Item 02: John Herbert Butler correspondence, 1914-1920 - Page 62

[Page 62]

¼ hour bombing, & then turned back. We bombed at a height of 3000ft. Jerusalem is a lovely city by the way, & I'm glad we did'nt have to bomb that.

We had got over half way back when Brown's engine gave out, & he had to make a forced landing. We were still well over enemy country. Austin followed Brown down to pick him up in his (Austin's) machine. Cole followed them both down to any help & keep any enemy off with his machine gun. We all had a machine gun each on our planes. The rest of us after circling around them a few times went on homewards.

Well it happened that Austin picked up Brown allright after Brown had set fire to his own plane, & they got away with King Cole following them in the Martinsyde (Martinsydes are single seaters. BE2Es 2 seaters)

They had'nt gone more than about 10 miles when Austin's machine "Konked out" (engine) So he had a forced landing with Brown, in bad country (i.e. rough & uneven for landing – still enemy country) Cole came down & landed along of them. Austin's engine had "siezed up" & was out of action. So there they were – 3 pilots; & one Single seater machine still good. Then they were