Cocks letter diary, 1916-1919 / Verner Cocks - Page 399
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[Page 399]
6.
gives so we actually saw the observer look over the side & drop three bombs on them, quite casual.
One of his planes came over the other evening & brought down two of our balloons in flames. The observers just hop out from the basket 5000 or 6000 feet up & drop 50 feet when the parachute strapped to their backs opens out & they sail down quite safely. Sometimes the enemy machine also has a smack at the observers in mid air but he is generally content with the balloon & skittles back for his life amidst a hail of schrapnel & H.E. & before our machines get him. Of course he always picks a time when none of our machines are about - generally at dusk - to run the gauntlet. The game of bringing down balloons is not worth the candle because another balloon goes up in the first one's place in a couple of hours.
Our squad got shipped from