Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr., '15, of Cambridge, a second lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, according to word which has just been received in a letter written by him from France, brought down his first German airplane on December 16. The exact sector in which he was engaged is not known. The despatch states that he got so near to the enemy plane that he could see the red cheeks of his Boche enemy, a shot from his machine fun sending a bullet through the German's head. The Boche was a man of great reputation in the Allied camps because of the daring piloting he had done in many close encounters and the destruction done to French and English machines. He was credited with having shot down 16 Allied aviators.

The letter also states that Magoun and two other of his fellow airmen also took part two days before in an engagement with six Boches, which had the unusual duration of five minutes. At the end of the fight the Germans were compelled to withdraw.

In the early part of the war Magoun left College to drive an ambulance on the French front at Verdun and Champagne. He remained in that service for some time, but returned to College. He stayed here until last February, when he went to England and enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps.