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Show v QUEN TIN ROOSEVELTS CHUM WRITES OF THRILLS IN AIR Your letters seem to infer that we are having lively times, and I assure you that such is the case. The drive which I predicted started early this week. The first day's results showed five miles in gained territory and 3000 prisoners. The second showed about twice that much mileage and 13,000 prisoners. The St. Mihie! pocket was a ' very advantageous station for the enemy, in that it is very high ground and overlooked FYance, both to the east and" west. The aviation action, of course, centered cen-tered on us, and only us. and we did everything that it was humanly and inhumanly possible to do. The first two days of the scrap presented one of the worst wind and rain storms that I have ever witnessed. The ConiTifTtit. 1918. by Public Lodrer Co. ' Chance of My Life" Liemenam Ross J. Huffman, ihe writer of these letters, fay. TOu cannot imagine what a clouds were as low as 100 meters, and It may interest you to know that . who wa8 one of Quentiu Roosevelt's "buddies" attain it is to keep dodging bullets, the valleys were tilled with fog. The from now on I have nothing to do with shells and shrapnel bursting all around wind was blowing a gale and the rain they took up each succeeding position. That was the fun of it, but the other side is our mental condition flying at such tremendously low altitudes in the face of a storm where, if the motors poofed, you were just out of luck, that's all.. No chance in the world to get out. Then the fact that German aviators were. on top of us all the time in large numbers, and we with no protection pro-tection got the butt of everything. Fortunately, For-tunately, we only lost a few men and planes, but there were many who had forced landings inside our own lines. Yesterday I was patrolling at a pretty high altitude over Germany, protecting a photographic machine. There were about ten of us monoplane Spads in the formation, and we saw many formations of from eight to fifty boche in the distance. Just as we were about to attack one of these formations my motor went bad and I started to earth. I anticipated spending spend-ing the rest of this wartime in Germany Ger-many as a prisoner, but again I wa lucky. My motor was turning over about 1400 R. P. M., which is not enough to keep you up In the air, but is enough to cover space in a slight peak. I held the nose of the machine up until the plane fluttered, and In that angle of glide I kept covering space. It seemed about three hours instead of Eire minutes, but I gradually got to earth, and as I headed in what I thought the correct direction (I was lost over the clouds) I finally saw our camp ahead of me, but the wind was coining directly into my nose and I knew that it was impossible to reach mv own airdrome, so I landed in another near our field, but too far away to walk or ride in an automobile. I In the examination that followed my good landing six spark plugs were absolutely ab-solutely dead and the magneto was on the fritz. It took four hours to fix it. and then I flew back to my own camp only to be Informed that my flight had gone out as another patrol and that I had missed another chance. I had another fortunate escape day before yesterday. Was on a patrol guarding our observation balloons and was hovering over Mete when my motor stopped. I landed on a field somewhere without breaking anything except the Ten Commandments and imagined that I was In Germany. Took out mv pistol and started to look for -ome Germans, as 'I was sure that I was to be captured. I was kind of scared wheri I saw some dust upon the road some distance away. Watched it approach, and maybe I didn't nearly, cry for ioy when I distinguished It lo'be an American motorcycle with an American driving it. 1 failed tin) and he stopped. Bode it to headquar-ters headquar-ters of one of the divisions, when th colonel in charge gave me all kinds of courtesies. Gives Bed to General He invited me to dinner with three colonels, two lieutenant colonels and some captains. I was the only lieutenant lieu-tenant Where they were located was newly captured territory and It was remarkable what good tood we had I had arranged to stay there all night as my squadron could not send a machine or me and the colonel of. fered me a bed in one of the houses in the village, when General Pershing and a few other generals came into the room. He didn't stay long, but one of the brigadier generals planned to stay and as my bed was the only on. 'in the neighborhood I gave up my bed to the general and he gave me his automobile to ride back to camp. It was a great big Winton limousine, but owing to driving without lights alon roads which were crowded with troop movements I did not get home untU eariy in the morning. Yesterday I went back to my machine ma-chine with my mechanic in a truck and after fixing up the machine I flew back to the camp. Reached here-Just 'as the sun went down, and was so tired that I only ate a little bit for dinner and went to bed immedlatelj afterward. -hether or not America Is getting doicn to brass tacks in the matter of air efficiency Is best attested by the members o' our "cavalry o the skies," who are advancing with the Allied armies of Marshal Fach., slowly but bievitably, toward German territory. In this case, the daring stories of 'air conquests come from an old chum of Qucntln Roosevelt, who fell to his death in July after a running fight uHth boche machines. Raking German trenches with deadly machine-gun fire, thrilling battles bat-tles aloft in the clouds, stalled motor over iletz, and a descent into enemy territory from Which he escaped these fascinating details are unwound in the matter-of-fact letters of First Lieutenant Ross J. Hoffman, SISth Aero Squadron, who has been in Franco since July, 1911. A member cf the first aviation class trained at Cornell, Lieutenant Hoffman now is an "ace." These