AIR WORK IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 226, 12 June 1918, Page 6

AIR WORK IN FRANCE

RADIATED COATS FOE PILOTS. A British airman, writing to Mr. G. F. AVilson, of Wellington, on March 9, has something interesting to say about airmen and their work. "Wβ are," he writes, "just in a pause of the big fight, and wo all expect a mighty heavy push in the next few days. The last, two weeks have been anxious ones, but our fellows jjaye their tails well up. 'I never got up in the front line, as all, our work is done away back in the aerodromes, but we come into touch with all sections. lam a good deal in Paris, as all , our engineering shops are there, so are our headquarters, but it is not a desirable residing place at present. We have our full quota of bombing by night, and by day the-big German cannon— 'Berthas' they call them—throw in shells at leisurely intervals. You can hear them bursting, some near and some far, but. the people just carry on as usual. Even now there is the usual crowd of morninj* shoppers out on the boulevards. . '. ■ ~ We have plenty of

'grub' here, thank' goodness; ranch better than in London. In England it is not easy to get a real decent meal; but thero is enough to keep going, and the Government is accumulating a big 'reserve.' The standard of tho hotel meal over at Home would astound you, but it is wonderful how little you can pull along with—and keep fit on. "Our flying men are doing wonderfully ■well, and wo have now got tho best machines and the best-trained men of tho lot. Igo hi; a good dial in the tests, but it is mighty' cold, rocky sort of work in this -weather. Tho regular pilots are now much better off. We supply them with good chamois leather waistcoats, fitted with wires heiited electrically from a littlo dynamo. Toil should see the gadgets in tbo big modern machine —guns, cameras, bombs, and I have even seen a, couple of stretchers for carrying wounded—all controlled by young schoolboys. The most astonishing things are the infantry fighting, machines, covered with thick steel plates, and looking as solid as a steam-roller on tho ground. It's a strain on your imapfiiifltion to think of them as flying machines." The writer conveys tho news that Mr. Binckncy, formerly of Messrs. Turnbull and Jones's staff, is doing particularly well in the Royal Flying Corps. He is in charge of a very ibig branch, and is a captain.