17 GERMAN AIRMEN BROUGHT DOWN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

17 GERMAN AIRMEN BROUGHT DOWN.

WHAT THE BRITISH FLYING

COWS IS DOING

" It's the groaUst fur. in the world." He was a thin, rather pale-faced youth, as unlike a hero us anything you could possibly imagine. He wore Die unpretentious uniform of the British Flying Corps, with it., spread wings embroidered on th e tunic. Vtb'terday dun 6 "The Times" correspondent from S',.lis on October 18) lie flew over the Herman lines at the River Aisne. Yesterday he was sniped at by a hundred sharp-shooters and blazed at by guns throwing a shell specially designed for this work. Several of the bullets pierced the wings of his plane; a shell burst close beside him, sending him reeling giddily sideways through space. But lie continued and finished his reetmnaisanc*; marked the placing of the Kieat guns. th e lines of the trenches, the direction of the shell fire —even at one giddy moment swooped down close to a wood where artillery was concealed, taking almost unthinkable risks. I wrung this story, not from himself—that would 'require the proverbial wild horses— but from a friend to whom it had been casually confided. I ventured to mention that I was aware of it TU answer was characteristic. "A hundred men have don e the same." For this work of the British airman ha, been accomplished with a thoroughness that is beyond all praise and \yith a courage that Is literally astounding. I am able to say that almost every member of our corps has been trnd on not one© but dozens of times; that during the course of almost every aerial reconnaissance bullets pierce some part of the plane. I know, too, that there i b no work so risky that our airmen have not essayed it. They hav e descended ovei forest land almost to the tops of the trees, though this fores 1 laud was known to be swarming with soldiers, thev have skimmed over trenches and over batteries in the face of tremendous fusillades. Ihey have won priceless information. 1 know, too, that the enemy s airmen scarcely attempt now to combat with this grand corps. I heard an airman explain yesterday that during the past fortnight every German he has encountered has flew away from him. 'I chased one of tlum for Miles," he declared, ''but he escaped me in the end. Thev have fast engines." Yet already 17 German aeroplanes have, I am told bum destroyed by British airmen. A* on the tea, &0 in the air, the German has to a large extent been driven within the shelter of his big guns.