THRILLING EXPLOIT OF BAY STATE AIRMAN
NORTH ADAMS, Nov. 17.—A dash over the German lines near Ypres, a dip almost to the housetops, "strafing" of some German army vehicles, the bombing of a gun crew, a thrilling encounter with a German aviator, in which the latter was brought down, and the final escape through a rain of bullets which missed by inches, are the outstanding features of a letter which was written by
Alexander Hewat, son of Mr. and Mrs. R. A. J. Hewat of Briggsville, received yesterday.
The young man is a member of the Royal Flying corps, having gone from this city to join about a year ago. He has been flying for about a month. He states that he and a chum went up early in the morning, after a rainstorm. They flew over Ypres and back of the German lines. Hewat was in the lead and he dropped down to within 300 feet of a German gun crew and fired 300 rounds into them. As they flew away Hewat sighted a Boche airplane and started after it. He fired at it until his machine gun choked and then the Boche got after him and wrecked the sights of his gun, broke his windshield and wounded him.
He guided his machine back to the English lines just as the Boche fell to the earth. The young man is now recovering in the hospital, and has foreign bodies in his forehead, cheek , nose and upper lip. He closed his letter with the statement that during the three nights that he has been in London, "previous to Oct. 31," he had been hauled out of bed on account of air raids.
The Lowell Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts) - Saturday, November 17, 1917
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