Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1918 — Page 2

United States Marine Borrows Plane and Does Amazing Stunts

He Wings Five Foes, Captures Prisoner, Saves Wounded Man and Gets Captaincy—While Trying to Adjust Engine Trouble He Sees Two Britons Attacked by Twelve Huns, He Dives Into Melee and Shoots Down Four of foe.

By FRAZIER HUNT. In the Chicago Tribune. American Naval Aviation Camp on the French coast. —Time was when the United States marines were content to be the soldiers of the land and sea. Now they have added the air to their provinces-—and the everlasting luck of the marines holds good, even in the clouds. The other day a fighting Yankee flyer of the marine corps. First Lieut. Edwin C. Chamberlain of Texas, went visiting a British flying squadron on the Marne. On the first morning of his arrival Lieutenant Chamberlain borrowed a plane and shot down one German In flames and forced another to descend so a British flyer could get him. On the next day he went as an escort for a party of French bombers over the Marne. On the way back he got into a fight, had engine trouble, and one of his guns jammed. While flying low he saw two of his comrades attacked by 12 Germans. He dove into the mixup and shot down four enemy planes. His engine stopped again, but whllp gliding 4 low he emptied his gun into German infantrymen. He was forced to land in No Man’s Land. Leaving his machine, he ran unarmed into a Hun patrol of three men. Swinging his compass as If It was a grenade, he captured one German. Then he picked up a wounded colonel, forded a stream, and made his way back to the French line. The Marine's Own Story. He requested that his work be reLand. Leaving his machine he ran the British commander Insisted on a full report, and now Lieutenant Cham-; berlain Is recommended for a captaincy. Here is his report: “We then started home and were attacked by a force thirty- strong. A dog fight followed. We lost three machines and the Hun three. He withdrew. We were a bit scattered, but got together. “A few miles farther on the Hun came at us in four formations of ten each, this time outnumbering us nearly two to one. We had an awful dog fight, and lost two bombers and four fighters. I got several bullets in my plane, one of which partly disabled my engine and made it die every few minutes and then run fine for a spell. One gun also jammed. ‘Two other fighters and myself and one French bomber found ourselves separated from the rest, and started home together. I kept losing altitude while trying to fix the gun. I only had 100 shots left In the remaining gun. “About eight miles from our lines, while flying in fair archie fire, and trying* to get the Jammed shell out of my gun. all suddenly became quiet. I knew this meant there were Hun planes about. Looking up, I saw twelve Hun fighters—a circus lot — circling about my companions, and quite a way above was one coming for me. Engine Bad, Hunts Fight. “My engine was missing badly, and had gone dead a moment before, but I went to meet him like I meant to fight. I fired just to break the strain. He suddenly pitched forward and dove straight for the ground. Just then my engine suddenly became very lively,

CHATEAU THIERRY PEOPLE GREET THEIR LIBERATORS

In this, one of the first pictures to reach this, country of the battle of Chateau Thierry, are shown some. Inh a bl* ■Cants of the town who remained during the German occupation walking through the destroyed streets to meet the .American soldiers.

and I started up to join the buzzard dance above, where it was ten to two against us. The eleventh German was sitting high. He evidently was the leader and was watching for some one to slaughter. “My two companions were darting this way and that, trying to force their way out of the circle, but the Huns were maneuvering so as to tighten the circle. They didn’t see me as I flew into the hazy sunlight just over their circle.

“As two went for my companions I went for them, nose down, with the vertical engine full on. I got the first one in thirty yards with twenty rounds from my one working gun. He blew up and went down burning. Second Goes Down Burning. “As I dodged to miss him the second enemy turned square about in front of me, and I got him with a burst of twenty-five shots at twenty yards. He spun about, with flames leaping over the machines. The pilot jumped out. “Then my engine commenced missing. I looked around and saw five coming at me, including the leader, in a mellow gray Albatross. I saw my companions go after a Hun apiece, and each got one. One went down burning and a wing fell off the other one. “Then my engine stopped full, and the Hunc came after me in twos, and I dove vertically for a second, pulled into a loop without power, and kicked Into a vertical side slip at the top. “There directly under me was a desperately moving Hun, but I had him. He went down with a dropping wing in a fantastical spin. “Then I went after the four remaining Huns. The leader was first. He pulled a powerful wing over at me, but I got the idea first. We met head on. I fired the last thirty rounds and was pilled up myself with bullets going by like hall. I looked out and there was the leader diving on his back, hanging out of his machine, evidently hit. The others reported that he hung as if dead. “I turned desperately, having no more shots left. I saw ,my companions attacking the three remaining Huns, who were making off in wide circles. The other two Huns had disappeared, while French bombers crossed our lines safely.

