Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 199, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1916 — FRANCE HAS NEW AIR DAREDEVIL [ARTICLE]

FRANCE HAS NEW AIR DAREDEVIL

Former Cavalryman Performs Astonishing Feats of Valor With Aeroplane. IS MANY TIMES DECORATED Pronounced Permanently Disabled After Smash-Up, He Steals Machine and Goes Forth to New Deeds of Heroism. Paris. —Nungesser, the latest airman to be revealed to us as a prince among pilots, is'a great, big, heavy fellow, fat-faced and cumbersome of build.

He was a cavalryman in the Second Hussars when he started his career, and the war was not a month old before he distinguished himself. His squadron was cut off and surrounded in the retreat from Charleroi. The troop commander was lying helpless, badly wounded. Nungesser bore him to shelter. Getting a few straglers together, he ambushed a German staff motor car, killed its occupants, put his wqunded officer inside, and taking the wheel set off on a wild dash through the enemy’s lines. The car was a powerful Mors, and the way Nungesser let her all out and tore through the whole ranks of Germans earned for him the epithet of “Dash to Death.” ; Nungesser was Subsequently promoted quartermaster, awarded the military medal, and permanently appointed army chauffeur. Takes to Flying.

Nungesser later handed in his resignation and declared that unless he was put into the flying corps he would take his place in the trenches. He already had a pilot’s ticket, and after a week or two of training was passed as good for military aviation. Between April and August, 1915, he took part in 53 bombarding expeditions, three of which secured him fresh mentions in dispatches. Returning from the last, he espied a German Albatross over Nancy, went for it, despite the handicap of his heavy, slow machine, insufficiently armed for single combat, and shot down the Invader. This achievement brought him into prominence and he was promoted to the crack chasing corps. Before the end of the year he had been made chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

A side slip at Bue, however, when trying a new type of machine, almost cost him his life. He was picked up for dead, with a fractured skull, a broken jaw, nearly all his ribs broken, the muscles of the legs torn away. Nungesser refused to accept the doctor’s decision that he was permanently, disabled; he declined to take three months’ on convalescence, if he ever wanted to be of any use again—and almost stealing a machine, he soared aloft, and never came down until he had accounted for a German aeroplane. Given His Own Way.

After this he was allowed to have his own way. He could scarcely talk, owing to the necessity of binding up his jaw, his head was swathed in bandages, he had to be lifted in and out of his aeroplane, but he was a perfect demon once aloft. He then became a sub-lieutenant. This was at the end of March and the beginning of April last. On April 25 he engaged, single-handed,’, three Fokkers, brought down one and gave the others a severe mauling. A week later he was swooped down upon by a flotilla of six Fokkers. He had one down before they could get his range almost, and then sailed at full speed right into the midst of the others. They were unable to fire, for fear of hitting one another, whereas he pounded them hard until he had not a shot left, then by masterly airmanship, he showed them a clean pair of heels. They were in such a state that they did not dare follow him, which was lucky, for he had not gone a mile or two before his engine went all to pieces. J3even balls had gone through It, and only a couple of cylinders still had any go In them. *He had dropped to under 3,000 feet, and was limping lamely as he crawled back over the German trenches. The storm of shells missed him all the same and he made home safely. One shot had gone through his helmet and grazed the top of his,, head, another had carried away the heel of his slipper, 27 had struck the plane and done various kinds of damage without counting those in the engine.