But
his notebook only contains statements of facts, and we have to turn to
his correspondence for more details.
"Decidedly," he wrote on June 17 to his sister Odette, "the Boches have
quite a special affection for me, and the parts of my '_coucou_' serve
me for a calendar. Yesterday we flew over Chauny, Tergnier, Laon, Coucy,
Soissons. Up to Chauny my observer had counted 243 shells; Coucy shot
500 to 600; my observer estimated 1000 shots in all. All we heard was a
rolling sound, and then the shells burst everywhere, below us, above, in
front, behind, on the right and on the left, for we descended to take
some photographs of a place which they did not want us to see. We could
hear the shell-fragments whistling past; there was one that, after
piercing the wing, passed within the radius of the propeller without
touching it, and then to within fifty centimeters of my face; another
entered by the same hole but stayed there, and I will send it to you.
Fragments also struck the rudder, and one the body." (His journal
mentions more.) "My observer, who has been an observer from the
beginning, says that he never saw a cannonade like that one, and that he
was glad to get back again.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98