It was a sunny day when we left the ground, and rose up in great circles over the huddled red roofs of Dunkerque, and the pink-and-white seaside suburb of Malo-les-Bains.
The leading machines started to fly down the coast towards the lines before we had gained any height at all. Our engines were running badly, and we were well below the other machines, so the pilot asked me what I thought.
"Leave it to you!" I said--one half of me whispering "Go back!" the other half whispering "Push on!"
"Well, I"ll see!" he said, as he pulled back the control wheel almost as far as he dared without "stalling" the machine. The engines complained; the finger of the speed indicator wobbled undecidedly about 48 miles an hour, and the height indicator slowly moved to 4000 feet.
So we pa.s.sed over La Panne, as the two leaders flew bravely along the coast soaring upwards like swallows, while we followed gamely but ign.o.bly behind. When we could distinctly see the Nieuport piers and the Belgian Hoods stretching down towards Dixmude, the leader turned out to sea. Then to our joy he evidently realised our plight, for instead of flying on at an angle away from the coast, he swept round in a big circle to give us a chance to rise up to his level. Then he turned once more out to sea, the second machine followed him, and we, still many hundred feet below them, straggled behind.
Above us now flew, gleaming white against the blue afternoon sky, several triplanes, whose flashing wings brought us their message of protection. The outlook did not seem so bad after all. The pilot, in a red silk pirate cap with its ta.s.sel blown out by the wind, looked down at me smiling. I wore a blue silk cap and was wearing an ordinary overcoat and a m.u.f.fler, and my thin walking shoes looked very silly hanging a few inches off the floor in that great machine. The sunlight came streaming into the c.o.c.kpit, the sea glittered with a friendly s.p.a.ciousness beneath us, and this voyage in the wind seemed a pleasant spring adventure far from the dangers of war.
We steadily drew away from the coast, whose misty outline lay some way below us to our right. When we were abreast of the Nieuport piers, and were about to cross into enemy waters, we could scarcely see more than the edge of the sh.o.r.e and a mile or so of country inland.
When we had flown on for a few minutes more, I heard a sudden loud crash. At once I looked to the engine to see if its indicators gave hint of trouble. They were quite normal. Then I looked back and saw, through the square framework of the tail, a cloud of smoke.
I turned quickly to the pilot and shouted, "We"re being sh.e.l.led!"
He looked back, and turned to me dubiously.
"What the blazes is it? It can"t be the Westende guns--we"re too far from the coast!"
Then I saw below me three or four sh.e.l.l-bursts leaping out near the water, not far from two destroyers which were lying below us, small and slim lines of black on the sparkle of the sea.
"I can"t make it out!" he said. "It"s very rum. Let"s push on!"
Some way ahead of us rose and fell the dark outlines of the two other Handley-Pages, and we could notice that curious optical delusion of the air, the apparently slow revolution of their propellers, blade after blade appearing to go round in a jerky fashion, though in reality they were whirling invisibly at a speed of 1600 revolutions a minute, or even more. The only explanation of this spectacle, which can often be seen by an airman, is that the vibrations of his machine affect his eyes like the rapid shutters of a cinema camera, and he has continual momentary glances of the propeller in a fixed position.
Soon we were abreast of Ostend, and we could see the inland lake of its Ba.s.sin de Cha.s.se lying beyond the edge of the coast. We pa.s.sed Ostend, and far ahead of me to my right I could see the curve of the Zeebrugge Mole, very small and dim in the distant haze.
I scanned the sea with my eyes, looking in vain for submarines or destroyers or seaplanes. No mark of any kind broke the shining surface of the water. Now and then a triplane or a "D.H._{4}," flying on some coastwise expedition, slid up to us and dived down past us, or flew a hundred feet above our heads, showing its distinguishing letters and its red, white, and blue c.o.c.kade. The pilot sat beside me, his huge body almost half out of the machine, his aquiline nose and p.r.o.nounced chin driving firmly through the rush of the wind, which flapped and fluttered our silk caps; the sunlight shone with the pale gold of spring across our shoulders and arms, and though I was ten miles out to sea in a land machine off an enemy sh.o.r.e, I felt curiously safe, curiously unafraid.
The sea seemed to be a safeguard. Little did I know that I was pa.s.sing over the scene of my midnight tragedy a year later, when I was to regard the sea in a different aspect--when I was to learn by a bitter lesson its pitiless power.
The machines in front of us swung round to return. We swung round too, to give ourselves a chance of gaining height before we were pa.s.sed. This was not needed, for to our amus.e.m.e.nt we saw that whereas, as was only natural, the other machines had flown up the coast with their nose well in air, climbing steadily, now they were returning homewards with their noses well down, getting out of the danger zone (and it _was_ a danger zone for a slow c.u.mbersome Handley-Page) as quickly as possible.
They pa.s.sed nearly a thousand feet beneath us, and this time we followed them easily. When we were almost abreast of the Nieuport piers once more I suddenly saw a little puff of hard black smoke appear in the air in front of us. Its clean-cut outlines grew less distinct and more hazy as it spread and grew thinner. Another puff appeared near it and a little above it, and in turn began to enlarge and dissipate.