Score, 7 to 0. “Three of us attacked by twelve shot four down in flames, two completely out of control and one engine out of control. * “Odds, twelve Huns; three allies. - “Score, seven Huns down; allies, zero. “After I had gone quite a way back east my engine went bad and kept getting wo>re. The other two, like typical British soldiers, stayed with me until near our lines, when the engine died. I was getting all the archie and machine gun fire from the newly established enemy lines. My companions could not assist me. “I saw 1 couldn’t make our lines in the deep woods, so I dove onto the Hun troops, coming behind their lines. Having fixed my other gun after the fight, I scattered them with a hail of bullets. I then landed on a sloping depression near the wood, an eighth of a mile beyond the enemy outposts. “I was in a wheat field about 100 yards from some trees, which were

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. TNT).

swept by enemy machine guns. The enemy outposts could see only the top wings of my machine, but began to shell it. So I tore out the round iron compass and the maps and tried to burn the machine, but only fired the wheat.' "The shells were coming close, 'so I crawled toward the woods. As I came to a small water-filled ditch, I almost lost heart. Helped by Enemy Fire. “On the other side were three Huns crawling towards me. I was unarmed, but remembered that the compass looked like a grenade. I hauled back as if to throw it. Two Germans jumped and ran, one falling, hit by fire from his own lines, and the second being killed. The third cried ‘kamerad’ and threw down his rifle. I got -that rifle, took hl» pistol, and ordered him to crawl ahead. “He looked startled when he heard English, and answered in good English. He begged me not to kill him, as he was a married man. “I told him to shut up and crawl on. If he did not try to run he would not be harmed. We reached the wood, thick with brambles and swept by machine guns and shells. In the middle of the wood was a stream five feet wide and four feet deep. I heard a whispered groan in French, so I crawled along a few yards and found a wounded colonel, who had been hit in the leg and heck. Cares for Wounded Man. “The German prisoner followed me without a word, He.started to give the man a drink from his canteen, but I took the canteen, washed it, gave the colonel a drink, washed his wounds so I could move him, and then picked him up. I ordered the German to make his way with his hands up. The Hun drew no fire. Then I went in. Snipers took three shots at us, but they only splashed about. The brush was very thick on the other bank of the stream and I had to drag the wounded colonel through the Hun-shelled thicket.

“We were suddenly fired on and challenged in French. I replied in bad French, ‘Officer militare Amerlcaine aux blesse colonel,’ ‘Aviator American,’ and added about all the French I knew. A whole string of French came, in reply. “The German said, They say '•rawl into the open with hands up.’ I did. Then two men and a French officer came. They bristled at the German, but I pointed to my gun and the wounded colonel, who talked fast, whereupon the Frenchman threw his arms about me and talked a lot. We crawled to the outpost. I helped the wounded colonel to the dressing station, which was being shelled. The Hun acted as my assistant and interpreter. Speaking French, he was able to give valuable Information, and I took him to the division headquarters. “When questioned I pretended I did not know what was wanted and wouldn’t give my name. After a time the French commander got this information by telephone from the British commander.”

Not a Slacker There.

Sheboygan, Wis.—A raid on summer hotels and dance halls at Crystal and Elkhart lakes conducted by members of the defense council and similar organizations failed to round up- any slackers, as every young man accosted by the officers produced a registration card.

TEACH WOMEN HOW TO FIGHT HUN PROPAGANDA

Seattle, Wash.—Seattle women are learning how to combat German propaganda. At the University of Washington, an institute under the direction of Miss Hunley Coldwell, dean of women, is in session giving a large class of women accurate information of the government’s war program.

