DRAMATIC FIGHT IN THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3102, 5 June 1917, Page 6

DRAMATIC FIGHT IN THE AIR

BOCHE 'PLANE ATTACKS A BRITISH "SAUSAGE" THRILLING SCENE _ (Prom Malcolm "Ross, War Correspondent with tho New Zealand Forces in the Field.) Northern France, April (i. We were just sitting down to lunch when we heard the firing of a machinegun. The noise came from tho fiky, not from tho earth. It sounded something like a motor-cycle travelling in. the air. Used as we are to strangesounds, thero is still something uncanny in hearing the crackle of a machine-gun coming from the sky. Generally it means a fight between two pianos. And there is nothing-that ie more enthralling than a fight in the air with all its attendant possibilities. Everyone who hears the gun looks up to see what ia happening or what is likely to happen. A thousand pairs of eyes along that particular bit of front will be straining skyward. So now we all crowded to the mess-room door, leaving the food untouched on the table. Not far off, swaying ever eo slightly against tho bluo or the brightness of a- slowly-passing cloud, ugly, dark, and sinister, was one of our big "sausage" balloons. They look like nothing on earth, these balloons, except when they are end on, ami then they look sometimes like a pig and sometimes like an elephant. As we watched the rattle of. the machine-gun continued to come in short bursts, and, following the direction of the sound with our, eyes, we soon saw, not very high a.bove the balloon, a plane—a Bocno plane.

A week before we bad seen the birdman attack this same balloou. Ho had dived at it out at a cloud, and had set his machine-gun going, but all to no pur. pose. The two men in the swaying basket had got out their parachutes. They had flung themselves into space. That sort, of thing must giro one a strange sensation the first time ono attempts it, even when there is no lnaohine-gun maliciously' potting at you from the sky. One's first thought must surely be whether the flimsy silk is going to open out or not, and, if it does, whether it will drift into your own or the enemy's lines.

Once at Armentieres we watched a balloonist who had to truet his life to his .parachute coming down through four or five-hundred feet of space with never a sign of its opening. Ono can imagine his feelings during those first awful momenta, j Something of tjje sensation, no doubt, comes to one in dreams when ono is falling down, down, down from the top of some high precipice, and wakes with a etart, still imagining the dream a reality.

On this occasion ire watched the two bags of whitish grey silk bulge quickly, nnd, in company, drift away in the light south-west wind, falling slowly as they drifted to Mother Earth. Meantime the men at the winch were busy hauling down the big balloon. It also got safely to earth. The German liawk was despoiled of his English, piey. But this day, looking from our messroom door, when the Boche Bird Man came again, we saw that ho was a bravo fellow. "With grim determination he had come swooping down from the height at which he had crossed our linc3, and flying low above tho level lands of Flanders, lie made direct for the balloon—a couple of hundred feet or so above it. Tat! -tat! tat! went, the machine-gun as ho flew over, and then, with a graceful bank and curve that showed a side gleaming in the sunlight, he attacked again. Meantime our anti-air guns were banging and peppering the sky with fleecy ehrapael putts, and the two inon. in the cago had grabbed their parachutes and taken, the bold leap into space that meant for them life or death. They had taken it none too soon. Once-more we eaw tho Bilk distend into two little oblong clouds that fell as slowly and as silently as snowflakes fall on a still day. .The Boolie, bravely daring, mado after.' them with his machine-gun tat, tat, ,€atting> more earnestly than before. But, again, the hawk had missed his prey. The two balloonists came safely down. Greatly daring, still, the airman climbed amid tho shrapnel, circled round again, and as he passed over the now tenantlcs3 balloon renewed hie fire with incendiary lullets. The winch was now going, and the balloon began to come down. The bird man had hidden for a few moments 'in a cloud, and out of this he came a second and third time, his gun spitefully spitting. On tho third swoop we saw a few fingers of red flame shoot forth frjjsi the top of the envelope. Theso gradually grew and crept lower, till, in less time than it takes to type it, the gas was alight, and the whole thing was a great mass of falling flame. It fell quickly now, leaving a long pillar of black smoke in the air as it descended. Very slowly this drifted away and vanished in the ether Then the enemy, noting the result of his handiwork, circled round and n-ade for home. Eβ had learnt, rather late it ia true, the trick we had taught him at the beginning of the great Sonime offensive. As he made off* pursued by i three or four of our own" planes that had come up, and with our guns still sprinkling the eky with shrapnel, we went back to lunch. "Tres bon," said one of -the clerks who had come out to witjiess the encounter and now nonchalantly turned .and went back to their work. For a minute we watched the smoke disappearing in the void, and returned to our meal. Now that our men were safe we did not grudge the Boche lite prize so bravely won. Later in the day we learnt that Ihe German had been hit, and had, crashed to earth behind his own lines. ' Ono of our field guns completed the destruction of his mni-niiie. which l.nr?t into flames. So, after all, we had scored the winning trick. We were minus oiio balloon, but we were one airman and one plane to the good, .-.,