US.S. CAPTURE HUN AEROPLANES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2961, 31 March 1919, Page 3

US.S. CAPTURE HUN AEROPLANES.

NANCY, January' 2. The proud Fortress of Coblenz in its long military history never saw a scene such as yesterday, when in a huge aerodrome created by American hustle on the plateau behind Fort Alexander, towering high above the Rhine, a commission of German aviators began the humiliating task of turning over 6,000,000 marks worth of airplanes, comprising 200 of the newest model Fokkers, to their American victors; Under the terms of the armistice the Germans are forced to give a fifteen minute trial flight in one aeroplane out of every twenty. In the presence of a large crowd of American fliers, Red Cross

nurses, Y.M.C.A. entertainers, and staff officers, Pilot Sergt. Dunhausea, who boasts that he brought down Quentin Roosevelt, was forced to make a test flight despite a gale and German protests. After an exhibition of, trick flying, looping the loop included, he was chagrined to learn upon landing that he had flown only thirteen minutes, and was compelled to do it all over again. The ranking American flier intimated to the German commissioners that this was not a sporting but strictly a business proposition, and that all the formalities under the terms of the armistice must be lived up to. Other German commissioners are here turning over millions of dollars’ worth of motor trucks to the Americans. On a trip to the front the correspondent passed nearly a mile of German motor trucks within the American lines awaiting inspection and an American try-out. Bri . Gen. Winans, of the 64th Brigade, 32nd Division, has discovered and is setting up headquarters at Semeck, Cannon King Krupp’s idyllic hunting lodge near Risenherg, not far from the Coblenz bridgehead. The lodge is surrounded by one of the- finest game preserves in German'- the forest abounding in boar, deer, and other game. Herr Ungerman is in possession, and General Winans had rather be his unbidden guest than Krupp’s. The whole staff is enjoying the irony of camping de luxe on the cannon king’s premises. General Winans occupies the Krupp “bridal chambers,’’ resembling a sumptuous suite on a palace liner, while the lodge of the Krupp gamekeepers furnishes beds for the men of the brigade headquarters—the French call Winan’s force “le brigade terrible.”