Letters From the Front

Dated: October 29, 1915

Our first morning in the trenches this time was made interesting by the bringing down of an enemy aeroplane not long after breakfast. I was on duty and chatting with some of my men when the familiar buzz of a flying machine made me reach for glasses and look heavenwards in several directions. After searching about for a moment or two I suddenly discovered a plane of unfamiliar design (since learn an Albatross) heading towards the right of our battalion line directly in our rear. There was suddenly a bursting of anti-aircraft shells near it and one seemed so close under it that we expected to see the plane drop. On it came though, and then to our surprise we saw another plane swinging around behind and below it, and as they came closer there was the popping of a machine gun in place of the bursting of shells. It was not until we had decided in our own minds that a British machine was catching up to it and firing at an enemy that I made out the Iron Cross on the lower wings of the leader which was not more than a mile from us and probably 2,000 feet up only. Machine gun fire is such a common sound and so difficult to locate along the front, in the daytime especially, one is usually little impressed by its occurrence, and so few enemy aeroplanes are seen over this section of the line, we seldom pay more attention to flyers than to identify them as a matter of principle. Hence our surprise and deep interest in the sudden battle which was on before our very eyes. The British plane steadily overhauled, keeping well below and popping away at short intervals, and to our delight the enemy began to show something was seriously wrong within and began to gradually descend, finally landing within the 3rd Battalion lines on our right. The pilot was killed and the observer, a lad of seventeen, escaped by a miracle, as in addition to having gone through our own fire, the plane on descending was fired upon by the enemy, with a view I suppose to destroying it completely. They are brutes without a doubt.