AIR HERO OF WAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 December 1934, Page 3

AIR HERO OF WAR

KILLED BY A SCRATCH. PORTSMOUTH, October 27. An air exploit over the Western Front is recalled by the death in hospital here of Mr Alfred Alexander Tutte, ■ D.F.(J., Jfrom blood-poisoning, as a result of a small scratch caused by the door-catch of his motor-car. Piloted by Flying Officer* Horne, Mr Tutte set out, when an 18-years-old officer in the Royal Air Force, to bomb Seglin, on the Western Front in France. When about I,oooft from the ground the ’plane began to zigzag. Realising that something was wrong, Mr Tutte called through the telephone to the pilot, and found that he had been wounded. The pilot had scarcely begun to head for home, when he fainted, and the machine began to descend. Though an 80-mile gale was blowing, Mr Tutte, hampered by his flyinggear and heavy boots, climbed out of his observer’s seat into the cockpit. He grasped the joystick, gained control of the machine, and revived the pilot with brandy from his flask. They then succeeded in reaching the British lines, through a tornado of shrapnel and bullets.