Air Stories, April 1936 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BRING ’EM BACK ALIVE! and could skate off home. Not only could, but would have to, the petrol capacity of my S.E. being what it was. Well, it had been an uneventful patrol. But for those wicked black bursts I should have been yawning. I banked round to the south-west and, thinking I saw movement through the arc of my propeller, manceuvred for a Clearer view. Yes, there was Charles Edward toiling up to my height to relieve me. Good! I put down my nose and headed for home. Good old Charles Edward ! It was while I was wondering whether he would get an opportunity that morning of winning his tin of fifty cigarettes that a blue-and-white chequered Pfalz scout, emerging from a straggling layer of fleecy cloud, dived joyously and battened itself on to the tail of the unsuspecting S.E. I fired off a short burst with my Vickers to warn the victim, but might have known I was too far off. The jickering of the Hun’s Spandaus must have been Westringham’s first intimation of the attack. I saw him flick over into a vertical bank and whirl round in a complete circle in an effort to get the Pfalz in his sights. But at the moment when he might have fired no burst came from his gun. Instead, I saw him lean forward, straining against his safety- belt to thump at the lock of his Vickers. A jam—at a moment like that ! * There was no time to clear it. I watched his machine rear its nose up to the sky, heel over, and go streaking -earthward, spinning like a sycamore seed. The Pfalz ceased firing then. Up went his tail and down he shot in pursuit, engine thundering all out. To keep them in sight I dived my machine too and, almost cricking my neck over the side of the cockpit in my anxiety for poor Charles Edward, watched for the outcome. I would have given a great deal for a full tank and the oppor- tunity of sandwiching that Hun. Trailing wisps of cloud obscured the * Most S.E.’s carried a Lewis gun (mounted on the top plane), in addition to a Vickers. In Trevelyan’s squadron the Lewis was dispensed with, the resulting saving in weight giving the S.E.’s a higher ‘‘ ceiling.’-—-AUTHOR’S NOTE. 297 view for a moment or so, but when I next saw the pair they had reached the floor. Charles Edward was not finished yet, but seemed very near it. He hadn’t a chance that I could see. Both pursuer and pursued were tearing across the countryside at chimney-pot height, hop- ping over farmhouses and haystacks like steeplechasers. Charles Edward, zig- zagging crazily right and left to keep the other’s bullets from his back, must have been working his rudder-bar like bicycle-pedals. For the present the Boche was wasting no bullets in frightfulness, and when they disappeared from my sight into the mist he was just biding his time— waiting for a close-up burst that wouldn’t require to be repeated. Poor old Charles Edward ! I glided in over our hangars with a heavy heart. With his gun jammed what could he do? Then a sudden thought occurred to me ; perhaps it wasn’t jammed ! Perhaps ! The mental picture of a round tin of fifty rose up before me. Perhaps that crazy loon ! Within two hours I knew the truth. ‘‘Woggy ’’ Wane, Haltrick, Moldred and a few others of us were standing outside ‘‘C” Flight hangar when an 6S.E. sideslipped into the aerodrome with a gentle moaning of wires, executed a faultless three-pointer and came taxying with intermittent bursts of engine-power towards us. ‘It’s him !’’ I yelled. ‘‘ It’s West- ringham !’’ and doubled forward. HE Hon. Charles Edward dropped to the ground with a delighted grin and came towards me. There was a small bundle under his arm, wrapped up in some kind of cloth. Still grinning, he went straight up to Moldred. ‘You owe me a tin of fifty, sir,’’ he said, and undid his bundle. The wrap- ping of this turned out to be a strip of fabric marked with a large Maltese cross in black and had evidently been ripped from the tail-plane of a Pfalz. The victor held up the contents : two locks taken from Spandau guns and a bloodied COnniclooo S (Cl QO)