GERMAN AVIATOR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2378, 6 February 1915, Page 7

GERMAN AVIATOR

BODY FOUND BY FISHERMEN (Rec. February 6, 0.45 a.m.) London, February 5. Fishermen discovered the body of the German aviator cabled on Christmas Day, near the Thames Estuary with a shrapnel bullet in his lung. The message cabled 011 Christmas Day was as. follows:—Aided by fog. a German aviator eluded fche coast-wateh-ers» Passed up the Thames as far as Erith. -He was first sighted at 12.35 p.m. over Sheppey Height at nine thousand feet. As he descended an anti-air gun was fired, but without effect. The enemy was then lost in the fog. Three British- aeroplanes started iu pursuit, but the German had made across the Kentish marshes. Before he was ■ located at Erith flying towards London, sis. shells were fired by an aircraft station, and hurst above and around the machine, which wheeled upwards, aud retraced its flight. Within a few minutes a Britisher, flying from ■the westwards, pursued at a lower altitude. Tho German followed} the centre of tho river at an altitude of four thousand feet. The Britishers appeared to gain on tho German, who mounted higher, and above the forts swept towards Southend. , The chase continued across Esses. The firing from the fort*, was restricted owing to the proximity of our own aviators to the enemy. The latter and' the passengers kept firing, and skilfully manipulated, the machine, while minimising the chances of being hit, made it difficult for the pursuers to fire without injuring each other. The German rocked violently at times as if struck Then the fog thickened, and baffled the' pursuers, who returned to their base;