Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1914 — DROPS BOMB ON PARIS [ARTICLE]

DROPS BOMB ON PARIS

German Aviator’s Missile Fails to Explode. Flyer Telle of Trip In Air Over Enemy’e Country in Letter to Hie Parente. Parle, Sept. I.—Another German biplane passed over Paris at 4:30 o’clock In the afternoon and dropped a bomb, which, however, did not explode. London, Sept. I.—The following letter from a German military aviator to his parents is printed In a recent issue of the Brandenburger Zeitung: "Last Saturday night while our company still lay in garrison received orders to start on a flight Into the enemy’s country at daybreak the following morning. The assignment was as follows: From the garrison over the Frerich fortress into France, thence westward to Maas to spy out the land for the French lines of communication, and to fly back, the entire distance being 300 kilometers. “By way of preparation maps of the whole region were minutely studied till midnight. Next morning at cock crow our machine scooted across the city square, then rose and headed westerly, and in half an hour had reached an altitude of 1,200 meters above the tow-n. Then we headed for the French border. Immediately my observer, a first lieutenant, called my attention to little black puffs of smoke and I knew at once we were being fired at by hostile artillery So we climbed to 2,000 meters. "Next we noticed that three of ths enemy’s aeroplanes were pursuing us, but soon we outdistanced and lost sight of them. Later we heard that two of the enemy’s aeroplanes had been brought down by our artillery. Both hands of one of the pilots were said to have been blown away by a shot.

'We were now continually fired on. I saw among other things how a battalion of infantry stopped in the street and aimed at us. Silently and quietly we sat in our taube and wondered what would happen next. Suddenly I noticed a faint qnivqring throughout the whole aeroplane. That was all. As I saw later one of the planes had four holes made by rifle bullets, but without changing out course on we flew.”