GREAT FIGHT IN AIR

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 10 August 1917, Page 1

GREAT FIGHT IN AIR

FIVE BRITISH BEAT N ' 27, ESSEMY 3IACHINES. In the official reports 01 the Arras fighting is told in brief the story of how she of our aeroplanes fought 27 Germans and beat them. • The Times's' correspondent describes the great feat in detail, mentioning that when the collision took place our force had already been reduced to nva machines. The Germans flew in three formations, two of which ' contained eight .machines, and the third contained nine, to which two other hostile machines themselves. As they; approached they spread out so that our men were ringed round With, enemies on every side. The general order to attack, though given, was hardly needed. Each one cf our live, "keen as mustard, turned at ones for the enemy who was -nearest. The light began at about- 11.000 ft. but in the course of the things that followed it- ranged anvwhere from 3,000 to 12,000. up and down ! the ladders of heaven. Primarily any such general melee inevitably breaks up "into a series of individual fights. "Formation," as it is technically known, .breaks up; but ■nothing could have surpassed the war in which our men fought. Not one of them allowed himself ever to be cut off and isolated from the rest. Xqt one failed* to be ready, when a friend was in imminent danger-, to turn to his assistance. This is

the more remarkable as, with the -exception, c-f the Might leader, all the pilots were practically new men, with little experience of fighting.' Some had onJv been in France a - fortnight. Yet no veterans -could have exceeded these youngsters in coolness and fighting judgment. " As for the flight commander himself,-he (still a youth) may fairly be called a- veteran, for in that battle he reached his seventeenth German victim. The actual fightina lasted for a hill hour—from 5 to 6 o'clock—an extraordinary time for such a thing ; and during all that hour our men fouaht'tooth and nail. And the fight had lasted hut a tew minutes when we drew "first blood, and an enemy machine which Cantain A. had attacked went down in flames, with the wings of one side shot awav'.' Then it was Lieutenant B.'s turn. He" cau>di+ his adversary at close range fairlv, and the German aeroplane went down, turning over and over as it fell straight down 11.003ftleaving a trail of smoke behind. ' Lieul tenant. C. scored next, his enemy's machine, spinning plumb down to where, somewhere below- the haze, it must have crashed. Then for a moment it seemed, that our luck was turning. Lieutenant B.'s engine gave out, and he was " compelled to leave the formation." It is a simple phrase ; but what it means is that, helpless, and with, engine still, the aeroplane dropped out of the fight from 11,000 ft down to 3,000 ft.

It -was" a dizzying drop, and as he fell _an enemy, seeing him defenceless and • ' scenting easy prey, went after him. Bui other eyes were watching. Lieutenant C. saw- his crippled comrade slipping downward, and saw the .German diving after. Quick as a flash he followed, and before the German could do his wort'the British aeroplane was almost touching the tail of his machine, and in another second the German turned clean over in the air aiid then crashed nose foremost down into . the abyss. Then,, almost by a miracle, B.'s engine caught'its. breath "again. Once more the machine was iinder control -and = 8., who was one of those who were new to the game, climbed and rejoined formation. Some B.ooC£.t"he had to climb, with the baffled ''Archies'",-blazing at him from below, up into the inverted hell above; where his -four comrades were enemies who outnumbered them six to one. Just as he '•'rejoined" another German fell. It was'A.'s second victim of the day, aiidC friend and foe alike saw the machine go, sheeted in flames, down into the gulf. Then on c e again if seemed that a "throw had gone against us, lor. still under control but with flames bursting from its,reserve petrol tank, one of /our machines began to drsp. Again an enemy, glimpsing'fen. easy quarry, dived for the flaming ruin as it fell, but. quicker: than he, A. also and while our crippled machine, still belching flames, slid off with its nose set for home, the German. mortallv hit, dropped like a fctone. It was just retrflra- . tion. _ The .unwritten laws of this marvellous game prescribe that no honorable fighter attacks an enemy in flames. Such ah enemy is out of the fight, and has trouble enough -for a brave man. The German who our burning machine knew that he was doing an unchivalrous thing, and it may be that that knowledge so unnerved, him that he paid. ; the penalty. Strangely enough, our burning aeroplane got home.; I have seen the wreckage, with the reserve petrol tank on the-roof bearing, two bullet holes on one side and great" ragged tears on the other where the bullets passed out/ The whole tank is scorched and crumpled. The flames had burned away the whole central span of the upper plane. 'Hie thick rear main spar was charred and burned through, and two ribs were completely-, severed and hung with loose, blackened eiids. Yet, like a great blazing meteor, it. crossed our lines and came to earth, not indeed at its own home, ■ but on safe and friendly ground ;• and as another airman said to, me in admiration: "He made a perfectly topping landing." / Meanwhile, the wonderful' fight was drawing to a close. The British pilot, Lieutenant D., emptied a belt from his machine gun into an enemy when, so a close - that his wings almost brushed the other's ■ rudder; and the enemy turned turtle, clear over on his back, 'and; spurting' out a thick column of black smoke, went down.' Some of the enemy were already drawing : ' off, but our men were in no mood to let them go. ■•.>•.'■.". It is harder to get out of a losing fight than it-is- to begin it, and before the , enemy coukl disentangle' themselves" from the battle two more-of their machines had gone to earth—one, his third in .the fight, falling to lieutenant C, and one "to Lieu- , 'tenant t. Then the last four of our ma- ' chines, still lords ot the air", came home. ■ There is good ground / for believing that the enemy fleet which was smashed -np was what is known as '.'. Von Bulow's cir--

cus." There are two of these "circuses" iu the German Army, one commanded by Captain Baron Von Kichtiiofen and the . other by Von Bulow, eaclTcomprising from' 24 to, 30 niachines_Jor that number take the air together), which travel from German aerodrome to aerodrome, staying j>erhaps a week at each, for the purpose of making spectacular flights and instilling courage into the local Hying men and impressing the infantry on the spot.