WITH THE FLYING CORPS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 9 October 1916, Page 2

WITH THE FLYING CORPS.

HAWERA BOY'S LETTER

Mr C. E. Blayney, a well-known Ha-wen-a boy, who Has a commission in tlie inlying Corps, in writing to a friend in^ Hawera from "somewhere in France," says:—

"Well, first and foremost the weather here is very hot. and it's very n;ce to go upstairs to get cool, except that while you are there you get 'archied,' i.e., shot at by anti-aircraft guns, with, shrapnel, and the German gunners are pretty good, I can tell you. Still we have our job to do and we go out and do it. It usually lasts about three hours, and then if nothing special turns up ws are free for the rest of th^ day. Our squadron patrols a few Miles of Hun front, and we are light on a very famous salient, which we f-..rmexl last September. It is wonderful to n>t» to fly over these well-known places, names of which I heard fo much, t-f before \ left New L'ealaud. The ■-•(lun.try looks awfully battered i'ro.n tbe air —^reat she'll bolesl everyvvnere,, and as tue ground is of chalk formation, they shew up very plainly, as also do +he trenches. Our wot'k consiifs of counter lattery patrols, high, patrols, artillery .observation and correction, bomb dropping', photography arid reconnaissance. "I did a C.Sr patrol thjs morning from 10 o'clock till 12.50. Thai means tHat I" took up my wireless set, £w"G, macliine guns, 350 rounds of .ammutti* \ tion, and two bombs aiid bomb-sighting gadgets, to say nothing of automatic" pistols and -field glasses, etc., and an observer, Qur job was' to patrol the fi.mi "~f&r■.'our seejioii alia jtxkk i ■fat Hiih gun flashes; \Mh send the position of this gun to our batteries, who open fire on the position according. to our instructions . and corrections. •' Everything was quiet this morning, and there were no flashes to be seen. The Huns are very cunnins, and will not.fire if they know they're .being observed, but we sometimes catch them by looking behind when we have turned our backs. You have to keep on the move, turning, side-slipping, climbing, and diving, so that, he can't get your range. "Yesterday I went up and dropped some 'eggs' on a railway, and so the good work proceeds apace. To-morrow I may be -allotted-a target to strafe. That means any enemy gun. or some, place of vantage. In that case I .shall go along to see the battery commander I first and arrange all the details of the 'shoot,' so' that he'll have his guns approximately on the target; then we'll register it for 'liini, correcting all his shots till he gets an O.K. Then we'll tell'him to go on strahng till we think the place is done in.

"This station is quite near a large town, -—-~ quite .well known to you, I expect. Well, it was shelled last Monday by a big 15-iiv. gun. The R.F.C. went over and successfully located the gun firing, and in the afternoon three or four squadrons of us went over and silenced it with 'eggs.' The bpmb raids aa-e gethting a.great feature now. and fairly putting the -wind up the Huns. They, of course, make an attempt to retaliate, but they never get far over the lines, as our-patrols, are too active.

."As I told you before., we live very cqmforta'bly indeed, and-shave-a splendid mess. We have hot jpolls for breakfast! Well, on Tuesday morning last the rolls were a day old, and the mess president apologised in something like these words: 'I am. sorry, gentlemen, that the rolls are stale, "but you see it's owing to the war. The baker at —is in the Market-Square, and as the Square was shelled yesterday, the authorities closed it to the public; therefore the baker could not' sell his rolls; therefore we have got the rolls he could not sell yesterday!' Pretty good, isn't it?' ' "I must tell you, though, of an incident that «eeusrred to-day. An offiqer in our flight was orderly officer, and amongst other duties he relieves the commanding- officer while he has lunch. Well, drawing lunch time a telephone orderly rushed in and said: 'The King and the Prince of Wales are1 walking round the aerodrome, sir." You can imagine the poor commanding officer's surprise. He at once rushed out of the estaminet, which we use as squadron headquarters, and found about ten staff cars and the Royal car (a Daimler) all outside, arid His Majesty coming backfrom the aerodrome towards him. He .with, remarkable-presence of mind turned out the guard and gave a salute himself just as His Majesty and the Prince entered their car and drove off again A very hurried visit, indeed, ana one" m which they encountered no one, and when they went on first the guard did not even turn out, and everyone else was away at lunch! ,1 learned to-day that it was at this very aerodrome that the King was thrown from his horse borne of our officers saw it happen. He had been looking around, when someone called for three cheers for the King mi the horse took fright. Perhaps His Majesty wanted to see the spot again. Anyhow, h e did it very-quietly, for not a soul knew he was coming. "It is a lovely summer night, such as I imagine Byron must have written about in his Don Juan. There is a. large yellow moon and a beautiful evening mist. It is nearly 10 o'clock and noo quite dark. As I came away from the mess to-night I looked bs^ck, and it was a perfect picture. The-house itself is •old and picturesque, but the windows were open and the blinds up, showing the brilliantly lighted troom, gay with flowers and red tinted* walls, with fine old prints upon them. The strains of 'To-night's the Night' came from the gramophpnft, and but for the grumbling of our artillery you could not imagine a more peaceful scene. However, in walking to my billet I_could hear the rattle of the machine gun®, and could Imagine, the deadly work they were doing.

"I wonder when, it will all be over. Everyone here seems to have forgotten there's going to b e an end, and I* think that's the-best way.

"By the way, I had a rather comic accident the other day. I had just landed and had still plenty of speed on, when my machine took it into its head to go suddenly right, and I used all my left; rudder without avail. We charged straight, for a huge iron roller drawn by two horses. We hit> it fair and squaa-e in the back and scared the horses so that they bolted (roller and all) around the aerdrome, to the amusem.ent of all and sundry. I 'did' in the 'Drop' and the engine—a perfectly good Daimler, by the way; still there was another engine, and a new propeller in that bus the same evening, about five hours later. , Smart work, don't you think? Each pilot ha® his men, who do nothing .eke but look after his machine. One looks after the engine, and the other the rigging.'-'