World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
I was watching an aeroplane flying very high in our direction and, as
our anti-aircraft shells were bursting beneath it, the little white
puffs of smoke of the shells' burst indicated to us that the aeroplane
was a Hun machine. Nothing seemed to daunt the aviator and as he
hovered over the observation balloon on my right I heard his machine
gun firing. A few bombs were dropped and the balloon took fire.
The observation officer in the meantime had jumped out of his basket.
He began to fall through space until his parachute opened. Then we
witnessed a thrilling race as the burning balloon and the officer
in his parachute began to descend to the ground, pursued by the Hun
aviator who was using his machine gun on the unfortunate observation
officer. Luckily the observation officer got safely to the ground.
The next target of this daring Hun aviator was the observation balloon
in front of where we were standing. The observation officer immediately
jumped out of his basket and got safely down to the ground. The Hun
aviator, however, destroyed this balloon and then retired back to his
lines, evidently having used up all of his bombs. He came back an hour
later and destroyed a third balloon, but this time his daring was
nipped in the bud as he was brought down by one of our anti-aircraft
shells somewhere near one of our rear support lines. One of his hands
had been shattered so that he was unable to manipulate his levers.
The boys had no sooner taken him prisoner and got him clear of his
machine than the German artillery opened up and with a shell blew his
aeroplane to pieces. It must be understood that our aeroplanes cannot
be everywhere at the same time. They had evidently gone on a mission to
some other locality and the Huns had probably been aware of this fact.
Hence the audacity of this aviator.
Later the same evening I was walking along the Villers-au-Bois and
Carency Road when I heard the drone of an aeroplane behind me. I turned
round and saw an aeroplane flying very fast and low. I was at that time
in the centre of the road. On both sides were tents occupied by the men
of an artillery battery who were also out at rest. Suddenly I heard
three loud reports and knew at once the Hun was dropping bombs. As I
imprudently glanced up in the air I could see the aviator leaning over
the side of his plane and the Maltese Cross on the wings, as he turned
his machine gun upon the tents around me. The observation officer was
firing what we called a "chaser" bullet. These bullets at dusk or
night show a reddish streak as they travel through the air, giving the
aviator an idea of the direction of his fire. There is usually one
chaser bullet to every five cartridges. However, this aviator was soon
brought down by our anti-aircraft picket, which was waiting for him. As
he was flying low they had no trouble in bringing his machine down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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