FIGHTS WITH FLYING CIRCUS

Feb. 1, 1918.—­Had a great time this last week, and made six long bombardments.  For the first three times we had no trouble getting across whatsoever.  Coming out the last three times we got some real competition.  It was in the form of the flying circus or “tangoes,” which consists of fifteen of the best pilots in Germany, commanded by Baron von Richthofen, who seems a good sort, for when you fight him and you both miss he waves and we wave back.  We had been at it consistently for four days, and so they sent these birds down opposite us to stop us.  We had been in Germany for some distance and had reached our objective and bombed it.  There was a heavy fog below us, so I took a couple of turns to make sure we could see our objective.  We dropped our bombs and then I turned to the right to see the damage.  I had to take a large turn, for the “archies” were shooting pretty close.  I looked for my escadrille, and saw these machines way off in the distance.  I started for them and soon caught up with them.  Then I swerved and dipped up to them, for I thought them a little strange.  I got up closer, and, wow! all three dived at me like a rock and bullets flew by me, cutting my plane, so I pulled up at them, fired, swerved so my gunner could let them have it also and then saw the iron cross flash by, so I knew it was the Huns.  I started getting altitude and went up high and then the boches got the sun between them and my plane and came again, but I thought this would happen and “peaked.”  They went under me and that left me on top, so I gave them about 120 bullets, and one went for home.  The other two came by again and I went into a tight spiral so my gunner could pump at them—­but nothing doing.  They beat it home and so did I, for it had been three to one.  When I landed I had five holes in my machine.  One of the wires had been shot away and gave me some trouble in landing.

Feb. 10, 1918.—­We have been pretty busy and had some exciting times.  I almost got mine day before yesterday and feel pretty lucky to be here.  We started out on a long trip into Germany and all the way over we had no trouble at all.  After we bombed, my observer and I dived down on some villages and used our own guns on them.  We got so low that the anti-aircraft guns were popping too close, so we beat it.  We soon saw a bunch of hangars below us and we dived down on them and shot at them.  In a few minutes a bunch of Huns came up from the hangars after us and we beat it to catch up with the others.  We got up with them and looked behind us and there were a number of Germans sneaking down on us.

Then the battle commenced and for forty minutes we had a hot fight.  We picked off (censored) of them and they went plunging down in flames.  Then the others went back and we all returned safely, but I noticed that my machine worked queerly, and when I landed I had a hard time, and barely got to the ground without smashing to pieces.