Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... PART III "PER ARDUA AD ASTRA" APRIL, 1916, TO JUNE, 1917 /EORGE DEVENISH'S service in the Royal Flying Corps began in April, 1916, and ended on the 6th of June, 1917. During the first four months of that time he was acting as artillery observer, in France, after which he was sent home to be trained as a pilot. It is tempting to give all his letters of this period, but the following passages must suffice: --1916. April 2jth. "Glorious day. I went to the range with the Lewis gun in the morning; in the evening went up for a joy ride to get my bearings of the country from a new point of view. "I spotted the--th Brigade, but after that very soon lost my bearings. It is very difficult to find one's way at first. "It was two years since I had last been up." April 2()th. "Another glorious day. I went up for a joy ride again in the evening, and this time kept my bearings much better." May igth. "We had quite an exciting time to-day. We were having a long-distance shoot, escorted by two fighting machines. "We spent an hour getting height round about the aerodrome, and then started off in formation over the lines. "Archy, of course, at once got to work, but was not very patent at first. "Well, we flew out over the place, and fired three shots, but could observe none of them, for some reason or other. Then, suddenly, a Fokker shot along a short way below us, loosing ofF at us as he passed. We immediately did a sharp turn, and I opened fire on him as he was going away from us. He thereupon dived down steeply, and went off. Later, we saw him dive at one of the other machines (being fired at hard by them) and go straight on down, where I lost sight of him. L, however, saw him loop twice sideways, and end in a spinning nose-dive. "The next thing that...
