ONE AGAINST TWENTY-TWO

Otago Witness, Issue 3314, 19 September 1917, Page 34 (Supplement)

ONE AGAINST TWENTY-TWO

•panTTTTMn mi \ fTrrw rwr tjt>tttqti THRILLING BKAVEKY Ul< BKIIIbJAIKMAJN. A thrilling story of the death of Second Lieutenant J e" R Young RFC a daring British airman, in the' German" air ~ 6 T . T J • .ij • i iA raid on London in July, is told in a letter from his officer to his father. Mr W. S. Young, of Streatham.

“He had absolutely the heart of a lion, and was a very good pilot,” says the officer. “Your son has been up on every j raid of late, and has always managed to i get in contact with the enemy machines. The last raid, which unfortunately resulted ! | in his death, shows what a very gallant i i officer we have lost. Almost single-handed . ho flew straight in to the middle of the 22 machines, and both himself and his observer at. once opened fire. All the enemy machines opened fire also, so he was horribly outnumbered. The volume of fire to which

he was subjected was too awful for words. (To give you a rough idea. There were 22 machines. Each machine had four guns. Each gun was firing about 400 rounds per m.nuto.) “Your son never hesitated in the slightest. He flew straight on until, as I should imagine, he must have been riddled with bullets. The machine then put its nose right up in the air and fell over, and went spinning down into the sea from 14,000 feet. I unfortunately had to wifi ness the whole ghastly affair. The ma-

chine sank so quickly that it was. T regret. impossible to save your son’s body, ho was so badly entangled in the wires. etc. H.M.S. rushed to the spot a.° soon as possible, but only arrived in time to pick up your son’s observer, who. J regret to state, is also dead. He was wounded six times, and had a double fr do ture in the skull. “1 cannot speak too highly of the magnificent behaviour of your son; all that J can say is that he was a most gallant

I officer, and that I am proud to think tha ! he was in my command.” In forwarding the letter to the Sttreat | ham News, the father writes: “Believing, as 1 do. that wo have lot of the same material, and that my sor was iust one of many willing to fact certain death in order to help stamp ou the enemies of civilisation, the letter fror my son’s commander mav help to insnir confidence and the hone that our defence will soon be complete and the enomv’ atrocious methods frustrated.”