AIRMEN'S WORK IN THE SOUDAN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 221, 27 October 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

AIRMEN'S WORK IN THE SOUDAN.

ETROL TINS BURST BY THL HEAT. W. T. Massey, Special Correspondent with Tho Forces in Egypt.) JENERAL HEADQUARTERS. EGYPT. ho brilliant work of a flig'ht of the of Flying Corps during the operais in Dartur will rank as one of tho st efforts of our Army airmen in war. The flight had some serious nents, when transport threatened to them, but energy, resource, and jrmination to succeed triumphed r all troubles, and the achievements worthy, of tho page it will receive he history of military aviation. 'he airmen had to move south .-,t y short notice, travel by sea, raf, desert track for 2000 miles before y could reach the barren spot from ch they were to operate, face all difficulties of Hying under tropical ditions with an equipment not dened to meet such special circumstan- , and to fly in a country absolutely snoiwn to them, and where maps re of little use. They were of mfinvico to Colonel Kelly from a military nt of view, and one may hazard a iphecy that the exploits in the air not* a. little to make Ah Dinar s >plb realise the Sultan's game was , for though tho natives were not onished to see macirnes in the air, >y were surprised beyond expression en roan alighted from them. One 0 found speech was heard to say : 'The Government was always great, t now it is greater than ever."

TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES. On March 31st two officers left Sum • Port Soudan and Khartoum, and ;y were followed on April 7th by an ranee party of a few officers and men th petrol, oil, bombs, transport tent jds, and absolutely essential stores. , the 20th the main body began tiie i days' journoy to the railhead stain south of Khartoum. The transrt difficulties proved greater than anipated. Stores and machines had to got forward to Gebel-el-Hilla and >iad Wells, 300 miles west o' the railry, and the track to Nahud, halfly, was quite unreliable, and Jorrics >re often stuck fast in the sand for ys. The lorries had to take their ii supplies of petrol and water, thus during the loads. Intense heat caused aviation pbtrjl is to burst, and evaporaton was so eat that a consignmen of seven cases posed to hold hfty-six gallons conined only thirty-seven gallons.. Plants th very sharp, hard thorns grew en e track and punctured tyres, and th the tluermometer registering 120 grees in tho shade it was desperatohard work to get up stores to be ady for the beginning of .aerial ghts from Hilla by May 12th. Most the transport was done with camels for at least 150 miles it was iniposblo to carry stores except in camel

icks —and as the tents for machines ,ch required twenty-eigtit camels to rry them, the labour involved n ansport may be imagined. AFRICAN RECORD FLIGHT. Much t.ho longest flight in Africa ands to the credit of this flight of tho oyal Flying Corps. On May 17t l i >lonel Kelly's force was approaching :r Meleit, an oasis thirty-seven milas >rth of Kl Fasher, which was believed > bo occupied by the enemy. It was lportant to know their strength, and so to ascertain whether there was ator in the wells there. At dawn an airman started from ilia Cll6 miles away) to reconnoitre. n his first journey he could not find [eleit, and he returned to the acro•ome at Hilla for further informaon. At 8.40 a.m. lie again set out, id was successful.

In flying over the .place hj« was fired ;, and a bullet hit the propeller. Bom ! /S ere droppexl, and the airman came own low and opened machine-gun tiro l the enemy 000 of whom and >ft Meleit open to our troops. Un is return journey the airman cupped message to Colonel Kelly, t< lling luia lat there was water 'n the wells ana iat the enemy had tied. On May 23rd, as Colonel Kelly was preaching El Fasher, Lieutenant J h Slessor flew over the long stretch

"country between the aerodrome an.l Jii Dinar's capital and arrived at the hoinent when the force had gained a 'ictory over the Sultan's troops, lyienpnant Slessor saw 2000 enemy cavalry rawn up in reserve outside the town, nd attacked them with bombs and ma-hine-gun fire. The horsemen scattered n all directions and took no further iart in the fighting.

I When he begin bombing the cavalry ho lieutenant saw a group surrounding

, banner. He aimed a bomb at the >arty, and later information points to he Sultan having a narrow escape, two f his servants and his own camel bong killed by the bomb. While attacking the cavalry Lieutennt Slessor received a bullet wound <n he thigh, and he had to steer with hi; land instead of Ins foot oi: his wav Kick to Hilla, his difficulties bein; ;reatly increased by a storm which iroko suddenly.