"Why! They"re sh.e.l.ling us!" exclaimed my pilot.
I looked below. There lay the two destroyers steaming slowly in circles.
"I believe it"s those confounded destroyers!" I said. "They must be British too, off here. Can"t they see our marks, blame fools?"
Two or three more sh.e.l.ls appeared between us and our two companions, who were now going round and round in circles evidently very mystified. It looked so amusing that we could not help laughing, now that the fire was not meant for us. Then the sh.e.l.ls came over to us again. It was a curious sight. You would look out into the blue sky and the mist-bound coast, and suddenly, in absolute silence (for the roar of our engines deafened us), would appear, out of nothing, a perfectly hard outline, looking as solid as a piece of coal or a crumpled top-hat.
There it would appear in a second of time and would hang in they sky--an apparent mockery of gravity. Its outline would flux and change, it would writhe and roll round into an ever larger expanse of vapour, its edge would grow soft and more ragged, and in a few minutes it would be a little cloud of haze and nothing more.
Suddenly the pilot exclaimed, "It _is_ them, the swine, I saw them fire!" and impetuously threw round the wheel and pushed forward the rudder. The machine swung round at a tremendous pace, and a most curious incident occurred. Ahead of us were the two machines, some way below us, with their noses pointing downwards. Now to our amazement we saw them mount up, up, up, into the sky, with their tails down as though they were climbing furiously, and then the coast shot round and rose up into the sky as well.
In the midst of this mad inversion of the universe the pilot turned to me and calmly said--
"What the blazes has happened, Paul--it looks all wrong? What shall I do?"
"Shove her nose down, old man!" I said. "It looks mighty rum to me--but we"ll get out somehow!"
The universe swept round us again, the coast fell down, the Handley-Pages dropped below us with their noses towards the sea. The pilot looked at me, I looked at him.
"What on earth was that?" he said.
"Must have been jolly nearly upside down!" I suggested, feeling a bit dazed.
The memory of that brief and mystified conversation, as we sat side by side in a machine which had a.s.sumed some incomprehensible position, has remained in my memory as one of the strangest moments I have known.
The sh.e.l.ls still burst near us and the pilot got annoyed.
"Let"s drop our stuff on them! Get in the back! They can"t be British.
They must be able to see our marks. We"re only seven thousand."
"Well! What about the leader? We daren"t do it unless he does--we"ll get in a thundering row. Anyway they are just off our coast!"
The leading machines still flew round undecidedly. The destroyers below still fired their occasional sh.e.l.ls. One burst rather near us.
"I"ll bomb them and chance it--the swine!" said the pilot, "You get in the back!"
"All right, you take the responsibility!" I said, and climbed into the back of the machine and lay on the floor under his seat. I pulled open the sliding-door and a burst of wind came blowing up on my face. Below me lay a little square of sea, on which I could see no destroyer, but I could tell by the way it was racing under us that we were doing a steep turn.
Still the two little black shapes of the destroyers did not come into the frame of the picture. I put my head out below the machine and looked for them. I could not see them. If I had I was determined to drop my bombs on them whatever they were.
I hurriedly got back beside the pilot and asked him what he was doing.
"I decided not to touch them, old man! I want to bomb them--whatever they may be. Anyway the leader"s gone off--we better follow."
Some way ahead of us were the two other machines flying homewards. We toiled on behind them, receiving a few parting sh.e.l.l-bursts as a farewell. Out to sea we flew till we were off Dunkerque, and then we turned in towards the coast. We pa.s.sed over the crowded docks, and over the brown roofs of the town, gliding down with our engines throttled back, when suddenly I looked to the left and saw that one of the propellers had stopped dead. My heart jumped into my throat, and I took the pilot by the arm.
He looked round and told me to get into the back in order to try to start up the engine. I hurried into the little canvas-walled room and gripped the metal starting-handle, and tried to turn it again and again in vain. The sweat poured off my forehead, my arm ached, but I could do nothing. It would not move.
I got back to the pilot, and told him.
"All right!" he said. "I"ll land her somehow!"
We were getting near the aerodrome, on which, to my great relief, a machine was "taxying" towards the hangars. It was a relief to see that the aerodrome was clear, because, with no motive-power to take us off the ground again, or to swing us round in a hurry, we should be helpless if we were to land when some other machine was in the way, and we had to land at once. So, as we faced the wind, and I saw the pilot very wisely stop the other engine, I felt rather anxious, and hoped it was going to be all right. If we "undershot," we might land on a shed or a hedge; if we "overshot," we might run into a ditch--there would be no means of preventing the calamity. The pilot must have perfect judgment, and must touch the ground at the right moment.
So I sat beside him, very tense and on the alert, longing to give my advice, but knowing it was best to keep silent, even if I thought he was wrong, lest I should confuse his judgment.
Knowing he was probably feeling the strain of responsibility, since four other lives than his own depended on his skill, I just gripped his arm and said--
"Priceless ... priceless ... we"re going to do a topping landing...."
To the right we swung, and then to the left, as we did an "S" turn, to lessen our gliding distance.
"Ripping, old man! We"ll just--do--it--nicely.... Hardly a b.u.mp!...