AT MESSINES RIDGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1917, Page 4

AT MESSINES RIDGE.

BRIfTSH' FLYERS BREAK tJ r HE FOE. British Headquarters ix Franx'E, v • June 9 The manner in which, the British flying corpsfetflihated-the air during the "battle d£ MeSsines ridge on Thursday aud completely smothered the German aviation service for the time being is one of the iriost thrilling and remarkable stories of the entire war. Hundreds of British planes were well behind the German lines when the brittle broke into its fttry at dawn. They had stolen over during the darker intervals of the brief night when the moon was hidden by storm clouds. Other hundreds went aloft with the first faint streaks of coming day and guided by the flashes of the guns, flew into the thick of the fighting. HOURS HART TROOPS." During tlie night British machines bombed enemy railway stations, trains, ammunition dumps and troops coming up on the march. Others hovered above German airdromes and circled low ailioiig airplrine sheds and fired hundreds of rounds from machine guns into them and prevented the enemy machines from cbming out Later in the day while the fighting was most intense British airmen dropped aboiit three tons of bombs on the German flying grounds , as a further deterrent, which proved highly effective. Iu addition to shutting the German airmen >■nit 6E any early participation in the battle, the British airplanes were in a large degree responsible for the fact that tlie Germans could not launch a counter-attack of appreciable strength until forty hour ) after the battle for the ridge began, and every bit of ground desired by tlie British in this particular operation had been taken and secured. CONVOYS ATTACKED. Far back of the German lines the British planes searched out troops in every hamlet, towii arid village. In several places they saw them gathering or marching in the main streets, whereupon they flew down low at times amt opened a fire which scattered the Gennnns in all directions. All pilots report that their accurate fire had a most demoralising effect upon the hostile ,troops. Convoys and ammunition and supply columns were attacked while on the march, and the disorganised men left their teams and automobiles on the roads while they sought shelter in nearby ditches. Airplanes attacked troops in the support trenches and sent them scurrying to tlie cover of their dugouts. One pilot made so many of these attacks that he finally ran out of ammunition, but he delivered his last stroke by letting go his signal rockets at a platoon of soldiers who, evidently mistaking this for a particularly horrible new style of war frightful ness, fled in all directions. German troops were fired upon in the more distant back areas as they were entraining for the front. Many of the enemy retreating from the British attack and hidiug in shellholes were seen by the low-lying airmen arid pelted with bullets. One British pilot patrolled a road for half an hour before he saw anything to shoot at. Then a German military automobile with three officers sitting in the back seat came along. The Britisher cliVed at them front a height of GOO feet, firing as they came. He flew so low eventually that the wheels of his undercarriage barely missed the automobile, which Swerved into a ditch -vrhiie going- at forty miles an hour, and crashed into a tree. This same pilot later came across an active field battery arid charged it, scattering the gun crew and hit ting a number of’them. Still farther along he attacked a column of Germans marching in fours. The column broke whdri hb opened firej scattering [to both sides of the road. At no time during his stay inside the German lines was this pilot more than 500 feet from the ground. FLY INTO SHELL STORM. Large numbers of British machines were on contact patrol work, flying low over the advancing lines of infantry, constantly watching their movements, their progress* any temporary reverse, any attempt to form counter-attacks, and all - the while sending detailed reports back to corps and army headquarters. The infantr) commanders said it gave their men great comfort and a great serise Of protection to have , their planes flying so confidently jrist above them and exchanging signals with them. Of the fourteen planes lost during the day of the battle, a majority wore these contact machines, They had to fly through a frightful storm : of their own as well as the enemy’s 1 artillery fire, and ihfey succeeded to chance bloW§ from exploding missiles. j Late on the day of the battle, when 1 the enemy machines had finally ar- j rived from more distant airdromes, j there was some good hard fighting in j the aiiysoirie of it at close quarters, { with collisions barely avoided. Twenty enemy machines were ac- i counted for in the fighting, some 1 flopping about until they broke up in £ the air, and ethers being driven down 1 on their nbses in yellow buttercup 1 fields so far back of the fighting line l that no shell ever marred the sym- i melr.y of that landscape. .