FLYING MEN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 6 July 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

FLYING MEN.

THE CHIVALRY OF THE AIR. Flying has become as' much a matter of routine in war as marching on land or steaming on the sea, and men are ordered to tly, at fixed Hours and for stated periods, as though Hying was a natural act and not the organised miracle that it really is. Cut in France, writes a correspondent of tho London " Tunes," the last• chivaries, the lust beautioi 01 battle have taken refuge in tlie air. From the labouis, butcheries, miseries, horrors and ashpit desolation of the eart.i, the fighting romance of war has taken wings and climbed sunwards. There alone combat is individual, visual, decisive. There alone has the combatant to rely solely on himself, 'there alone i> the battle decided not tl.rough veils of distance, between impersonal and unknown hosts, but wing to wing and face to face. And there alone can individual skill and courage have their swift reward. For one flash, between a dip and a climb of his swallow flight, the figh'ing airman may or.'.ch the glint of his opponent's eye, and, if the momentary burst of fire be truly directed, see him crumple up in his seat and tho no~e of his machine dip and begin its fatal spinning dive, wlrlethe victor scars up again to safety and solitude. .And what a solitude is his! From tie moment in the aerodrome when the mechanic has given his last heave, and the last curt verbal exchange, "Contact. Sir,'' —"Contact'' has been given, and the engine sets up its mighty droning song, the airman is alone, submerged in that roaring music, deaf and dumb. For perhaps a minute he sits there, testng his engine, fingering his levers, assuring himse'f that all is well; and then, as the drone 6in!;s to a hum, he makes his last communication —the characteristic quick outward wave of the hands and arms. The chocks are pulled away, the hum rises to a. d-one, breaks into a roar, and he is off, bumping over the uneven earth until the speed gives his wings their life, the rough ground is shed nway from beneath his feet, and ho rises into the sudden peace of the air.

The "peace of the air" may seem liko a contradiction in terms in war time; but it is the supreme sensation of fairweather flying, apart from flying and fighting. Once you have got your height, whether it be a thousand or ten thousand feet, you seem to be absolutely at r?st—at rest in sunshine and a strong gale. The dim of mrp beneath you hardly moves; and although the trembling fingers cf the little decks and dials before you witivxw to the fluidity of your eloment and the tenderness of your hold on it, yet the other things that do not seem to move are the wings and stays of your machine which surround you, a rigid iago from which yen look forth upon the slow-turning earth or the rushing cloud;. It i< not until the engine has been shut off, and you begin to plane in mighty circle towards the earth again that you get, in that delicious rush down the hill of the air, any sensation ol speed; and not until, a moment before landing, yen skim over the earth at SO miles an hour, that you realise with what pace you have beeti rushing through the airy vacancy.

But these arc t!ie sensations of more. joy riding. Ton or twenty minutes may take the lighting pilot to his station in the air over the enemy's lines. How puny the absurdity of the greatest war of all time can appear i> only known to the airman as he sits in the Tirce/e and the sun, high above it all; tho danger to him is not down thee, although to ftseend into his remote sphere Ik* has to | ass througa the zone of anti-craft fire; his own particular enemy is the Ger-ai fighting machine, which may come down to harry o;- d>t troy the observe.*, and which he must him-clf attack the moment it makes its appearance, btt-ieen these two he watchfully patrols, and all this time, although a battle may be raging beneath him. le> hoars nothing hut the strong, rasping Mim of his engine. He flies ami fights a'one. The things that mppen almost daily to the men who fight in the air c;in be compared with nothing in our own experience. The eurt reports) of the Flying Cr,6 di-miss i:i two or t;iree lines coai'bats in the air which are mr.re wonderful thin any umbats in which men have engaged since the world began. In the course of them the highest courage, the coolest icive, the nicest judgment, t)v< most rapid decision, and ;'. whole .set of unconscious controls of engine, aprelon,, rudder land mia'.'hinogun have all to i e exercised together, and co-ordinated so that the man, nis gun. and his machine are thereby forced into cno weapon. What I reed of supermen, one night well >'s'\,, what system of eugenics, of nutrition, of physical and mental training can provide the human prodigy able to perform felts li'e tiles??

Tile answer is .imply this: —Von take the ordinary lJigl'i.-li voutli/ tram school, iir from ;j cadet corps, or from in office, (.r from a regiment, and give him three of four months' training, and throw him up in liic air in franco — and ho docs the n*t. I have lived v.it'i mere than one lighting squadron in Fran-re, and have seen the flights set forth in the morning, and watched tor them r.;; tuey come doubt fully home, trying to hnd their way through the curtain of low clouds. '[ have spoilt did" days of rain and mist with the I i'ots in the iutiia-y of the orowde.d mess, and have learned, I think, :>oniething of their qurlity. I know Hotline/ comparable «Yi ii or thoiu. They

rro rj ia e apart. 'I hey are almost children ill years; the a vera He ago of one sqi adroii I know is •_'.",; hut there is a niaturi y entirely their own, lorn of experiemes i;n n «li to us, in their e.ra\e IYco< and laughing eye-. Their living li e is r.'koned, not, in years or even irontlis, hut in hunt--.: so that :i nan who has Ihivn oO hours i-s experienced, and one who ha.s flown 2")0 1(1 d.wi i I time i- a veteran. Tin so h nii-H ; r ■ lit;llllii red hy fa!; 1 and by Mm average of (asualties. Kiftv hours w ithoui a crir-h would he link - .*>i '<) wnnl 1 I e pra-li ally inn ot'-ilu 1 . Within s:cli '|i to is the fkditing pilot's' life C ililp 1 ,s>e I.

hor I e.o. (I ii i er! nn amoi.nl ol hours he knows that his fatal inoioeiii i: overdue; that he has cx< led the all Ited s; an of hie. Ho may be two or thrc.'-aiid-tv.entv on the threshold of life; hut every day that he goes on

flying lie knows that the chance---, the law of averages, are increasingly agi'inst him. He kiv>v\fc it; hut 't never changes ni- outward demeanor, or hi-, appetite for the endless shop that these super-children talk, or for the innsia and damns that they low. or for t!o-> rags and strafes that I'd tlio hours ol the "dud" dry. lie goes on, with more ond ii.'\"e achievement to Ins ni:nie, uir.il t!ie oay when tho-v who hnrrv to the uiiicow of the mes, -hut uheii the homing machines are heard in the sky ami -ay, "One still to conic,' wait iii vain for him. Peril ips ■ome (omrade wl o saw it livings the news i f his end. It may have happen,,l ti!11- or thus, led ol'." tiling i> certain it wi'l have la en, like his lite, quick and I ivutii'ul.

omomen -r >■!«.••■. «l''t ■• c " lU] i "' ~„ ~,,. rojiiiite pre ent to make to a ':, iv':-'" . s : :,, pmru: "Well, that depends • (lUiewl.at Upon Ihe hi i\ s age and relatii :i'-hin I" vmi." Ca-t..,:, ;■: "Well. sb-'s Illy wit ■. recommend a iuvr.A». I'm » martc-d u on .„,,e!f.-' "1 want von t" kei-o .cur ih •; out f I niv house'; it's full of fleas.'' -Your house is? Mercy! I "ortoinl.v shan't let Fidu go in then; again."