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FIGHTING A GOTHA OVER LONDON

: THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF AMERICAN ;. AIRMAN } BATTLE 15,000 FEET ABOVE ' THE CITY : {By Arthur D. Howden Smith in the ; New York "Evening Post.") ; The first definite description of the I measures taken by tho Untish authori ities for the defence of London against ■ German air raids was given recently by Sergeant-Pilot Dean Ivan Lamb, for- \ merly of the Thirteenth Squadron, ' • Royal Flying Corps, and the Nine- • teenth Ilos,ervc Squadron, lioyal Flying Corps, who shot downa German Gotha over Hainault Forest in the great raid of July 7 and two minutes later was shot down himself, with his gunner dead, and tho toes stipped off his own right foot. Lamb is an American boy from Canton, Oregon, U.S.A., and after this experience, ho got his discharge in ■ order that he might come home arid servo'his own country. ; Until last spring Lamb was a mem- . Jber of the-Thirteenth Squadron of tho ; Royal Flying Corps, stationed on the ' (Western front in France, one of tho few non-commissioned pilots in the British. Army. He was.given the Chance to fly by his flight commander, an Australian officer, who did not share tho common Britislrprejudice against noncommissioned pilots. According to ' : Lamb, he was offered a commission conriit:onal on his statjnc ths, , .. he was a • Canadian, but ho declined to foreswear allegiance to his" own country. After sixteen months of bitter fighting in France, in the course of which tho personnel of his squadroin was replaced several times he began, to feel tho ef- : fects of the tremendous nervous and physical strain, and wrisdetailodto the ; Nineteenth Reserve Squadron, a part of the air forces assigned to tlie defence of London.

Life a Matter of Hours. "The life oi an.uir x pilot on the West front used to v dverajjo 200 hours of flying," he explained simply. "Now it. is only about fifty to sixty hours.' In the first thirty days of the last spring offenSivo all the'; pilots and observers of my old squadron in Vrance went oiit —dead; wounded, iiiissing,' or- broken from shock and exhaustion." ; Speaking of the measures taken for the defence of London. Lamb said: ■ "The headquarters of the central authority of the Air Board is' Adastral House, on the Thames Embankment. There are about twenty aerodromes 6cattered about the outskirts of tho city. Each of these aerodromes keeps a machine in the air all the timej night and day, the machines working in shifts of about two or three hours each. A pilot goes up and stays up until ho sees another machine with the number of his station on it. Then he knows he is' relieved and can come down. Early in the summer, when I' was in London, most of the machines on tho 'patrol were the old BE 12s, 140 horsepower single-seaters, with one synchronized gun, and a speed of seventy-five to eighty miles an hour. They were nothing but death-traps against fast, powerful German machines like the Gothas.

"I flew a DH 4 over London. They are very good fighting 'machines, but they are too ■ fast to fly at night. You cannot make a safe landing in the dark going at such a speed. For niglit flying the BE 12s are ideal, only, as I said, they haven't a chance against a machine like'the Gotha. My DH 4 was the only plane.of that type that I saw, up on July 7, the date of ray last fight, but ,1 dare say they have added more fast machines to the patrol since then.

Cerman Cotha Very Dangerous. "The Gotha is a very dangerous invention. The Germans adapted it, with ' improvements, from a British Handley'Page machine, that came down in" the Lille aerodrome in May, 1916, thinking that it was behind the Allied lines. Tho Gothas in use this slimmer had a wing spread of about eighty-seven feet. They carried two; Mercedes engines, each of 310 horse power, driving two pusher propellers. In this respect they differed from tiie Handley-l'age and most other machines which aro trac. tors. The Gotha carries three jneii and threo guns, besides 800 pounds ot bombs. They ■'can do about eighty miles an hour. their fusillages have been' built semi-armoured, and the pilots have yfarn body armour and eteel helmets thick enoug'h to ward oft shrapnel. Their distinguishing characteristic, though, is , a gun-tunnel behind, which enables them to fire not only behind, but underneath. When I tackled . the Gothas over London on July 7 I did Jiot know about this gun-tunnel, and it was the cause, of my undoing. "The way they work it in the London aerodromes there are a certain . number of machines detailed for duty in the air eachrday," and a certain number in reserye',"aH-ready to go on duty. These machines held in reserve must not be used until ordered out, except that the engines must be started in the morning to warm them up. Their ,tanks arc filled; they have cart-ridge-belts adjusted to their kuiis, anu spare ammunition on board. The flyiny clothes of tho crews must Ue 'hanging on the fusillage, and the pijots and gunners must be at hand all day. All you have to do to go into tho air is , to start you engine and have the mechanics, remove the chocks from tho wheels.

"On the morning of July 7, about 10.45 o'clock, we got the usual preliminary warning bulletin from Adastral House: " "Take" air-raid action and notify all machines in air.' "That means to place a large H in the centre of the aerddrome a signal to the unarmed training machines that may ho up to come down within 3000 feet of the ground, and be prepared to take cover in case the Germans should appear. /'When we got that message I called my gunner, -Dave Low, a Scotsman, and we slipped into our riving clothes and climbed Into the fusillage of tho Tjus. Presently the major came running tin from the office at the end of tha field and handed me the second iiiessnitp. It read: ■ " 'Large formation hostile aircraft reported from East Coast.' \ "'There you are. boy.' said the major, as I handed it back lo him. 'You are to lly to Hendon for further instructions.' '"Is that all?' I asked. " 'Yes,' says ho. 'Co up and he a hero. Good hick!'

