[cgarr]

Quite a Busy Day 1917

By now most of my patrol had dwindled away, and I only had Fielding-Johnson with me. We sighted two Albatros scouts attaching a Bristol fighter over Marcoing, so at once we went to the rescue. The Bristol seeing us coming, skilfully drew one of them after him. The remaining one, who was just about my level, saw me and fairly stood on his tail endeavouring to scrape up a foot more height than my machine.

By the time I got to him and zoomed, the S.E. Just went up a little higher. Then we both turned inwards and, the Hun losing height, I at once did a quicker turn and got behind him. After a short burst from my Vickers, the Hun's hat fell out of his machine. For apparently he was wearing an ordinary service cap; and after that the V-strutter went down and hit the ground in a vertical dive with the engine on, a fearful whack. I looked where the Hun had crashed and found it was near Rumilly.

Fielding-Johnson and I now returned to Bourlon Wood, where we saw a big formation of Albatroses near our lines, so we went down on them, and I attacked the rear machine but overshot him and missed him. That Hun must have been on his first solo, for he hadn't the foggiest notion what to do, and was looking around him in an apparent state of bewilderment, but, by the time I had turned behind him again he was in the middle of his formation and so I had to come back. By Jovel! That Hun was as dud as they made them.

By now there was some Albatroses above us, and amongst them I saw “green tail” taking a prominent part. We revved around for a while, and then I saw Mayberry tackling a big A.E.G. Bomber, which had apparently been pushed up by the Huns to distract some of our attention from their two-seater's, who were on the whole having a bad time. By now it was time to go home, and we arrived back at the squadron after a morning's fine fun
.
The Major had been out too, and having tackled a two-seater turned the wrong way at the critical moment, came under the fire of the two-seater's gunner at very close range, had been pipped through the petrol tank, and was nearly blinded by petrol. So he went right down to the ground before switching on his engine again, for fear of igniting the escaping petrol from the flames from his exhaust pipes. Which on the S.E. Are in close proximity to the petrol tank. He got safely down, and came back saying that to tackle a two-seater successfully was harder than it looked.
During the morning of the 23rd the whole squadron had been up, and Bowman and Harmon had each got a Hun also. The Albatros which I shot down near Rumilly was my 20th victim.