ATTACKED IN THE AIR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 7 June 1917, Page 3

ATTACKED IN THE AIR.

'B'RITISH WALLOON BURNED. I ' Vr . I "GERMAN AIRMAN KILLED. j 'An attack on a British observation balloon by a German aeroplane is described by the New Zealand official correspondent. The two airmen had had a previous encounter, in which the enemy had been deprived of victory. "But this day," says the correspondent, "when the German airman came again we saw that he was a brave fellow. With grim determination he had come swooping down from the heighT at which he had crossed our lines, ,and, flying low above the level lands of t Flanders, he made direct for the balloon —a couple of hundred feet above it. Tat! tat! tat! went the' machine-gun as he flew over, and then, with a graceful bank and curve ho attacked again. Meantime our anti aircraft guns were banging with fleecy shrapnel puffs, and the two men in the cage hacf grasped their parachutes and taken the bold leap into space that meant for them life or death. The German, bravely daring, made after them with his machine-gun. But again the hawk missed his prey. The two balloonists came safely down.

Greatly daring still, the airman climbed amid the shrapnel, circled round again, and as he passed over the now tenantless ballon renewed his fire with incendiary bullets. The winch was now g l oing\ and the balloon began to come down. The airman had hidden for a few moments in a cloud, and out of tois 1 he came a second and third time, his gun spitefully spitting. On the third swoop w e saw a few fingers of red flame shoot forth

from the top of the envelope. These gradually grew and crept lower, till, in less time than it takes to type it, the gas was alight, and the whole thing was- a great mass of falling flame. It fell quickly now, leaving a long pillar of of black smoke in the air as it descended. Then the enemy, noting the result of .his handiwork, circled round, and made" for home, pursued by three or four of our planes..

Later in the day Ave learnt that the German had been hit, and had crashed to earth behind his own lines. One of our field guns completed the destruction of his machine, which burst into flames.