Bill Barnes Air Adventurer, July 1935 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

12 BILL BARNES saw another German plane whirling downward in flames. “At a boy, old pip-pip!” Shorty laughed and whipped his S. E. 5 back to the attack. He hurled his plane at a ship bearing the streamers of a German squadron commander. His guns belched forth another vicious burst of fire. The German plane faltered half out of con- trol. Another burst sent it whirling downward, entirely out of control. Only seconds had passed since their attack but three of the enemy planes were out of the fight. Shorty’s eyes were gleaming now. He slashed his plane through the air with the wild abandon of a mad man as the other five enemy planes swung back to attack with their Spandaus spewing lead. The fury of their attack put the major and Shorty on the defensive. They rolled and zoomed and skidded to avoid the deadly fire that was turned on them. As Shorty hurled his plane head-on toward a Fokker and tripped his guns he saw that the major was taking a ter- rific hammering from three planes. They were methodically darting in and out pounding him to pieces as he tried to get control of his wavering ship. Shorty gunned his engine and dove in between the three ships on the major’s tail. More Fokkers joined the three while the major fought his controls. THEN the whole sky became filled with slashing, snarling machine guns and planes. A formation of Bristol Fighters, English two-seaters, had seen the battle from above and had dived to the aid of the two S. E. 5’s. It was the maddest, the wildest dog fight Shorty had ever seen. A German and a British plane crashed head-on and went flutter- ing to earth in a thousand pieces. The sky became a madhouse. Plane after plane went to earth in flames. Others crashed out of control with their pilots dead at the stick. Shorty realized as he- rolled and skidded and dove to the major’s aid that there were two black-winged Fokker D-7’s riding his tail. As he started a wide turn to the left hoping to get on the tail of one of the planes with a series of Immelmann turns, the other one faked his S. E. 5 with a hail of lead. The bullets pounded through his wings and smashed against his instrument board. Splinters and glass cut his face. Blood ran into his eyes and down his face, half blinding him. He threw his ship into a lazy spin hoping the two enemy pilots would be- lieve he had been wounded and was falling out of control. But they con- tinued to circle above him, following him toward earth. As the chatter of a Vickers gun joined the roar of his own motor, and the two above him, he glanced up over his shoul- der. He saw one of the Fokkers half roll-to escape the majors fire. “the major half rolied his S. E. 5 and got under the enemy’s tail again. His guns stuttered their song of death. Shorty flattened out his ship and zoomed upward after the other Fokker. As he got a bead on the black-winged German he damped down on his gun trips. As the same instant another plane flashed across his sights. How many bullets left his guns he never knew. But he checked his fire as he saw that the plane under his sights was the S. E. 5 of the major! He saw the major’s ship stagger and reel, and slide off on one wing. Shorty’s face became ashen-white. He was trem- bling like an aspen leaf ina gale. Sup- pose he had got the major with that one short burst? The thought made him sick. He felt weak and dizzy as he pulled out of the fight. He saw the major’s ship stagger drunkenly toward earth. Suddenly, the whole sky seemed to explode near the major’s ship. They were within range of German antiaircraft guns. Puffs of blue-and-white smoke appeared around oO MICLOO© CO S (C©