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^[[22]]    November 28, 1973

Dear Alice:

The observers of the 88th went to Cazaux three at a time.  I was sent with the first trio.  Our pilots never had any special training in gunnery, for it would have been all but useless.  Each pilot had on his plane a Vickers machine gun geared to shoot through the propeller.  He could have two if he wanted them, and some of our pilots did.  But the pilot fired those guns only if he decided to dive and shoot at something on the ground.  He never got an opportunity to shoot at a German plane.

That was because an observation plane fought only to defend itself.  When we passed near German observation planes, as we sometimes did, both parties went about their business.  We fought only German chasse.  It was always they who attacked us, and never singly.  By 1918 chasse pilots no longer roamed around alone seeking adventure.  What happened was that the leader of a formation would dive from above and behind us, opening fire when he got with 100 yards or so and keeping it up until he had to turn away to avoid running into us.  If he missed a second started his dive to cover the getaway of the first.  Still a third would be waiting his turn, and so on.  None of them ever passed in front of us to give the observation pilot a shot.  Only the observer could fight back.  His main worries, aside from being hit, were (1) that one or both his guns might jam, (2) that his magazines might become empty while the attack was still going on.  He carried reserve magazines, but it took a few seconds to change them and the Boche could get in some free shots during that time.

The observer had two British-made Lewis machine guns (a type now obsolete) fixed rigidly side by side about a foot apart.  The machine guns you see in the movies nowadays have cartridges fed to them from a belt.  The Vickers gun used belts, but the Lewis did not.  Cartridges were fed into it from a round metal magazine or drum that fitted on top of the gun.  Each drum held 100 rounds.  Both guns were controlled from the firing handle or pistol grip of one.  You could at will fire the right gun, the left, or both.  If an observer panicked at the beginning of a fight he was likely to fire both guns continuously at the first attacker and find them empty when the next one dived.  The right course was to fire one gun at a time in short bursts of half a dozen rounds or so, then re-aim before firing again.