I looked the machine over, and you should have seen it. From top
to bottom it was one mass of holes. One bullet passed through my
combination and hit a can of tobacco. Another cut a main spar on one of
my wings, and another hit my stabilizer, tearing it half in two. One
other hit my gas tank and put a hole clear through it. Luckily my gas
was low and it did not explode, but, believe me, I was lucky.
IN THE BIG GERMAN DRIVE
April 20, 1918.--The orderly has just tapped on my window to put down my
shade, which means the Gothas are on their way. The guns are starting.
This attack has been frightful--day after day long lines of ambulances
roll by our camp carrying large numbers of wounded. Tomorrow we shall
continue our work of knocking down their batteries and bombing their
railroads. To-night, now, they are trying to get us.
I started on a "permission" about three weeks ago and had beautiful
visions of peace and content for a week, but was called back immediately
at the beginning of this horrible attack. Things look bad, and in a few
days we are moving farther up.
Our work here has been hard and exciting and always working in any kind
of weather. While our loss has been heavy we have accomplished wonders.
Going over on cloudy days when the heavy black clouds hang down to
within fifty meters of the ground, spotting a group of trucks, a line of
cars, or a battery of troops, then bombing them, shooting them up with
your machine guns and shooting back up into the clouds midst a rain of
luminous machine gun bullets from the ground is interesting work. But
the terror of those on the ground, poor devils! Yet it's got to be
brought home. Out of twenty-four trips we lost eight machines.
Poor Chuck Kerwood was among them. Chuck is an American boy from
Philadelphia, and he has been with us for five months.
I had a chance to go back to the states as an instructor, and almost
took it, but when the time came around to leave this band of men who
have been in it for almost four years, I couldn't do it. They are men,
and have pulled me out of tight holes when I was green at this game, and
they did it at the risk of their lives. Now I've seen them drop off one
at a time, fine young Frenchmen, and I guess the least I can do is to
stay right by them and I feel my work is here.
In Hospital, May 3, 1918.--Well, here I am at last, but I fooled them
for six months. Finally one slipped up behind me. I never saw him, but
felt him. Only got it in the leg, so it isn't very serious, except that
the bullet was incendiary. They have oodles of sulphur on them and I'm
afraid of complications. This is a nice hospital in a nice location;
only thing that I hate about it is that I may not be able to get back to
my escradrille for fifteen or twenty days.
SEVERE BOMBING BY GERMANS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account