HERO OF THE AIR.
GERMAN GUNS ATTACKED. PILOT'S FOOT SHOT AWAY. MACHINE BROUGHT BACK. Paris, April 22. , The Petit Journal states that a French pilot and observer successfully dropped bombs on a corner of the Belgian coast whero nearly a hundred anti-aircraft guns were congregated. On the return journey the machine rose to a height of 9000 ft amid a storm of shot and shell. One shell smashed the axle of the front wheels and passed through the car, cutting off the pilot's foot. The explosion of the shell nearly overturned the machine, the compass dropping out.
The pilot refused the observer's assistance, and navigated back a distance of 15 miles, landing safely in the French lines on one pair of wheels. He crawled out through ;h« hole made by the shell, and later fainted.
Both men were decorated on the field.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15900, 24 April 1915, Page 8
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142HERO OF THE AIR. New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15900, 24 April 1915, Page 8
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