Most of my} squadron thought I was lost beyond donbt, and never expected to see me) second looked as if it hit his’ shoulder, again; but my friend, Paul Raney, had | the third struck him in the neck, and held out that I was all right, and as| then I let him have the whole works, T was afterwards told, sald, “Don’t | and. he went down in a spinning nose/ send for another pilot; that Irishman | ‘lve. | will be back, if he has to walk.” Ana| All this time the three other Hun he knew that the only thing that kept, Machines were shooting away at me. me from walking was the fact that our| I could hear the bullets striking my} own nutomobile had been sent out to} Machine one after another. I hadn't} bring me home. | the slightest idea that I could ever| I had lots to think about that day,| beat off those three Huns, but there) and I had learned many things; one! WS nothing for me to do but fight, and] was not to have too much confidence ™Y hands were full. in my own ability. One of the men in; In fighting, your machine Is drop. | the squadron told me that I had bet-| Ping, dropping all the time, I glanced |ter not take those chances; that it) ®t my instruments, and my altitude} was going to be a long war and 1| would have plenty of opportunities to | | be killed without deliberately “wishing them on” myself. Later I was to learn | ¥28 between 8,000 and 9,000 feet.) the truth of his statement. | Wille I was still looking at the In: That night my “flight”—each squad- | struments, the whole blamed worka} ron Is divided Into three flights, con-| “/s¢ppeared. A burst of bullets went) sisting of six men each—got ready to into the fastrument board and blew | go out again, As I started to put on| it to smithereens, another bullet went} my tunic I noticed that I was not through my upper lip, came out of the marked up for duty as usual. I askcd the commanding officer, a major, what the reason for that was, | and he replied that he thought I had done enough for one day. However, |I knew that if I did not go, someone | else from another “flight” would have to take my place, and I insisted upon ing up with my patrol as usual, and | the major reluctantly consented. Had Clipped Wings. hé known what was in store for me, 1} _ 22e hospital in which I found my- am sure he wouldn't have changed his | self on the morning after my capture; mind so readily. was a private house made of. brick,} As it was we had only five machines very low and dirty, and not at all! | Foot of my mouth and lodged in my throat, and the next thing I knew was when I came to in a German hospital | | the following morning at five o'clock, | | German time, Twas a prisoner, of war. CHAPTER IV. | j apple! | eaten a brick. | { worried less about my physical con- | ‘od had pointed out, for me the war hes 2s * was split from front to back | Sos oe a | Business Locals || The wound in my mouth made it im- possible for me to answer him, and I was suffering too much pain to be hurt very mach by anything he could | say. | He asked me if)I would like an} I could just as easily have ; When he got no answers out of me, he walked away disgustedly. “You don’t have to worry any more,” | he declared, as a parting shot. “For | you the war is overs? I was given a little broth later in| the day, and as I began to collect my thoughts I wondered what had hap- pened to my comrades in the battle which had resulted 80 @isastrously to me. As I began to realize my plight dition than the fact that, as the doc- was practically over. I-had been in it but a short time, and mow I would be a prisoner for the duration of the war! The next day some German flying officers: visited me, and I must say they They told me of the man I had brought down. They said he was a Bavarian and a fairly good pilot. They gave me his hat as a souvenir and compliment- ed me on the fight I had put up. which was of soft} My - helmet, oO Money to loan on everything. The Security Loan Company, Room 4, Kimball Bldg. 10-1-tf List your property with us. ; The! This Display is the property of one of the largest and most reputable Furriers in the United States, and anything that — for this patrol, anyway, because as we crossed the lines one-of them had to drop ont on account of motor trouble. Our patrol was up at 8 p. m., and up to within ten minutes of that hour it had been entirely uneventful. At 7:50 p. n., however, while we were flying at a height of 13,000 feet, wé observed three other Enz'ish ma- | in all probability would be abandoned | cash price paid. adapted for use as a hospital. It had/ Security Loan Company, Room 4, evidently been used but a few days on| Kimball Bldg. 10-1-tf account of the big push that was tak-)| anne ing place at that time of the year, and| Liberty Bonds wanted. Highest Room 4, Kimball as soon. as they had found a‘ better Building. Security Loan Co,, phone place. : | 702, 10-12-tf In all, the honse contained four! rooms and a stable, which was by far! PRS Money to loan on everything. The Security Loan Company, Room 4, | Kimball Bidg. 10-1-tf N N A N N N N A N N N N N treater] me with great consideration. N N N N N N N N N N % N N N . 4 might appeal to you in this line can be boucht and delivered. lowed ine to keep my “wings,” Which [ wore on my left breast, because they were aware that that is the proudest possession of a British fiying officer. 1 think I am right In saying that the only chivalry in this war on the Ger- man side of the trenches has been dis- played .by the officers-of the German flying corps, which comprises the pick | ! a | with the flying corps ! asked me what part of Amerjca I caine ‘Germany. ‘Mey potnted out to-iny that I and my comrades were fighting purely for the love of it, whereas they were fighting in defense of their*coun- try, but still, they said, they admired us for our sport:manship. I had a no- tien to ask them If dropping bombs on London and killing so matiy innocent je ‘vas in defense of thelr country, but, was in no position or condition to plek » quarrel at that time. - hat same day a German officer was tt into the hospital and put in the bunk next to mine. Of course I easually looked at him, but did not pay particular attention to him at that time. He lay there for three or four hours before I did take a real good look at him. I was positive that he could not speak English, and naturally I did not say anything to him. Once when I looked over in his direction his eyes were on me, and to my surprise he said, very sarcastically, “What the h—l are you looking at” and then smiled. At this time I was just be- ginning to say a few words, as my wound had prevented me from talking, but 1 Said enough to let him know what I was doing there and how I happened to be there. He evideitly had heard my story from some of the others, though, because he sald ft was toe bad I had not broken my nec that he did not have much sympath; anyway. He from, and I told him “California.” After. a few more questions he learned that I hailed from San Fran- cisco, and then added to my distress by saying, “How would you like to have o good, juicy steak right out of the Hoftrau?” Naturally I told him it would “hit the spot,” but I hardly thought my mouth was in shape Just then to eat. it. I immediately asked, ef course, what he knew about the Hofbrau, and he replied, “I was con- nectéd with the place a good many years, ang I ought-to know all about it” After that this German officer and I became rather chummy; that is, as far as I could be chummy with an enemy, and we whiled away a good many long hours’ talking about the =|; @ays we had spent in San Francisco, 4 the First Machine He Used in Active Service. With Him Is Lieutenant. Atkinson. ‘and frequently in the conversation one of us would mention some prominent Californian, or some little incident oc- both familiar. (To Be Continued) pe mk net iste hn List your property with us. The Security Loan Company, Room 4, Kimball Bldg. 10-1-tf BD y SOE ie a ES Cooking like you want it—at The Harvey... 10-21-tf : SS RUPLI Pee cE ETS » Portraits made at your home.. Mc- Crery, Phone 559-J. 10-18-6tx By the FURS will be displayed at Friday and Saturday So if you are contemplating anything in the fur line, this will certainly be your opportunity. bo pre FURS pur store curring there, with which we were ‘ :