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Show AMERICAN OFFICER KILLED II PICARDY Lieutenant Colonel Richard M. Griffiths Caught by Shell. WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, May 2. (By the Associated Press.) Lieutenant Colonel Richard H. Griffiths, commanding a battalion of infantry, in-fantry, has been killed by shell fire in Picardy. He emerged from a dugout just as a German shell arrived and exploded ex-ploded directly in front of him. Lieutenant Colonel Griffiths was with the Fourth Tennessee volunteers. He served also as major in the Philippine Phil-ippine constabulary. He was appointed a major in the national army after resigning re-signing from the British army. His widow is a Red Cross nurse. An American aviator has brought down the fourth German airplane along the American front, northwest of Toul. Lieutenant James A. Meissner, whose home is Brooklyn, after a thrilling aerial battle at about 15,000 feet, shot down an Albatross scout, which fell in flames. Lieutenant Meissner is 21 years old, and a graduate of Cornell. He came to France a few months ago and qualified as a pilot here. While he was protecting a photographing photo-graphing plane a German machine came in view. The day was brilliant with sunshine. A French plane started for tho German, but Meissner, who was flying fly-ing high near by in a speedy Nieuport chaser, made a dive for the German's tail. When within range he opened fire with his machine gun and the German started a spiral nose dive, but after a few seconds straightened out and started back for Germany. Meissner followed so closely when the German straightened out that the latter lat-ter ?s wing tore both of the under-wings under-wings of Meissner 's machine, but at the same time the young American poured a deadly stream of bullets into the enemy plane, which started smoking. Meissnor kept up the fire until the Gorman Gor-man machine burst into flames and crashed to earth. The American pilot landed safely on his own side of the lines, but the German Ger-man fell about a mile inside the German Ger-man lines to the south of Thiaucourt. The American infantrymen in the front lines watched the engagement and cheered loudly another American air vie tory. |