DESCRIBES AERIAL SHOOTING

The following letter has been received from Robert Lowell Moore '18, who is in the aerial service of the American Expeditionary Forces:

"I have never had such a good time since I came into the Army as the last five days. This is a magnificent school on a perfectly beautiful lake, and each time we go up we can look across the neck to the tall yellow sand-dunes on the shore of the gray Atlantic. The shooting from the plane is wonderful fun, and soon we are to shoot at targets towed behind other machines. The morale of the place is splendid, no roll-calls or formations or guards or drill, yet everything goes smoothly and everyone here is happy.

"We leave the hotel at half past six and the trip down here takes about an hour. We have a lecture then, or fly if the weather is good till lunch-time, which is 10 o'clock for us. This morning we shot at the little balloons, two metres in diameter. This afternoon we do controlled shooting, that is we shoot one hundred cartridges at the balloon and then it is pulled down and the number of hits counted. Those who do well on their shooting get permissions after the course.

"This morning it was rainy and we had only a lecture. The lectures are very good, explaining the different sights used on guns to allow automatically for target deflection and shooter's deflection. They have very ingenious ways of doing it. Yesterday afternoon we shot at the little captive balloons. It is very good fun indeed. You dive at the balloon and when the sights are in line shoot. One of the fellows didn't redress in time and ran into one of the balloons. It burst and spread out on his wires, making a great sail, which started to turn his machine and all the controls on the opposite side would barely hold the machine straight. He had to land with the wind and turned over, but did not get hurt.

"We flew till 11 o'clock and then went back to A--. I had one flight with P. R. We went up for combat work. It was certainly interesting, to say the least. Each of us tried to get into position where he could shoot the other. I would see him coming, for instance, and just as he got in range, perhaps 400 yards, and above and behind me in good position for him, I would try to turn sharply under him and after he passed above make a renversement and be behind him and under his tail. A machine cannot see another if it be directly below him, while the one below can easily watch the one above. Once behind the other fellow, you try to follow him in all his turns. When you try to make quick turns and don't get them just right the machine assumes the most weird positions. You may see your opponent apparently stationary and exactly upside down. The earth may be over your head or off to one side; it is most uncomfortable sometimes.

"This morning I went up again to shoot but the other machine had trouble and did not get up. I had a nice little joy ride. The country is beautiful from 5,000 feet. With the school below you, you see the lakes and woods and only a few miles off the ocean and Bay of A--. It makes one want to head west and start right across. You see the line of breakers and the sand-bars and dunes.

"This morning at 10 o'clock one section went to lunch while the other section in which I was (eight of us) stayed to fly till 12. It had become cloudy and when I went up I had to climb through one stratum of clouds to where the target was being towed, at 1,200 metres. It was an extraordinarily fine sight. Above this cloud floor it was clear and bright. The clouds looked very solid like great snowdrifts, with crevices, through which one could see the ground far below and peaks and domes rising above the others. The machine would skip over the cloud floor jumping the pits and cutting through or hopping over the peaks. Then when I had done my shooting a great plunge through a hole brought me out below them.

"I had a fight this afternoon with a young French officer and managed to stay on his tail most of the time. He wasn't so good as some of the others. You do things you never could imagine and go tumbling about without knowing much of the time where the earth is at all. Two fellows who are pretty good will usually get started by approaching each other in opposite directions and as they pass try to get on each other's tail. They may go round and round for ten turns like a cat chasing its tail till the one who can make the sharpest turn succeeds in getting behind the other. Then the first one to get out of the way, may do a renversement or half turn of a vrille and the second will try to do the same thing to keep still on his tail. Then the first will make a zoom or another turn if he can before the second has completed his and so it goes. I get seasick after a while."