WAR

tion, full motor and diving slightly ... I manoeuvred a little and gave it to him
again and I hope I touched him up, for the machine gunner seemed to me to stop
shooting. I went after him a third time, this time from behind his tail; we were
both streaking it through the air at a scandalous pace. I had my machine nosed
down a bit and going full out, was overhauling him and had just begun to shoot
again when my machine gun jammed from a broken cartridge so that it was impossible
to fix it in the air. We had been going for Hun territory all the time so
that we were by this time several miles behind the German lines. With my machine
gun out of commission there was of course nothing to do but go home."
One day late in September, Biddle and three squadron mates attacked a
flight of German single-seaters and again Biddle became separated from the rest
of the patrol, this time because of the westerly wind. He suddenly found himself
facing no fewer than seven enemy scouts, two of which were close enough to send
their tracers past him "in regular flocks" while he high-tailed it for home. When
he got back to the aerodrome he examined his aeroplane, expecting, as he said,
"to find about a dozen holes in it."
He was rather disappointed not to find any, and concluded: "I guess those
Boches must have been very poor shots, or more probably I am just very green
and thought that I was in more trouble than I really was."
The American Charles Biddle and his commanding officer Albert Deullin
went out hunting together one morning in November. Biddle was excited about
the opportunity to study the methods of the Capitaine and was determined to do a
good job of flying as rear guard. He stuck to Deullin until the beginning of a
diving attack on a flight of single-seaters. In a letter Biddle described the action:
"In my capacity as rear guard I was necessarily several hundred yards behind,
and about the time that I started to follow the captain I caught sight of another
Hun coming in behind me and on the same level. He was a good way off, but
started to shoot at me, so I had to turn and chase him. When I started after him
he also turned and started to run but I had no more begun to follow him when
still another put in an appearance above me, and I had to get out. In the meantime
the captain had gotten close to his man but had to stop shooting at him to
defend himself against a couple of others and in doing so lost sight of the Hun
he had attacked. As soon as we landed he told me he could not understand why
the fellow had not fallen, for he had seen at least ten of his tracer bullets fired
at point-blank range apparently go right into the pilot's seat. Sure enough, a few
minutes later confirmation came in that a Hun had fallen at that time and place.
This made nineteen for Captain Deullin."
Biddle was learning his business from a professional— ". . . watch
surprise, and, no matter what happens, lead the dance with celerity."
out for
In January 1918 Biddle accepted a transfer into the U. S. Air Service and
took the oath as an officer. In Paris, awaiting a permanent assignment, he ordered
a new uniform and occupied his time translating Capitaine Deullin's notes on
fighter aviation to show to American officers in charge of training.
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