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Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944

"Paths of Glory Impressions of War Written at and Near the Front"

Another smoke flower
unfolded in the heavens, somewhat below the darting airship.
Both guns were in action now. Each fired at six-second intervals. All
about the flitting target the smokeballs burst--above it, below it, to
this side of it and to that. They polka-dotted the heavens in the area
through which the Frenchman scudded. They looked like a bed of white
water lilies and he like a black dragonfly skimming among the lilies.
It was a pretty sight and as thrilling a one as I have ever seen.
I cannot analyze my emotions as I viewed the spectacle, let alone try to
set them down on paper. Alongside of this, big-game hunting was a
commonplace thing, for this was big-game hunting of a magnificent kind,
new to the world--revolving cannon, with a range of from seven to eight
thousand feet, trying to bring down a human being out of the very
clouds.
He ran for his life. Once I thought they had him. A shell burst
seemingly quite close to him, and his machine dipped far to one side and
dropped through space at that angle for some hundreds of feet
apparently.


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