All in the Day's Work, "It was all in tlie day's work, you know, and nobody said anything. The mechanics drew out the chocks, and I taxied across the field, got my start, and rose to 500 feet. I reached Hendon about five minutes later, and came down in the field. The orderly officer was waiting for me, and ran out io meet the machine. " 'All wo can tell you,' he said, 'is 'that the enemy was flying high. It is advisable to climb straight up and a bit to the east. Good luck, boy..' "Just as my propeller began to hum again I heard some fool close by yell: yer fayourito flower, Bill?' "I climbed straight up, and, believe mo, you can climb some with those Dβ Haviland machines. ~\Vo never spiralled; we went straight. I reached 10,000 feet in ten minutes, and kept en to 15,000 feet, making that altitude fifteen minutes Liter. Oiice we had got

our altitude, Low unbuckled Ids belt and stood up to get tlio view. It's a funny thing, by the way, but there's a sort of telepathic connection between •eho men on' a bus. ll' the pilot gets his 'wind up, , as they say—get's worried about anything—his. gunner will feol it, too. Well, Low sighted tho hostile machines off to the north-east, and he pointed them out to me. "I want to toll you tliat was a spectacle. I guoss you have seen the pictures the papers had of them after-wards—thirty-one Gothas in a big Vformation. Those pictures also showed three other machines by themselves off to the left. Well, those were BBl2's of the patrol, and they were .the only other British 'planes I saw, although others were up. They were coining tip as I was, hut they had no chance against tho Gothas, (because they couldn't go any faster, and they were under-gunned. The Gothas had three guns to their one, that is.

Germans Flew in V-Formailon. •'As soon as I saw -the Germans I bewail to climb again and rose to betwaen 17,000 and 18,000 feet. Low took off liis .heavy gloves, keeping on his thin undergloves so he could handle the Lewig, and wiped his goggles. That was , a peach oi it morning, ihero was tho regular London haze up to about 5000 feet, but on our level the sun was shining brightly, it was ck>ar and cold, and there were only a few thick clouds. Somewhere below 18,000 feat I altered my tailplane to horissontal, and steered a semi-circle around the oncoming mass of Gothas, aiming to go for the stragglers* They were travelling in a V, with the point of the wedge in the rear. 'Die front rank was at about 16,000 feet, and each rank behind was banked up 100 feet higher, in order to neutralise the effect of anti-aircraft fire from the ground. "There were four Gothas lagging behind all tho rest, and I made for the hindmost of these, diving on him from mi altitude at least 1000 yards aWfe him. I turned loose both my synchronised Vickers guns, that I worked with what wo call a 'joy-stick, , as weeanio within fifty yards of him. WhenJL was within twenty yards of his tail. hi; went into a 'spin' and 1 iurucd'to climb for the next Goth?.. As we were turning, Low emptied ,& diiira from his Lewis into the falling German.

"AH this happened a lot quicker than I am taking to tei! it. iu less tlian a, minute, I should say. 2 only tired about twenty-five rounds from each gun at that first cha?. When I climbed 500 foot-up, I divec for the second Gotha. I failed to -/-ju him, but as 1 swept' by about iifteca yards from his ailerons, 1 saw his forward gunuci either crawling hack among the fusilla'go or else wounded. Reiiiisiiig that I had failed this time, J did the best.thing 1 could think of. I made whist wo call an Immelniann turn—that famous German flyer invented it—which is to turn sharp to your left and downward with all speed on, and then come up behind the other man from underneath.

Death of Low. "I thought I'd get beneath his blind Bide if I attacked from beneath, for I didn't know then about the guntunnel in the rear of the Gothas. I had the surprise of my life as I came up to him when he opened ou me with a gun under his tail. I emptied both my guns at him, without effect, although I could see the holes ripped by my bullets in his planes. 1 was puzzled at not hearing any shots from Low, and as I put pressure on the left rudder-bar to turn off, I glanced back at him. Dave had gone West. He was lying back, with his head and chest riddled, kept in his seat by the wind pressure. In the same moment I felt a terrific pain in my right foot, and it was jerked off j;he rudder tar. "I had already begun to press on the left r,udder-bar in order to turn to get clear of the Gotha, and when my right foot was jerked off the right rudder-bar my left foot pressed spasmodically, on the left rudder-bar, and with my ailerons banked over for the turn I naturally went into a- spin. I was suffering intensely at the time, but my head was clear. I saw several German, 'planes start after me Mid then return to their formation, evidently convinced I was done for. I throttled down the engine, and when lAvas well below 10,000 feet I straightened out of the spin and took my bearings. "I saw a mass of woods, and closeby an aerodrome. ' 1 didn't know it at the time,' for I was rapidly becoming only semi-conscious, but the woods were Hainault ForestJ and the aerodrome was Hainaulfc Farm, one of the landing stations in the London airdefence system. I spiralled down to the aerodrome, and landed with a little bump. Then I caved, for my foot watf in a pool of blood. The last thing 1 saw was another machine with a crowd around it close by.

" 'What machine is tliat?' I muttered to the men who started to lift me from my seat. "But I didn't hear what they answered. I didn't know anything after that until I was in the ambulance on my way to the King George Hospital. Afterward they told me it was the Gotha I had brought down. All three men of her crew were wounded, and her petrol tank was shot full of holes."

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19180102.2.50

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
2,158

FIGHTING A GOTHA OVER LONDON Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 6

FIGHTING A GOTHA OVER LONDON Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 84, 2 January 1918, Page 6

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