Item 02: Leslie Kemnitz Stuart diary, 4 March-28 December 1916 - Page 173
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[Page 173]
[Friday 9 June]
Our artillery is proving daily its superiority over the Germans. At about midday we gave their trenches opposite the salient a terrible pasting to which they replied with only a few guns.
In the afternoon 5 of our aeroplanes started to go over the German lines to direct our artillery fire but they got a very hot time of it. First of all they were met with a veritable storm of shrapnel which they faced without a turn. On the heels of the shrapnel came a "Fokkar", one of the Germans fastest battle planes. As our chaps were only recconoitering [reconnoitring] planes they were no match for the Hun who carried a machine gun. Besides this he was half as fast again as ours, he singled one chap out. it was like a falcon after a pigeon. He got above it & dived down on it pouring out a stream of machine gun bullets, we all thought he was gone. I don't know how he escaped but he kept going & eventually reached our own lines. The Fokkar then made off.