IN THE AIR

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 27 July 1917, Page 6

IN THE AIR

BEITISH AIRMEN'S UNEXAMPLED

DARING

Nothing has stirred the whole American nation more to unbridled admiration of the British Empire and the part her sons are playing in the world war than the unexampled daring of the British airmen in the storming of Mes.sines Kidge. The American Press has bubbled over with tributes to the British birdmen. whose exploits in harassing the German armies are detailed with unmeasured gusto by the leading newspapers of the United States. Undoubtedly one of the best narratives of the wonderful work performed by the Britishers was that given by the American representative of the Associated Press of New York, accompanying the British forces in Prance. This general American observer, in a graphic word-picture, succinctly depicts the daring heroism of the British masters of the air in a manner unsurpassed by any other writer of the American continent, In one of his dis£?tebes he said; "The manner in which -the British flying corps dominated air during the battle of .Messines ridge and completely smothered the German aviation service for the time being is one fit the most thrilling and remarkable stories of the entire war. "Hundreds of British planes were well behind vthe German lines when the j battle broke into its fury at dawn. They had stolemover during the darkei intervals of the brief night, when the 'moon was hidden by storm clouds.

Other hundreds went aloft with the first .faint streaks of coming day and guided by the flashes of guns, flew Into the thick of the fighting. BOMBS HALT TKOOPS. "During the night British machines bombed enemy railway stations, trains, ammunition dumps and troops coming up on the march. Others hovered over German aerodromes and circled low among airplane sheds, and fired hundreds of rounds from machine-guns into them, and preventing the enemy machines from coming out.

"Later in the day while the fighting was most intense, British airmen dropped about three tons of bombs on the German flying grounds, as a further deterrent, which proved highly effective. In addition to shutting the German airmen out of any early participation in the battle, the British air-

planes were in a large degree responsible for the fact that the Germans could not launch, a counter-attack of appreciable strength until after forty hours after the battle for the ridge began, and every bit of ground desired by the British in this particular operation had been taken and secured.' CONVOY ATTACKED

"Far back of the German lines the British planes searched out troops in every hamlet, town and village. In several places, they saw them gathering or marching in the main streets, whereupon they flew down low at times and opened a fire which scattered the Germans in in all directions. All pilots reported that their accurate fire had a most demoralising effect upon the hostile troops. "Convoys and ammunition and supply columns were attacked while on tht\ march and the disorganised men left 1 their teams and automobiles on the roads while they sought shelter in adjacent ditches.

"Airplanes attacked troops in the support trenches, and sent them scurrying to the cover of their dugouts. One pilot made so many of these attacks that he finally ran out of ammunition "but he delivered his last stroke by letting go his signal rocket at a platoon of ; soldiers who, evidently mistaking this for a particularly horrible new style of war frightfulness, fled in all directions. German troops were fired upon in the more distant back areas as they were entraining for the front. Many of the enemy retreating from the British attack and hiding in shell holes were seen by the low-flying airmen and pelted with bullets. One British pilot patrolled a road for half an Lour before he saw anything to shoot at. Then a German military automobile, ■with three officers, sitting in the back seat came along. The Britisher, dived at them from a height of 300 feet, firing as they came. He flew so low eventually that the wheels of his undercarriage barely missed the automobile, which swerved into a ditch while going at forty miles an hour and crashed into a tree. This same pilot later came across and active field battery and charged it, scattering the gun crew and hitting a number of them. Still farther along he attacked a column of Germans marching in fours. The column broke when he opened fire, scattering to both sides of the ro-d. At no time during his stay inside 'the German lines was this pilot more than 500 feet from the ground. FLY INTO SHELL STOEM. "Large numbers of British machines were on contract patrol work, flying low over the advancing lines of infantry, constantly watching their movements, their progress, any temporary

reverse, any attempt to form counterattacks, and all the while sending detailed reports back to corps and army headquarters.

"The infantry commanders said it gave their men great comfort and a great-sense of protection to have their planes flying so low and so confidently just above them and exchanging signals with them.

"Of the fourteen planes lost during the day of the battle, a majority Avcre these contract machines. They had to fly into a frightful storm of their own as well as the enemy's artillery fire, and they succumbed to chance blows from these exploding missiles. Late on the day of battle, when the enemy machines had finally arrived from more distant aerodromes, there was some ' good hard fighting in the air, some of it at close quarters, with collisions barely j avoided. Twenty enemy machines were accounted for in the fighting, some . flopping about until they broke up in ' the airland others being driven dowji on their noses in yellow buttercup fields so far back in the fighting line that. no shell ever marred the symmetry on of the landscape."

FRENCH AIRMAN'S GREAT FIGHT

A fight between a French airman and a German infantry patrol is described by Mr. Henry Wood, the American correspondent with the French armies. The airman, Adjutant Madon, was forced to descend many miles behind the German lines owing to motor trouble. He alighted on the cleared space in a forest, and was trying to re-start his motor when a patrol of twenty Germans bore down upon him. As they approached the motor restarted. Madon leapt to his seat. * i

The enemy opened fire with their rifles almost at the same instant that Madon's machine-gun caught them in its deadly sweep. The Germans went down, riot over three or four remaining either standing or kneeling at the moment the swiftly advancing aeroplane tore over the ground to a point where the machine-gun could no longer be brought Into play.

With the release of his hand from the maehine-gun, Madon increased again the speed of his engine, and then bore down like lightning on the few remaining Germans. Whether they fell fiat before the wings of the aeroplane struck them or whether '•hey were mowiT down by the machine Madon does not know. He knowthat he merely swept over them, gave the tilt to his elevating planes necessary to leave the earth, and headed for the French lines.