UNITED STATES AVIATORS WIN AMERICAN OFFICERS’ GOLF TOURNAMENT IN ENGLAND

LIEUTENANT FAWCETT DRIVING FROM TEE.

Lieut R. Fawcett of the American Aviation corps and champion golfer of Oregon, driving from the tee at the golf competition for American officers, given by their British friends on the Walton Heath links, England. Lieutenant Fawcett with Capt. W. 8. Crampton, were the winners of two bronze British lions which were awarded by Sir Harry Brittan, chairman of the American Officers’ club. The officers were afterward entertained by Sir George Riddell at the clubhouse.

TALK OF BASEBALL AT FRONT

Grover Cleveland Alexander of Cuba and "Chuck” Ward of Dodgera Are in Same Battery. Corporal Charles (“Chuck”) Ward, a St. Louis bdy and former infielder for the Brooklyn Nationals, in a letter to a friend tells of his safe arrival overseas. Ward also writes of Grover Cleveland Alexander, premier pitcher of the National league, being with him.

Grover Cleveland Alexander.

Alexander and Ward are members- of the same battery, Three Hundred and Forty-second artillery. Since leaving the United States Ward said none of the boys in the battery, many of whom were former major leaguers, received any word of the pennant scrambles. Night after night, Ward concluded, the former t>all players, while on duty, tell of their experiences while playing baseball in the states.

HOPE FOR ARMY-NAVY GAME

President Hempstead of Giants Endeavoring to Stage Historic Gridiron Struggle. President Harry N. Hempstead of the Giants has not yet abandoned hope of staging the Army-Navy football game at the Polo grounds next fall, in spite of the fact that the historic gridiron struggle was not held as usual last year because of the war. Hempstead says that there is an almost unanimous sentiment in army circles for the holding of the game this year. Last faH the contest was frowned upon in official circles for the reason that it was feared the attention of the cadets at West Point and Annapolis would be taken from in the week preceding the game and that, in view of such possibility, nothing must be allowed to interfere with their training.

WORK FOR ROGER BRESNAHAN

Manager and Owner of Toledo Club Seeks Employment In Government Nitrate Plant. Roger Bresnahan, manager and owner of the Toledo club, will obey Secretary Baker’s work or fight order. Bresnahan, although above the draft age and married, plans to work in the new government nitrate plant at To* tedo.

BUNTING AN ACQUIRED TRICK

Players Who Can Lay Down the Ball Don’t Do It Naturally—ls Sacrificial Rite. It may be true that the hitter in baseball is born, not made, but not so with the. bunter, says a baseball wise man. The successful bunt hitter is a manufactured article. Here the mind plays an important part. Instead of going up to the plate with the sole idea of taking a healthy, untrammeled swing at the old apple, the artistic bunter must choke his bat, bold it so it will give, make a quick, but accurate, stab into the pathway of the ball and let the ball do the rest There is still more. Bunting is primarily a sacrificial rite, so to speak, and the batter with orders to bunt must make his desire to beat out the hit secondary to the proper advancement of the base runner. The trouble with most players who essay to bunt is their tendency to start running before they hit the*ball. As a consequence, they either foul off, miss altogether or drive it directly at the pitcher. They have no chance at all to place the globule where the infielders least expect it l

GOOD WORK FOR ALL SPORTS

How Soldiers and Sailors Are Trained Is Portrayed in Exhibit Models of Cantonments. How athletics are training out soldiers and sailors to be better fighters and incidentally providing them .with clean and wholesome recreation at the same time has been portrayed in the exhibit of the war and navy departments’ commissions on training camp activities which is touring the country as a part of the allied war exposition. A feature of the exhibit of the training camp commissions is a model of a modern cantonment. Inside the cantonment on the athletic field soldiers in miniature are to be seen engaging in boxing and wrestling, and playihg baseball, football, soccer and other, camp sports. The boxing drill, which shows a class of a thousand soldiers simultaneously learning the rudiments of the fistic art, is depicted in-a series of carefully colored pictures, while ‘motion pictures demonstrate how this sport is making our men better bayonet fighters.

