PLYING IN PALESTINE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 241, 29 June 1918, Page 7

PLYING IN PALESTINE

TASMAMAN. AVIATOR'S STORY : SCENES AND INCIDENTS \ -, Captain S. Addison has forwarded to his brother,in- llobart a 'graphic account of the work ol -tho Australian Aviation' • Squadron in. Palestine.,, In.the days of. peace Captain Addison, was a.Tasmanian. ■ journalist. Ho is no?'. - a.''flight-com-mander, and. there .are six.mo.re Tasihan- • ian aviators with him in Palestine.. He rfvrites:— ; ...V. ' "I am pleased to say our, progress continues, and was marked, by.still another .notable achievement a ; few .days ago—the ■capture of the ancient (own of Jericho ■and.the hills-to tho.. north of the Dead ■Sea, dominating the Jordan-Valley. On (he morning of tho attack.l left the aero.dromo at dawn, and did a reconnaissance of the area, and had tho ■ pleasuro of seeing the Turk making his retreat across to the eastern bank of the Itiver Jordan with all the expedition that circumstances would permit, wliilo being Tather badly harassed by tho Australian Light Horse, who, were. already in hot pursuit. At this point..there is only one bridge across the liver, arid wo found traffic considerably, congested there. It afforded a glorious target, into which I and 'my observer put 300 rounds from our' machine-guns, thereby causing, no small aifiount of cor.fusion below. Unless one has actually.witnessed, a-spectacle- of this kind, it is difficult to form anything like a true . conception .of what it means. I'irst, we: passed over clusters of our 'supports* at rest with their mounts on the reverse slopes, of. the hills;- others' could bo seen-winding th'qir. way "along .sheltered'tracks'.or the beds of- sinuous "Vaddies'-i in <country - so- jugged , and broken that one: .marvelled at the .fact ■that horses - could negotiate it at. .all. They wero mcviug. noto the attack;; Next we' saw tlib'se 'Kctually in,contact' .■with the enemy. . Then, camo -what in this case was thfe. enemy rearguard, striving in their vaiir effort to retard our advance, and .finally tho main body~ they . were covering, beating a hasty retreat .'across the ancient waterway of the Jordan.' ■'• Our right flank rested on the edge of the. ])ea Sea,-our left disappear-.: ed in the folds of the historic Jordan Hills, on the top of which Jerusalem and Bethlelum stood out conspicuously ! in rear; 'while in the foreground was the : River Jordan, 'winding-its course up'the picturesque, valley which bears its name. Such' was the panorama .that we looked down' upon. "l'or some days past we -have had! with us tlie. official photographer of the rA.LlOHo.obtained a very fine collection of pictures, including a considerable amount of kinema film showing our machines, taking off, landing,. and in the air. ife had his kinema-camera mounted on, a.'-machine in .which one ,;of our pilots took lum over Jerusalem, Jericho, Jaffa*-and along,tlie Jordan.Valley, ,and lie took , a bjoscopic. view ,of each , of these historic places while in flight. On another .occasion he went up and tried' to get a film of my machine looping and negotiating- various .other aerial gymnastics; but, unfortunately, he found it impracticable to' keep me within the camera sight. This was regrettable, as it should have made 'an interesting picture. He and his camera accompanied us on one of our bomb raids, when he obtained some fine viewo of the machines flying in formation, end actually engaged in bombing their, target. I understand these films are to be presented in Australia at an early date, and they .should be well worth seeing. Captain Hurley, who took all these pictures, has already won a good deal of fame in this department of art,; as the official photographer who accompanied both the Mawson and : Shnckleton Expeditions to' the' Antarctic., As. a result of the fearlessness he has displayed at all times in the pursuance •of. his..work., here,/we', might expect to • find that many of. the/pictures he, has obtained will rival, in point of interest, the best of his illustrations of the southern regions. The Supreme Argument! . ■ . "A-short -time ago ■we • had quite a ■little-war. all -to'.oursoly.eji, afc;our aerodrome. ;A number .of-railway .-trucks oil, to-which" a squadron v that c, .was.; ~'ott. the, move' had loaded about 9000 'gallons <■ ot petrol,-500'.gallons of oil, arid 9000 bombs., were standing in the siding, about 200 or 300 yards from our quarters. At about 7.30 p.m. the alarm was given that the petrol had ignited, and before anything could bs done the whole locality was' brightly illumined by flames shooting-20- to 30 feet in the-air.- There'was a'difference of opinion"'as to whether the bombs,

which had hot been detonated, and were in a separate truck would be exploded by the heat.' The question-was bein» keenly debated in t!io officers' mess, ana those who argued against this possibility advanced various theoretical reasons in .support of their contention, and seemed to bo making out a rather good case, when they were suddenly rudely inter- . rupted by a terrific report, that literally ''blew' the bottom out -of their argument. It? naturally caused no small iimount of amusement. > "Before very long it was. clearly evident that the mess, -quarters were a lather unhealthy spot.--Bombs continued ■■ to explode ill rapid -succession, and shrapnel rained down round most of the tents; several, ofv'which were pierced. In one'case one of the men found a piece of the: ironwork of -'the railway truck, which came through his tent and fell at the fpot: of Jiis-blink. fortunately he was hot 'at homo' at th 6 .time; in : deed, few of mis were. /We found-it- a . good deal moro healthy in tie centre of (he aerodrome, being content to watch / from there this . .pyrotechnic, .display kindly iirranged-for us by our neighbouring squadron. It continued for some hours, and was quite an impressive spectacle while it lasted. . ... . "A rather amusing incident happened . in connection' with the affair. .An engine was hurried along from an adjacent • station , with 'the. intention of. drawing the- burning petrol, .trucks' away from those containing tile bombs anil other . material.. This engine put into the siding, and was approaching the burning mass when the first bomb exploded. . The driver promptly, reversed his} -engine,, and put up. excellent, time for the first half-mile.'. As a matter «of fact,, it was the mosf sensible thing to do, as the trucks were very'soon, mutilated by the. explosions that, followed.".