Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1918 — LIFE IS SAVED BY HANDKERCHIEF [ARTICLE]

LIFE IS SAVED BY HANDKERCHIEF

Aviator, Stranded in No Man's Land, Faces Fire, of Friend and Foe. WAVED SIGNAL TO FRENCH By Fast Running Sergeant Baugham Reaches Comrades in Safety—l* Rewarded With Military Medal by the French. Washington.—Flight Sergeant James H. Baugham of Washington, who was transferred from the Lafayette escadrille to the Paris Air Defense squadron, has been reported a prisoner in unofficial advices to bis jhothar, Mrs. Mary A. Baugham, president of the Dixie Agricultural company of Washington. Sergeant Baugham joined the Lafayette escadrille in 1917 when he was eighteen years old and won the Military medal, the highest French honor to noncommissioned men.

The Incident that earned the sergeant the medal was described in a letter he wrote recently. Paying tribute to the wonderful spirit of his French comrades, Sergeant Baugham said: “We had been sent out to patrol back of the German lines and to attack anything enemy we saw.' Having incendiary balls In my gun, I was prepared to attack a German ‘sausage’ or observatory balloon. Just as I was beginning the descent to attack, I saw a Boche airplane going in the direction of our lines to do photographic work. I put on-full speed and signaled to the other planes to follow.- They evidently did not see my signal, for they didn’t go down with me. When I got 100 meters from the Boche I started firing. The enemy replied by turning loose both guns at me. I must have got him, however, with the first blast, for when I pulled up to make another dive he was silent.

“Then something happened that would make the goodest man on earth cuss, and as I am not one of the best, you can Imagine that I left little unpaid. My motor stopped absolutely dead. There was only one thing for me to do and that was to dive, lose the Boche and try to volpjane to the French lines. As Went past the German machine it immediately came down and, putting some nice steel very close to him, I did all the acrobacy I had ever learned. When I had finished I found that I had come down from 10,000 to 1,000 feet and there was no Boche in sight. . “I then looked around for a place to land. I saw a fairly good place off to the right and made it. I then stepped out of the machine —right on the face

of a dead German. It took me a minute to realize what was happening and I awoke to the sound, of bullets whizzing past my head. That didn’t disturb me much, because I was wondering why somebody hadn’t buried the German. Looking around, however, all I could see was dead Germans. It suddenly dawned on me that I was in No Man’s Land. Of all the places there are to land in France and Germany I had to land between the two.

“Then I realized what a predicament I was in and began to think u]> some way to get out of it. The thought came to me that if I was hearer the German lines than to the French, I had better get rid of those incendiary balls in my pocket, for if the Germans catch you with them you are shot at once. I climbed back into my machine to the tune of bullets and took out a load of over 300 cartridges, threw them on the ground and then removed my compass and altimeter. “The first thing I struck was a grave, unfinished, with two of the enemy in it. I eased myself down into it, lifted up one of the Germans and put the cartridges beneath him. I started walking back to my machine. As I got near it the Boche lines started their mitrailleurs and rifles at me, and the French, unaware that I was one of them, also opened up. I had to walk 500 feet between the lines and It was no joke with all that fire concentrated in my direction. One bullet passed so close to my face that I really felt the wind. I decided that I’d have to go to one of the lines, enemy or friend, but just then I heard a machine overhead;I looked up and saw white puffs break-* Ing out all around 1L “On the way the fire got so hot I had to fall face down, and I didn’t move for, I guess, five minutes. There being no good reason for my being shot like a dog, I yanked out my handkerchief and waved it at the French lines.

“They finally got it, after ten minutes of waving, and I saw a French officer beckoning me from a bit of woods. If there ever has been a faster 50-yard sprint I never heard of it. I ran so fast that I ran right into the officer, and very nearly knocked his revolver out of his hand. I showed him my identification card and then started cursing him for shooting at me. He had been taking potshots at me out there. He apologized, saying that he could only see my head, because his position was slightly lower than No Man’s Land.

"They took ,me up to the divisional general, and I reported that I had seen more than 300 dead Germans and onl/ two Frenchmen. It made him so happy that he gave me a dinner, and complimented me for being a good soldier.”