Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-03 | Page 3 | Machine Gun Helps Wing German Plane

1CIE GUN HELPS Two Barons of Aero Service Brought Down Within French Lines. CHELJES, France, Feb. 1. The German Ger-man airplane which was downed near here in the recent air raid was struck bj' a bullet from a machine gun on the airplane driven by the French aviator, Billard. The enemy airplane is not a bombarding machine, strictly speaJiing. but more of the type of an escort. It, nevertheless, carried twelve bomb?. The engine was of 225 horsepower, and the machine carried two ofneers. In reply re-ply to questions of their captors, they said that the raid had been carried out by four squad rilles of seven ma-jhineri each, which left a point northeast of Sois-sons Sois-sons and proceeded toward Paris about ; ID o'clock at ni?ht. ! The enemy airplane had just reached Noisy -le-Sec when it was struck. The Germans at once realized that the ma- , chine had been winged and they hastened to retrace their course, pursued by the ! lire of anti-aircraft guns. When above Chelles. the raiders say that they found their machine was art re and hastf ned to make a landing. This version of the occurrence is questioned here, and it is believe.1 that the Germans set lire to the machine. Only one military mili-tary paper was found in their possession, and it was an order to "Bombard Paris, excepting the hospitals and the schools." Both of the ofrirers are barons, and one of tiiein. who is only -0 years old. seemed heartbroken when taken prisoner, lie said thai his career had been ruined. The other, aged 25. on the contrary, ap-I ap-I peared delighted that the war was over I as far as he was concerned. This older prisoner, as he followed his eaptoni from the scene of the entorued landing, with only a slight foreign accent sang the refrain from "Madelon," a favorite fa-vorite ballad among the French soldiers. "Why." exclaimed one member of the escort, "he must have lived in Paris!" "You're right!" replied the baron.