letters were not written for publication, and, therefore, are naive ,rfffintimate sketches of the life of an aviator, his mental processes, . his daily life and his Utanlc battles for democracy. Lieutenant Hoffman tells hovo he and Quentin Roosevelt ,rbunked" together just prior to the death of the fighting son of tlie militant mili-tant ex-President. In France. VTOW, on the verge of my going to the front, I feel it my duty to tell about the inevitable, which must soon be my only consolation. You, of course, have read in the papers of the United States of the deeds of our airmen at the front, and must have made some conclusions of what , might happen to me. So far, fortunately, fortun-ately, I have noted no reference to this in your letters to me, and imagine the same reasons that prompted me not to say anything about "the other side" prompted you to maintain silence. Conditions are such that there Is a lot to be done by a very few and those few must be the ones to do it. Fortunately, so far as I can see ahead, I am to be one of those. In fact, of truth, out of my entire bunch who came over together I am the only one whose fortune it is to fight alone. Of course, there is a possibility that this hope will not materialize for the immediate imme-diate present; but since I am the only one still awaiting orders, while others of my class have been sent on either artillery observation or reconnaissance, I am pretty sure that my fate is sealed. "I Am Going to Fight" t. k5 a 'lard word to use, but, inevi- f-TaMy, it means death, and I want to 7 make sure to you that I realize what I am doing. I feel that this is a part jk of my life to put ray name and your vame down in history, and only pray th?wthat name will be honored and be an inspiration to .ill those that domj after me. I am going to use every bit of my energy and vitality to win the cause for which I am going to fight, and this on the verge of my entrance Into actual combat will be my byword, by-word, '1 am going to fight." Yes, there is the further ; ossibility of my capture or wound, but you have known my attitude toward the latter. I don't want to come home except as I went awaj'. j ' ' , From my new address, of course, you notice that another ambition has been realized, and again I have been very fortunate in being selected to represent the good old U. S. A. In a French chasse (pursuit) squadron flying Spad. Considering the fact that I am the only one of the original fifty that came over with me to reach that goal, and was among the first ten American aviators in American uniform to Join with the French (you know the Americans at tlie front now were attached to the Lafayette escadrille and were in the French army), you will almost realize how happy I am. There are only ten of us here; Among them are Quentin Roosevelt and Hamilton Coolrklge. We were somewhat surprised in getting orders so quickly, as thero were about 100 others waiting at the last station, some of them for a month or two, but your little Rossio beat Uiem to it. w Sleep in a Garret e are billeted in a tiny little coun-try coun-try village of about 200, far from any lnes of life, in an old farmhouse. Up in the garret, where we sleep on boards made up like cots no springs or mattresses. From the' looks of . things It was built In the year one. There are no windows to raise or lower, but just large doors made of Wood, which, when open, let in the air and sunshine. The roof is cuvered with heavy green and yellow moss, and I hope to be able to send you a Picture of It some day. We have to walk ten blocks to the town pump to pump water for washing. It's a funny-looking funny-looking old-fashioned iron pump, with handle about six feet long. I assure you it is not like living at the Claridge at an. We know what's coming and can't hick. The French people admire us for our courage in putting up with conditions, con-ditions, and all the 200 are very pleasant. pleas-ant. We are the first Americans to arrive here, and we are treated very nice. The above denotes another move which occurred last Friday, and- I lialready addressed an envelope to lyou to write my regular letter when jf We received orders to move. So we boarded a train Friday afternoon and sPent that evening and Saturday in Paris ana) arrived here yesterday evening. eve-ning. tp3 afternoon I will make my fray. You cannot imagine what a strain it is to keep dodging bullets, shells and shrapnel bursting all around you, trying to get your aim on the other 'fellow, letting loose withj your best friend at the same time maneuvering man-euvering your machine so , that you are always in the choice position, and then, last of all. to always know where you are and how high you are and how long it will takesyou to get back home. Outside of that there is not much to think about, except when your motor gets too hot and the water boils over the top or the pressure in the gas tank goes down too low, and you have to pull up into a stall, hanging hang-ing by your propeller, In order to let the., boche pass under you; your motor may stop entirely. clouds were as low as 100 meters, and the valleys were tilled with fog. The wind was blowing a gale and the rain came down In sheets. We were called upon to harass the enemy's retreat by getting in behind their lines and shooting shoot-ing up with machine guns, of which we carry two, and our pistols, which we carry around our waist, thef rear of their ( lines. You should have seen those bloody Dutch scatter and hide from anything that presented Itself in tlie way of shelter. You should have seen tlie drivers of trucks swerve off the road into ditches, turning over their camions in their wild rush to get out of the way of thousands of flying bullets bul-lets coming in all directions, and then watch the advancing Americans as captain leading. We flew over the German lines at 1000 meters and then dove on th German trenches, letting loose with our machine