DUEL IN THE AIR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1663, 18 January 1917, Page 4

DUEL IN THE AIR.

| FIGHT AT RECORD HEIGHT

t OUYNEMER’S NEW FEAT,

Mr Henry Wood, correspondent • of the United Press of America with the French armies, says that Lieutenant Guynmer, the “star” of the entire French aerial service, who recently brought down his 21st .German aeroplane, established at the same time a new world’s record for aerial combats, the air duel having taken place at an altitude of over two miles and after a chase of over 70 kilometres. The entire battle was one of the most dramatic air episodes that the entire war has produced. Guynemer, flying at an altitude of over 13,000 feet, and at a distance of over 70 kilometres behind the German lines, sighted a German squadron of two

observation aeroplanes with an es-

cort of two fighting machines head- ' ing for the French lines. He took refuge behind some friendly clouds until the German squadron should pass ahead of him, and then started the pursuit from behind. The German machine nearest him chanced to be an observation plane, and he opened his machine-gun fire at an altitude of just two miles. He killed the observer with his third jbullet, and with the tenth the pilot was shot out from the machine, the plane at the same time beginning its whirling course down. Although the machine was the second one Guynemer had brought down that day, he at once started after the other three, but they in the meantime had all disappeared.