Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1917 — War Adventures “Over There” [ARTICLE]

War Adventures “Over There”

BY RICHARD BOECKEL

~ "Where did I get the limp?” Lieutenant —— of the Royal Flying corps, repeated my Interesting story. I got it back of the German lines. “I was out canoeing on the lake near Chicago when I got the impulse to go over. Without telling my parents I crossed over to Canada and enlisted in the flying corps. There were three months of training and then I was sent to London. From London I cabled back to Chicago, telling my parents where I was. Some pretty hot replies came back, but they didn’t reach me in London. It was hotter where I was when the messages arrived, so they didn’t have much effect. .•••■•; ■ ' • “Early one morning we were ordered up in the air to get an ammunition dump some six miles behind- the. German lines. We were up as soon as it was daylight and headed with two other machines for the place we were to bomb. One of the machines got into trouble before it crossed our lines and had to descend. We saw there was no damage. The airplane volplaned gently to earth. Just a case of englne..trouble, so we went ahead. We were subjected to a pretty hot fire when we crossed over the German trenches, but we got across safely and were off to our ammunition dump. “We dropped two or three bombs on the place and' saw it go up in ■moke. Then we were ready to return. Just before we crossed the German lines on our return trip Fritz opened up on us with his ‘archibalds.’

The ‘arcfilbalds’ are called antiaircraft guns by civilians. “I felt my machine Jerk and knew I had been hit. A piece of shell had gone through my petrol tank. My engine stopped and my pilot was forced to drop down behind the German trenches. The pilot of my companion machine saw I whs in trouble and dropped down alongside of me. IV e always figure that it is better for two machines to go down together, for often it is possible to make quick repairs and get aloft again before the Germans get to us. “If the machine was gone beyond repair we would have touched it off to prevent its falling into the hands of the Germans and all four of us would have got into the good machine for our trip back. “The holes through our petrol tank were just as clean as you could wish for. We were patching them up with a couple pieces of wood when some Germans came upon them. Both machines turned their machine guns on the Germans and sprayed them while we were completing the repairs and exchanging gasoline. “The Germans replied with a volley from their rifles and I felt a sharp sting in my leg. We got into the machines again and safely up aloft before the Germans got to us. When we landed back of our own lines I felt faint and had to be carried from my car. The floor of the car was covered with blood. I had stopped two German-balls with my leg.”