GERMAN AIRMEN BROUGHT DOWN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2458, 11 May 1915, Page 7

GERMAN AIRMEN BROUGHT DOWN

A WOOLWICH GUNNER'S FINE I MARKSMANSHIP. £ Northern Franoe, March 22. t The week-end 'activities of the Ger- o man airmen seem to have spread over t a widely extended front, but nowhere b have they acheived anything in the r shape of a success. Indeed, two of the o invading aircraft came badly to grief. The first of these flew over Lille, paid a call at Armentieres, sropped a bomb vl w '^- 1 V6r J' bad aim, and then had i the impertinence to try a spell of eaves- ; dropping over our cavalry camp at . i It flew just a trifle too low; a threepounder shell burst over it, broke its ? wing, and down it came with a smash. It was a very neat bag—the third aerial ? record to one smart gunner of the ; R.F.A. (Woolwich). 1 _ Yesterday another Taube suffered a a similar fate. For an hour and a half it shadowed a hospital train bound for ? the base. Sentries and guards all along '' the line amused themselves by taking ? pot-shots at it, but the pilot, who seem- *■ ed to be a bit of a wag in his way, kept e on signalling misses as coolly as a Bis- 0 ley range marker. But at last one of 11 our marksmen got one in. He fired and 11 watched for the signal. None came; a but in a second or two it was patent r to the interested observers down below 6 that something had gone wrong with I the bird. . The machine "bolted," then o performed a few drunken dances in the e air, and dived sideways, turned half over, and fell to the earth with a tre- s mendous smash! The airman was pick- s «d out of the wreckago with a bullet b hole in his head. A number of nurses t in the Red Cross watched this enthrall- i] ing drama from beginning to end. o ■ 5