TO THE FIGHTING LINE BY AIR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 197, 4 August 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

TO THE FIGHTING LINE BY AIR.

THRILLING JOURNEY IN A BRITISH BATTLEPLANE.

By GORDON BRUCE, Special Correspondent of the New York "Tribune." Travelling from the heart of England to the battle lines in France in one of his Majesty's fighting biplanes; retruivng in a speedy scout monoplane on these two voyages two great tacts caem home to me. First, the realisation of what the aeroplane means m modern warfare; and, second, the remarkable efficiency which has been attained by the Royal Flying Corps, proclaiming the. progress made by Hllta J-n in lie.' struggle for the mastery of the It was well before noon when I reached the great English aerodrome. A long row. of new biplanes stood befoie the hangars in the huge level fiel I "You mav choose whichever much m. vou I ke." the commandant said. j( * "That makes it easy, I replied 1 go with the first pilot who is readyIt was, it happened, Lieutenan. Mead. I had made a good choice Lieutenant Mead is tall, young with keen „rev eyes—the type the R.KC. mvariablv selects for this important work. He inspired conndence. And -i jhs is a grave matter, for the moie one travels by air, as a passenger, tho more particular he becomes abotu hi* pilot ' THE START. Our aeroplane, a new product of ths Royal Aircraft Factory stood ready, grey, compact, powerful. Hei and cables were massive. But two seats, arranged tandem order m th~ fusilage, were roomy and comfortable Her motor, when started, gave for a pleasant throaty roar. We got into our caps and pneumat. jackets, made fast our goggles, and called out the major • i comamnd? He gave an appnusm, dance at the planes, and let ln» eye rest on the Lewis machine-gun swun on n trvot beside the observer's seat. He smiled "It's a fine day, lie , sald ' "and you're liable to meet a Boche or tW Nmv it's all right in meeting Bodies m mid-air. But J. g ; somehow, a different on the m - .... 1 was somg to be a legitime,, target, in enemy for J'"* 11 ]* maclrne "i.s. Cheerful though,' A very good start the major gave me A few sweeping circles to gam a t» tud" and we headed into the east, thu Z nnZ' the first long lap of our land Looking down at the brow.i, c,i irntel spaces and the soft green »1 the meadows, it was hard to associa - +bo scene w.tli war, Inen, ruaei.y, there would appear grim blocked in against the heautj of it all. Somehow A did not compose mth thoso peaceful fields, noi did th- » procession of motor-lorries and columns of marching troops crawling alon D th, ribbons known as roads. After a while the roads showed very white ns we reached the chalk and into the thinner air, then regain h lift is th n icy breath of a clonabanh strnfk our faces. t And so we.tore along through cloud and sunshine. OVER THE CHANNEL.

Abruptly, as we swept ove the■ hne of wlrte cliffs, we were swallowed up m dark clouds. On and on we flew. There was nothing in front of us, noth i,m- heiiind us, nothing on either side. I turned to look at Mead He nodded, and nosed the machine down down through the blue vapour unt'l l \ooked over and saw. / e !iie bottom of a deep well ot light, tin {[rev water of the Channel. This t'rey surface was mottled licio and there with patches of sunshine. "Vov boats ploughed along leaving shor„ /h'ite wakes. An occasional black mud"? told of the presence of crir.ser and destroyer. Then the gloom en gulfed us once mora. . As suddenly as we entered the gloom, i e emerged into the light of day. BeJOw US the water ended in the pleasant sweep of the French coast, about eight miles distant. The rugged cliffs and the reaches of white sand .seemed to hold i welcome. Then came an unkind shock. Without warning, the revolutions of the endropped several hundred to the mintue— dropped far below flying speed: and slowly, but surely, we be gan to descend . Which was disconcerting, considering that we were fly ng in a land machine with nothing to keep lior afloat. Instantly Mead steered f>r the nearest point on the coast. He was quite tool and self-possessed, even if. the cliffs suddenly lost their beautv, and jutted, ugly and forbidding. For my part, I wasn't sure that T would not prefer to take my chances in the ( hanuel. It seemed' a bit hopeless either wa v".

The pilot calculated rapidly, then headed her toward the largest op,"n space on the slior, 1 . Tt probably was the worst landing snot in France. But he had no cho : ce.

In one last djvo we tore over tip i-iiastlino nml down into a gullied paslure (,n a steep hillside. The piano missed a fence by less than a foot, an.l struck th« crest of tlio hill at a speed which Mead afterward declared must i: ive ii'-cn on- hundred miles an liour. A- the wheel-' came into contact with the earth we bounced high in the ai>' and plunged on down the hill. Three time- " ! :'s occurred, and each time we braced ourselves for the smash that seemed moveable. But the wonderful eons'"u' tion of the machine saved us, :\\ th a final, crazy lurch we left the hi~t hummock and alighted neatly >n l.he m;iihomatieal "<>ntre of a slimy fro • jioud. Mh.il? frightened cattle fh'W n f i rv direction.