FOOTBALL PLAYER IS KILLED

Philip Mills, Former Harvard Star, Meets Death While Fighting in France. e Capt Philip 0. Mills, former Harvard football player and a son of the late Gen. Samuel M. Mills, U. S. A., whs killed in action July 25. Previous to America’s entry In the war Captain Mills drove an ambulance in France. Captain Mills was a graduate of St Paul’s school, N. H., and Harvard university, 1905. He was a member of the university football eleven for three years, playing tackle. -

CRAVATH TELLS HOW TO BAT

Recommends as Aid to Long Drives That Stick Be Held Tightly—Must Be Good Guesser. Cravath, the Philadelphia home run hitter, recommends as an aid to long drives that the bat be held tightly. After 16 years’ experience in batting the clever right fielder says all one has to do is to hit the ball and hope it sails tar, far away. When one stands up to the plate he must guess what the pitcher Is going to throw. The only thing necessary is to be a good guesser in order to be ready to slug a curve ar a fast one. -

NEXT WORLD SERIES WILL BE IN FRANCE

Organizer John T. Powers lr Sponsor for Bald Statement Has Well-Detailed Intention of Grl<L ironing That Fair Land With Leagues of Gradually Increasing Importance. Organized baseball Is not, killed; It merely is transferred to “somewhere in France” for the duration of .the war. 1 Such is the expressed opinion ot John Thomas Powers, organizer and first president of the late Federal league, who is going to France with the well-detailed intention of gridironing that fair land with baseball leagues of gradually increasing importance, from the sand lot teams which practice in No Man’s Land up to the real big league champions, which will settle the supremacy on diamonds In the south of France next winter. “The next world’s championship baseball series will be decided ‘somewhere in France,”’ says Powers, while he does not go so far as to predict the exact leagues which* will clash in this classic so far from its native heath, he concedes it may lie between the Y. M. C. A. league leader and theK. of C. league topliner. Inasmuch a» he has a long record of organizing: baseball leagues, from interchureh up to nation-wide organizations, Powers” prediction is well worth considering, particularly as he adds convincing facts. “My scheme is to have a league in every regiment,” explained “These can be organized by the Y. M. C. A. physical director and by elimination produce their champion teams. The regimental champions will have contests for the division championship and the division champions will fight for the corps championship. Eventually will come the series for the championship of the army, which will be the same as the world’s championship if baseball is shut down in this country. All the best young players affected by* the war department ruling will be in the army. “With all the best talent there and good new talent coming to the surface we ought to have some games. This carrying real baseball to the soldier® isn’t just a time-killer, but a necessary measure to keep up the morale of our boys over there.”

SETS HAND GRENADE RECORD

Gordon Sarre, Member of American "Legion, Establishes New Mark at Fontainebleau. That baseball is a fit preparation for one branch of the military service was shown recently when Gordon- Sarre, an American member of the foreign.. Legion, established a new world’s record at Fontainebleau for throwing the hand grenade. Sarre threw the death dealing grenade 70 meters and 50 centimeters, or nearly 215 feet. A. few years ago Sarre was a baseball player on one of the best known preparatory school teams in the United States. The former record of 60 meters and 67 centimeters, made on the Fourth of July, is also* held by a former baseball player named Shockera.

PRESIDENT’S CRITIC A CADDY

Eieven-Year-Old Boy Saya Chief F.xecutiye Has Three-Quarters Swln j —Plays Fairly. “The president is a fair golfer. He’s got a three-quarters swing. He’d play better if his swing was a little fuller. He should not come back so fast on tiie back swing.” So says eleven-year-old Joe Dineen, who was President Wilson’s caddy during a recent game with Doctor Grayson at Hamilton. Mass. Perhaps the only critic of America’s chief executive who dares to openly voice his opinion, Joe Dineen,

Joe Dineen.

has caddied for hundreds of prominent golfers at the Myopia Hunt club and thoroughly understands his game. Summing up Joe states that the president plays a “pretty fair game” and Mrs. Wilson does well for a woman.