DUELS WITH FOKKER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1524, 18 March 1916, Page 4

DUELS WITH FOKKER.

THE NEW GERMAN PEANE.

MACHINE FOR DEFENCE. BIRD WITH SNAKE’S TONGUE. NO AIMING OF THE GUN. ' The following description of the new German aeroplane, the Fokker, of which so much has lately been heard, is contributed by Mr W. Beach Thomas to the London Daily Mail: “The Fokker may be called a super-specialist in a specialistic branch. It surrenders all else for one cardinal virtue—speed. It cannot go very far from home because it cannot carry sufficient petrol; but it can dart from its retreat and secure its prey with the rapidity of a snake's stroke. It is especially suited to the form of warfare that the German has recently practised. It is no Chauvinistic boast to say that our airmen have driven the German from the home seas or aerial waters. We have shown more of the battle spirit and better airmanship, just as our seamen did in the Spanish wars. Possibly, also, the German has deliberately put himself on the defensive for economy’s sake. However this may be, the German policy needed defensive craft, and they have found a type that is as good as the best for the moment.

“The Fokker monoplane, the invention of a young Dutchman of that name, is so highly engined that it can practically rely for stability on its speed —said to be about 30 miles an hour faster than our fastest machines. It rises sharply, and attains height so quickly that it has the advantage of swooping on opponents. As its gun fires through the propeller it is practically like a swift bird with a snake’s tongue. There is no aiming of the gun ; the machine is aimed by the airmen —with its 200 h.p. water-cooled engine it is easily steered, swerved, dipped or raised—and the gun does the rest.

Hovering Over German Centres.

“Hitherto we, the allies, have had an astounding pre-eminence in air fighting, especially scouting. A few months ago one of our pilots on reconnaissance hovered for half an hour on a clear day over one of the chief German centres in Belgium, all the while astounded at the impunity. Our men have set out on long journeys day after day without any thought of rivalry from an enemy machine. All they feared was the anti-aircraft guns. They would travel to great distances even in windy and foggy weather. I know one man who had to drop down to a few hundred feet to make sure whether the fair town that he saw dimly below was Brussels or Antwerp, so lost was he in the clouds. But though he was seen and often fired at from the ground no one once ventured to follow him into the air. “The number of reconnaissances made per saonth soon came to ex-< ceed a thousand 1 ; and the casual! - ties were very few. Hardly one was inflicted by enemy craft. This supremacy was won iu spite of a handicap which only a practical airman can properly estimate. Over the western front the wind blows from the south and west for at least three-quarters of the year. And • the south-west wind is normally of considerable strength at an airman’s altitude. Think what this means. If the wind increases in strength after his start the flier may be wholly unable to get back, even if nothing goes wrong. The Fast, Fighting Peane. “So much for the past history of flying during the war. A certain change has occurred with the New Year ; or, rather, has become obvious during the New Year. Its herald is the Fokker. This machine is not, as many think, always on patrol, hovering aloft to descend like a plummet on any encroacher, though it may often so wait. The trouble is that it can rise so fast to a high altitude as to be able to tower up to the enemy after he is sighted. This is done oftener than may generally be thought possible. We have

ourselves brought down several hostile planes which have been chased from the starting point of the aerodrome shed. The perfecting of this fast fighting plane, which can manoeuvre easily and quickly for bowend shooting, has not given the enemy the initiative, has not made it easier for him to take long flights over our lines, but it has unquestionably arrested our almost insolent command of the air. The enemy's defensive has improved. That is the position. Battleplane and Fokker. “The distinction to note is that there are two kinds of craft, one designed for long flight, the other for fighting ; and our task is to see to it that we have the best craft in each section. Already the principle of convoying the long-flighted airplanes, of giving them a guard of warplanes is recognised and is being adopted. Indeed the pilot of one of these convoys, a famous airman, who must be nameless, has just won perhaps the greatest individual feat of the war at the expense of three Fokker and one Albatross. “I am permitted to give from official sources some of the details of this dashing series of successful engagements, won in spite of the immense speed of the enemy. A British airplane went forth on reconnaissance accompanied by what the Germans call a battleplane. The two had just passed out of sight .of their own shore when two of these rakish Vikiugs shot to pursue them. The British battleplane, which was flying high above the plane it was convoying, dived at once to the attack. The duel was over in a minute after the two engaged, and the Fokker ‘nose dived’ out of control some 6,000 ft. One enemy was accounted for.

Hawk and Heron. “The other had used the interval to, secure the upper position. It was above and behind the fighters. But our airman rose like a hawk after a second heron, managed to soar above the Fokker, and at a range of about a hundred feet sent him, as it were, to the bottom. This second victim also nose dived, and the hawk pursuing saw his opponent land with a bump in a ploughed Geld. The airman’s motto might be Wither’s famous line, ‘The more he makes wing he gets power’ ; and soon this fighting airman, in accordance with the principle, had climbed back to 10,000 ft. or more. There another sail was sighted, and as soon pursued as seen. It was an Albatross in pursuit of one of our scouts. The enemy fled, but was caught and engaged and hit, and last seen sinking iu an apparently crippled state behind the fringe of a wood. ‘‘Not even yet was the day’s fighting over. On returning to our lines the battleplane found a Fokker, doubtless trusting iu its superior speed, hawking among a group of several of our airplanes. But soon hawk met hawk. Two shots were observed to take effect on the Fokker, who ‘was last seen nose diving steeply 3000 ft. below. So fell three Fokkers to me gun in one day ; and others have gone the same road.”