Item 02: John Herbert Butler correspondence, 1914-1920 - Page 64

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[Page 64]

& they all followed me down. But half way down Jack Potts had exactly the same trouble as I had. So we both landed. Murray Jones landed alongside me & picked me up, & Peter Drummond landed alongside Potts & picked him up. Bill Dowd circled overhead & machine gunned a few Bedouins who were hopping around. Of course Potts & I both had to straddle the engine-cowl (a warm ride) & hung on to anything hangable. With a "60 mile and hour" wind trying to blow us off. We did'nt burn our machine before we left because we thought we might be able to come back with petrol, & save them, but "Jacko" Turk saved us the trouble & burned them as soon as we left.

Well as you see we lost 5 machines out of the 8, but all the pilots got safely back. We had done nearly 4 hours of flying when my engine stopped.

Well I've had plenty of exciting times since. That is:- we always get "H.E." (high explosive) thrown up at us by the Turk's "Archies" when we do our "recco." over their lines which is every day. But sometimes one will fly for 3 weeks, about every third day & never get shot at. I have had one small

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