"A GOOD nrs." P't of luck," commented Mead. we < : mhed out and waded ashore • : Tak< - a good 'bus to stand that.' 1 I agreed, and also thought, "Takes a c.'od man to make -noli a landing v. f li "lit piling up". His first thought was to report to headquarters. Desp : te the isolation ol the -pet, two gendarmes were there within ten minutes, and before half an "onr had passed an armed guard from tlie l'"ieiK'h garrison of a near-by town '.vas Pacing up and d( \vn. A lir'ti>h orderly appeared. He en me from an Australian hospital a mile away, and said: -"The eo'onel's compline li's . eH says he can arrange com• muiV' atieii for i'ou, and will you jo'n hi'ii at luncheon ?" It was amazing t > ud such an abundance of aul in so bleak a place. The attitude of Ihe French showed how fnll\ the mil't-ary of tii"> two nat : on> ai-o co-operating. The romnvindin: offi "r of the French garrison was most (ou' - t'c.;s. and plied with offer-- of guards and assistance. lorries were «oon (i'-i tho way from ariat'on r■ u: 1 r -

ters and also from a supply depot a few miles away, which indicated how effective is the system installed at the front by the It.F.C.

Long before the tenders arrived. Mead had discovered the source of tho trouble. It was of a minor nature, and likely to occur in the very best of aeroplanes and automobiles. A nut holding a connection in the pressure feed device had worked loose, thereby reducing the flow of petrol. Two minute* wer sufficient to correct it. The machine was run out of the water under her own power, and tht? only damage she sustained was the parting of a cable, caused by the shock of contact with the ground. Both the builder and the pilot had done their part to save the plane. When it came to getting away again, Mead did what seemed impossible . 1 am fairly well aware of the requirements in the matter of making »i start. There wasn't a level spot n that whole pasture. Yet Mead selected n course where he had to dodge iuimrcoeks and which gave him only about one third of the proper space —toon her jolting over the rough ground and plunged off the cuff over the water. But we came through. The construction again proved its worth. The motor held to its task, and we were off to the main aviation base of the British Army in France. Mile after mile of fertile fields in which women are handling the ploughs and cultivators lay below us. One had to look sharp lnCeed to discover even tiny plot which was implanted: and I felt the pri 1! which the whoie wor d l'eels for the record France has made Northward we sped—toward wlieie the great armies face each other. On.y the eye could tell wSsen w e approached, for the steady roar of the motor, running with precision and smoothness, drowned all other noise.

As far as the eye could see, over that vast expanse, were what might be taken for small vo'canocs. Here, there, everywhere, the surface of the earth opened and belched forth a black substance, while an ominous cloud of smoke drifted lazily away to be dissipated in the higher altitudes. i\ly mind was slow to grasp the meaning of it—that this was the work of artillery. Now and then from a patch of woodland the smoke would filter out. Thro? times in passing over villages 1 saw buildings vanish as if by magic. Only the smoke remained . THE JAGGED WOUNDS. And then—then came those two jagged wounds —those two ug'y wounds from which the lifeblood of nations s pouring. They ran side by side, nov very close together, now diverging a bit to become parallel further along. Sinister and ghastly, they stretched away into the distance. And as if th?y were not raw enough, from time to time the shells tormented them, tearing vicious holes and doubtless hurling human bodies into the air with the mud .and smoke. I was glad I could not see that. And so we came at last to tho headquarters of the R.F.C. It was pleasant to glide down and land gently on that smooth green—to get away troai the grim evidence of what was happening so few miles awaj. Now. less than two months ago I visited that same aerodrome and inspected the equipment; and there is no comparison between what I found there at the time of my first visit and what is there now. The improvement is amazing. The average macihne in those hangars is better than tlie average German aeroplane. T he results on that front prove this to be true. Nobody coull took at that imposing array of battleplanes and scouts and bring serious charge against the organisation an.l efficiency of the Royal - lying Corps in Franc®. Ana? they are bringing down Hi* enemy. They are getting in from sis hundred to njne hundred hours of actual flying each day, and they arc not afraid. °AYhen a man can get aboard an armed plane and scurry to an 1'; - tudo of 5000 feet in fivo minutes, it *

a token of accomplishment. And it is done there every day. OVERRATED FOKKER. In a shed stood one of the de"adl.v" Fokkers, captured from the German": There was not a new idea in it. Jint a light'y-built Morane copy. The British aviators fly it about the aerodrome* just for a lark. They do not consider safe enough for use in action. '■The undeserved publicity which the Fokker received was very disturbing ti> us," an important omcer told me. "The virtues of the craft were terribly exaggerated; and it is <i bad tlrng for \ man to go into the air firmly convinced that the enoinv has a machine far superior to his, especially when our planes have bean able to overcome the Fokkers right along." My return to England was made in a fast monoplane with Lieutenant Passant. It was swift and absurdly easy. But there was one incident. It wawhen we were crossing the Channel at a height of almost two miles. Awav down there, showing against the sunlit. water, were three long white lines. They wore like three great lines ol breakers, except that they were straight and unwavering. ft was not until Passant noticed them and descended a bit that I could make out what they weiv. Mere trifle. Onlv about thirty of his Majesty's war. ships, steaming along in cruising i'ormat:ou, three abreast and one behind the other iu each line.

Nothnig I ever have seen was more inspiriting that the sigiit of those ships, moving with an indescribable grande.ir toward an unknown destination, their snowv wak.es blending into three perfectly straight I : lies. I thought of that other mighty fleet-- the watch-dog <1 the North Sea. which holds the KaisOi .; ships like rats in a trap. And, as the white lines faded into th > distance. 1 concluded that England has not on'y a very respectable a:r service, but a pretty good navy.