KINGS OF THE AIR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 19 January 1917, Page 2

KINGS OF THE AIR.

ALLIED AVIATORS' WORK. BALLOONS BY THE DOZEN. i AUCKLANDER'S IMPRESSIONS. : An account of the aerial service of the Allies on the Western front is given in a letter by a Stanley Bay j boy, who is now in France, j After referring to the fact that the j only way to discover things is to get up'high, the writer says: "I counted "6 balloons up one day, with one or two aeroplanes patrolling up and down all the time to prevent Fritz from coming up and setting them on fire. , One night, just at dusk, two of the | planes dived from the clouds and set three German planes on fire. Just a huge flame slowly falling to the ground —that's all you can see. The observer has "O time'to do anything. On another evening they got two, and on other odd times they get them. Fritz keeps his balloons very low now, and usually on the approach of an aeroplane he hauls them down in double quick time. Often our planes drop bombs on the resting places of the balloons in the hope of catching them on the ground. These bombs fill the air with sparks and huge clouds of white smoke. "A balloon broke away one evening and shot straight up for several hundred feet. The observer descended by parachute. We could see him swinging himself to and fro like a great long pendulum. The breeze was drifting him towards the enemy's lines, and the swinging motion increased his descent. He wanted to land on his own ground, of course. Both sides fired their anti- , aircraft gnus at the balloon till dark, but they did not hit it. "Another balloon broke away and shot up. The observer lei the gas out, the balloon crumpled up like an empty paper bag and started falling within its own lines. The observer jumped out an f ] descended quickly until his parachute opened out and checked him. The crumpled balloon, weighted with its basket and cabs, gained on the observer, caught Mm up, and for a while they fell side by side. Gradually the balloon passed the observer ami reached the ground first. In each case the first thing the observer did was to throw overboard his ma]»s. These were all Weighted with lead and fell direct."

The writer adds: "A Gorman 'plane very seldom crosses our lines. They do come over at times; T have seen five or six at once, but to see them is an exception. They fly so high as a rule a s to render their observations in no way so good as our own. On this part of the front, where things are quiet, they are much bolder, but it does not biatter much, for there is little to see.''