STRAFING A HUN TRAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 16824, 28 August 1918, Page 8

STRAFING A HUN TRAIN.

(By "Night-Hawk.") On the night of which I am about to write wo were to take our aeroplane across the lines for the first time. It was an ideal night for the experiment, still and clear, and as we got away from tho aerodrome and flew towards that palpitating line of flame which is the Frontier of tho War our anticipations were keyed to the highest pitch. Our orders were to drop our bombß on certain German billets; then fly around Hunland with a roving commission to uso our weapon against any and all legitimate targets which presented themselves.

My pilot and I always manage to work in very close co-oporafcion. If I spot anything unusual my method is to point it out to hhn, and we then decide as to the advisability of getting nearer to it or farther away, as the case may bo. If, on tho other hand, he sees something first, ho attracts my attention either by_ hitting mo on the head or wobbling the joy-stick bo that tho "bus" swings from side to side. "What do you make of that?" he says. " Shall we go down and have a look at it?" All I can see, perhaps, is a black blob on a road or a cloud of steam. " How's the engine running?" I ask him, because a great deal depends on your distance from the line and tho sweetness of your engine. .. .... " Thumbs up !" ho b'a-wls. "Right ho!" I reply,, "Down wo go!" That is how we worked it that night. We had "laid our eggs" on the Hun billets and were cruising about more or less casually at a height of between five and six thousand feet"abo.ve- a large town some 15 miles behind the German lines. Suddenly I saw a long, snaky-looking tram winding its way along a. loop-line which led up to tho main lino from T- — to one of the moat important of the German railheads.' Feeling sure that it was either a troop or ammunition, train, I pointed it out to my pilot, and after the usual rapid consultation we dived for it. _ At a thousand feet! opened lire and saw a burst on the metals just in front of tho locomotive. By this time hall the train was in the loop section, the forward half was on the main line. We., flew alongside the train at.. 500 ft. My third or fourth shot caused a '■••cimovis- little blue name in the locomotive itselt, and the train came to a standstill. We -again dived until wa were just a few feet over the telegraph poles, pumping stuff into the carriages and waggons as hard as 1 could make my new weapon work. There was not much left of the train. We had done something to worry the. Hun. For five minutes-we. flew upland down that train. In the clear moonshine I could see little dark figures running from tho danger-zone into the fields on each side of the railway, running this way and that, seeking shelter and mercy from tho living death. Then a cool-minded and cnuiv.gcous little group of soldiers got a machine gun out of the'remains of the train, set it up in a meadow: near.the derelict locomotive, and started firing at'.u.s;-. . ' . " . They must have been brave men. for, quite apart 'from anything else, the spectacle of a, big night-bombing "bus" diving nnd zooming and turning so. near the ground is 'enough to test the-- stoutest nerves. However, these grey-coated fellows got their gun going, and for Two or three minutes gave us a very hot time. As soon as we had fired al! our loimds I signalled to the pilot, and in ord?r to (reduce head-resistance crouched down in my "office' with my head below the " stream-lino " of the machine. Then v.l"climbed " for the lines—and home.

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