IN THE AIR

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 5 September 1917, Page 6

IN THE AIR

A GREAT FIGHT IN THE AIR. (Described by a B’ritish ,War Corres- . pendent at the Front). This is tbe story of bow five British aeroplanes fougbt twenty-seven Germans and beat tbem sending eight to earth crashing, and in flames. It was on Saturlay, May 5, 1917, a day or great heat, when there was a haze so thick that you could hardly see the ground from a height of 2000 feet Our men had started fairly late in the afternoon, and at 5 o’clock were well over in enemy country, when, with the sun at their backs, they saw two enemy machines ahead. They tried to close with the enemy, who made some show if giving fight It was only- to show however, for as our leading machines drew near the Germans turned and made with all speed for home. The tactics suggested that the two enemy machines ~were only decoys, intended to lure our little flotilla _ as far as possible from the base —and the suspicion was soon confirmed. When we started to chase the two flying enemie s out or the haze and iog on all sides new fleets came closing in.

The new arrivals flew in three formations, two of which contained eight machines and the third contained 7 nine, making twenty-five German aeroplanes, all of a uniform fighting type, to whom the .other two, who now ceased to run away, joned themselves, making twenty-seven enemy machines in all.

One of the enemy taking advantage of the thick air, had passed behind our squadron, ahd came at it, as from the direction of our lines, straight between it and the sun—an awkward direction from which to have an enemy flying at you in the late afternoon, when the »un is getting fairly 1ow t . The other two fleets came from the southeast and northeast As they approached they spread' out so that our men'“were ringed around with enemies on every side. The fight began at about 11,000 ft, but in the course of the things that followed it ranged everywhere from 3000 feet to 12,000 feet, up and down the ladders of heaven. And an extraordinary fact is that all the while it went on the German anti-aircraft guns below kept at work. Usually as soon as aeroplanes engage the “archies” are silent for fear of hitting the wrong man; and whether the German gunn6r B w'ere drunk with excitement at what, was going on above them, or whether it was that our machines formed so isolated and compact a mass' in the heart of the great maelstrom that it seemed still possible to shoot at them in safety, is not known. At all Invents the tumult in the skies was increased by the constant pumping into the tangled mass ©f shell from the ground.

The actual fighting lasted for a full liour, from five till six o’clock, an extraordinary time for sjich a thiug, and during all that hour our men fought tooth and nail and the fight had lasted but a few minutes when we drew first blood, and an enemy mawhich Ca-ptain A. had attacked ;went down in flames, with the wings of one side shot away. Then it was Lieut. B.’s turn. He caught his adversary at close range fairly, and the German airplane went down, turning oyer and over as it fell straight down 11,000 feet ? leaving a trail- of smoke behind. Lieut. C. scored next, his enemy’s machine spinning plumb down to where somewhat below the haze, it must have crashed.

Then, for a moment, it seemed that our luck was turning. Lieut. B.’s engine gave out, and he wa s “compelled to leave the formation” It is a simple phrase, but what If means is that, help less and still, the airplane dropped out of the fight from 11 ? 000 feet down to 3000 feet. It was a dizzying drop, and as he fell, an enemy seeing him defenseless and scenting easy prey went after him.

But other eyes were watching, Lieut. C. saw his crippled comrade slipping downward and saw the German diving after. Quick as a flash he followed, and before the German could do his work the British aeroplane was almost touching the tail of his machine and in another second the German turned clean over in the air and then crashed nose foremost down into the abyss. Then, almost by a miracle, B’s engine caught its breath again and once more the machine was under control, and B, who was one of those whose were new to the game, climbed and rejoined the formation. Some 8009 feet he had to climb, with the baffled ‘ ‘Archers” blazing at him below, up into the inverted hill above, where his four comrades were fighting enemies who outnumbered them six to one. Just as he rejoined another German fell. It was A’s second victim of the day, and friend foe alike saw the machine go. sheeted in flames, down into the gulf. Then -once again it seemed that a throw jad gone against us, for, still

under control but with flames bursting from its reserve petrol tank, one of our machines began to drop and again an enemy, glimpsing an easy quarry, dived for the flaming ruin as it fell, but, quicker than he, 'A also dived, and while our crippled machine, still belching flames, slid off, with its nose set for home, the German, mortally hit, dropped like a stone.

It was first retribution. Th 6 unwritten laws of this marvellous game, prescribe that no honourable fighter attack an enemy in flames. Such an enemy is out of the fight, and has trouble enough for a brave man. The German who dived for our burning machine knew that he "was doing an unchivalrous thing, and it may be that that knowledge unnerved him and he paid the penalty. . 7 • Strangely enough, our burning airplane got home, I have seen the wreckage, with the reserve petrol- tank on the roof bearing two bullet holes on oneside and great ragged tears on the other where the bullet passed out. The whole tank is scortched and crumpled. The flames had burned away the whole central span of the upper plane. The thick rear main spar was charred and burned through, and two ribs were completely severed, and being with loose blackened ends. Yet like a great blazing meteor it crossed our lines and came to earth, not, indeed, at its own home, but on safe and friendly ground, and, as another airmen said to me in admiration “He made a perfectly topping landing.” Meanwhile the wonderful fight was drawing to a close. The British pilot, Lieut,, D., emptied a belt from his machine gun into an enemy when so close that his wings almost brushed the other”s rudder; and the enemy turned turtle, clear over his back, and, spurting out a thick column of black smoke, went down. Some of the enemy wore already

drawing off, but our men were in no mood to let them go. It is harder to get out of a losing fight than it is to begin it, and before the enemy mob could disentangle itself from the battle two more of their machines had gone to earth —one, his third in the fight, falling to Lieut. C. and one to Lieut. F. Then the last four of our machines, still lords of the air, came home.