guns. You could see those damned Germans scattering scat-tering 'in every direction. They were just panic-stricken with the noise of our powerful motors and these machine gun bullets flying all around them. This was the greatest sport I have ever been in, and is the only way that you can get real satisfaction, satisfac-tion, in .that you can watch the results re-sults of your work. To get back to my first and original orig-inal combat, 111 let you know that I was some nervous during the entire first flight over the lines in a 180-horso-power Spad monoplane machine, and although I don't expect to get my first boche then, it won't be long before I do. Only two of us were chosen for this escadrille, which has for its emblem the Rooster of France and Which is painted on all machines. As I had anticipated, an-ticipated, the original ten were split up in pairs, and my partner is Gilbert N. Jerome, of New Haven, Conn., a very nice, gentlemanly fellow and a good, careful flyer. He is quite an artist, and was a leader of the Boy Scout movement in New England, a Yale graduate ill engineering and a very amusing comrade. This afternoon I am going to fly over our entire sector by myself 1000 meters, in order to get acquainted with the territory, and, of course, will enjoy it As yet I have hot flown over the trenches, and it will be a great sport I assure you. "Chance of My Life" It may interest you to know that from now on I have nothing to do with tlie American army, except in the matter mat-ter of rank and pay. Our captain here told us that we were here to learn the ins and outs of combat flying m order to eventually become flight wonders won-ders and majority officers in the American Amer-ican army, so I have a lot to look forw-ard to in the near future, and consider con-sider this the chance of my lifetime, and I assure you all that I am going to take advantage of it to the best of my ability. Had just finished my letter to Leon when I was told at 4 a. m. to go up after an albatross biplane that was over our lines at Nancy. A Frotfch lieutenant by the name of Lenaire our formation of Jerome (my partner) and myself. When we left the ground we had no idea of finding the boche, so started In to patrol the sector at 4000 meters. After flying around about ten minutes, saw a machine away in the distance, but could not recognize what it was or who It belonged to, but dove down on Ienalrc and signaled to him by shaking my plane. We then put on full speed and started for him. In the meantime, which was about three or four seconds, we lost sight of Jerome, and thought that our machines, being faster than his, we had left him to flfid his own way. Two seconds later I recognized the black Maltese cross on the German plane, 'and the sight of it turned me sick at my stomach, so much did that, the looks of that dirty looking plane, and it seemed to just crawl along as wo sped over it. I- noticed also that there was a machine gunner In back of the pilot, and he had his gun aimed at me just as an illuminated bullet passed thirty yards over my plane. Then I got mad: I dove down on him and let loose about ten bullets, but they were all wide, so turned around, as my partner Lenaire was comina; at him from the opposite side, but I did not see any bullets (tracer bullets) coming from his gun. so knew immediately imme-diately that It was up to me. So all I did was to verge and dive on the Boche. I'll bet I pumped about 150 shells at him when he stopped firing. I got close enough to see the gunner flopped over his?un, as the pilot was diving toward the Gerfnan lines. In fact, all around me there were signs of shrapnel bursting, and the smoke from their explosions was all sround. I looked at my altimeter and found out I was only about 800 meters off the ground, which Is just a nice range for machine guns, and as I noticed that we were also over Germany and that I had no chance against those odds, I turned back as the boche went into a nose dive. Whether I shot him down or not, I don't know, as we don't get credit for planes that come down in Germany, only those we bring down on French soil. By this time T was all alone, and as I flew back over our Meld I saw the other two machines landing as I landed also. The rest of the day everybody called me an ace, and for the reward I was given the afternoon off; so I took Jerome with me and one of the captains arranged for us to have a personally conducted tour of the front-line trenches. While walking through these miles of trenches and subterranean passages there was always the booming of guns on both sides. One 75 m. m. hit about 300 yards away and made a hole in the ground about five feet deep by twenty in circumference. I got a piece of the shrapnel or casing as a souvenir. All along the way we were greeted by the officers and poilus stationed '. the trenches (no Americans here except ex-cept a few in the hospitals). They live here all the time, have their beds made of boards and straw or sleep on the ground. They are all a happy bunch, singing and playing music and always glad to talk and have their pictures taken, which I afterward did, especially espe-cially where there was an interesting background. I had taken quite a few cigarettes with me, which I had bought from the .T. M. C. A., and distributed quite a number among the poilus. Their "Mercis" were really meant, as It Is very difficult for them to get American Ameri-can cigaretes at all, and, of course. It was just like Christmas to them. I never saw men so much pleased with one-half cent's worth of anything in my life. Yesterday morning I was up again at 3:30 and started on a patrol when my motor went on the fritz and I just about got into the field without breaking break-ing anything. It was repaired so I could go up after dinner. The captain ordered the entire Escadrille to be ready for a patrol 'it 3 p. m. There were three formations forma-tions of three each in our group, the |
