WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 2 August 1917, Page 3

WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS

ON THE MESSINES SECTOR: (By Malcolm Ross.) Almost any evening now you may see in the air a duel ,of the most exciting and spectacular kind. The other day one of our men brought down a Boche 'plane. It turned over and over as it fell, and before it had fallen far a man tumbled out of it. For him that must have been a terrible descent. To-night, while writing in my little hut after dinner, I heard the distant poping of a machine-gun in the sky, and, dashing to the door, was in time to see the tracer bullets from a Boche 'plane aimed at one of our balloons a few fields away. The two men climbed quickly out. of their basket and took the parachute plunge that is always so interesting to the onlooker, and that must be so thrilling to the observer. Slowly, very slowly, the two parachutes, borne eastwards towards the German lines on a lignt breeze, descended, till I lost sight of them behind a hedge. There was much speculation as to whether they ; would fall in our or the enemy's lines. The German pilot dived after them, firing his machine-gun at them as he flew, but, apparently, without effect. Then some of our attacking 'planes frightened him -home. "That was a very feeble effort," said a man beside me, and a Belgian Count remarked that this was a very unsporting war when one man could shoot at another man who was unarmed in a falling parachute. It was half-past nine by the summer clock, and the balloon was a dark silhouette just below the round moon. The flashes of the shells aimed at the departing Boche made sparks in the sky. And black against the opal of, the zenith our droning 'planes were coming home to roost after their eventful day. Dippng down into the amber of the western sky, they sought the aerodrome that was their •heme. Some there were that did not come back. For these the brilliant flares that were meant for guiding lights were shot into the darkening sky at intervals, till there was no hope. There would be some vacant chairs in the mess to-night. For an hour or more the flares went up in vain, affording only another spectacle to the curious, for brave pilot and observer had either crashed to earth or landed far from home. Lucky they were who had landed behind their own lines, lucky even they who could make a safe landing in No-Man's Land. The later had at least a chance of getting -home, even though the i flares had died down.