Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1918 — United States Marine Borrows Plane and Does Amazing Stunts [ARTICLE]

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,

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

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.”