HELP FROM THE SKY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 195, 7 January 1913, Page 3

HELP FROM THE SKY.

BOSV A FRENCH FORCE WAS SAVED' FROM REBELS. London, December 20. Lieutenant Dohu, of the air corps of the French army, has demonstrated tlit value of the aeroplane in warfare in <i dramatic fashion. A small French force operating near Mogador, on the Moroccan coast, was completely surrounded by rebels, and was keeping up a hopeless defence in the old castle of Dar El Kadi. The odds were tremendously against the white men, and they were losing heart. They were on the point of giving up when an aeroplane came out of the desert, flew over the heads of the rebels, and circled above the Frenchmen. The pilot wa« Lieutenant Dohu, who ihad made a daring flight across the desert. He dropped a message, telling the troops that a relieving force was near at hand, and then flew back to the main army.

Although the guns of the cruiser Diichayla assisted the advance the relieving force was compelled to fight all the way along its line of march, and for eighteen hours they battled against the native levies.

Piles of dead Moors around the castle shoived how effectively the defenders repulsed the furious assaults of the native levies.