AEROPLANE V. AIRSHIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1916, Page 7

AEROPLANE V. AIRSHIP.

LIEUTENANT BRANDON'S FEAT. London, April 11. So many different accounts of how the young New Zealand airman, Lieii- . tenant Brandon, tackled a raiding Zep- ." ■pelin, have appeared in various newspapers, that one might easily have come to the conclusion that the plucky Antipodean had been giving a broad daylight display at the Hendon Aerodrome, instead of attempting a serious military exploit in darkness only relieved 'by the ■ stars, and at an altitude at which a watcher on terra firma—even provided \ with the best of night-glasses—.would And it very difficult to follow the course '■ of the combat. The latest version of Lieut. Brandon's fight is published by the Leicester Mer-1 cury, which claims that its narrative is ' the earliest detailed account to be given to the public, that the particulars are ' from a thoroughly dependable source, , and can be accepted as being the actual ; occurrences, and that the account has ! passed the censor. As regards the \ latter fact no particular importance [ need be attached to it, for the ways of the officials charged with the duty of I seeing that the British public only sees ' the war through official glasses are quite ' ! on a par with those of Bret Harte's hea- ' then Chinee—peculiar. They strike out ' Kipling's quotations from special corre--1 spondent's articles, and have been known , to suppress half a page of a child's letter r to its father because it contained a row .' of crosses which the youngster meant to represent kisses, and they pass alleg- ' ed war news which they must know to be utterly false (or at least widely div- : orced from facts), unless they are them- ' selves kept in a state of profound ig- , norance of the real happenings of the : war. However, here is the Leicester Mercury's tale, which certainly does not '_ appear to have ■been subjected to any heavy application of the varnish of lma- , gination. It is, however, by no means certain—indeed, it is very doubtfully whether the Zeppelin which fell in or i near the Thames estuary was the craft Lieut. Brandon so pluckily tackled. 1 That "bird" is claimed as the "bag" of j. at least four or live anti-aircraft batteries at or near the east coast, and j General French is alleged to have actu- » ally congratulated one Kentish battery on having brought down the raider: — e "Lieut. Brandon left the ground with s instructions from his commanding officer n to patrol in a certain direction, as the t enemy aircraft was expected there. The t pilot had not been in the air more than a, a quarter of an hour when he saw his quarry going in the direction that was n expected. Lieut. Brandon gave chase, i and it can be readily imagined what his s thoughts must have been as he headed e his machine, with power full on, and every nerve strained, in the hope of gctd ting above the monster whose mission n it was to destroy unoffending women - and children.

"Driving his machine all out on that never-to-be-forgotten journey; Lieut. Brandon saw and lost, and then saw again the object of his attack, and at last found himself on its level. When he first saw it he was 6000 feet high, and once he must have 'been at 9000 feet. "It is typical of the pilot's absorption in his task that he never at that time looked at his instrument which showed his height. It may well be undewtood that all iiis energies were taken up with the one great thought. "And so he approached the Zeppelin. He came, round the front of it at a height above it of 400 feet. Then with a sharp turn he came over the huge machine. "Then came the first of the thrilling moments. With one sweep he liberated' three of his explosives. What must his thoughts have been when he heard three distinct detonations from the rear part of the airship? But he had no time to think, for now he was over and beyond it, and was in a position to pay for his temerity. For with the huge machine guns the Zeppelin now was firing round after round of ammunition at him. The daring pilot felt the impact of the bullets on his machine as he dived past the airship. "In passing, it may he said that when Lieut. Brandon landed, after it was all over, his machine in parts was found to he riddled with bullet holes. The crew had shot at him. He knew they had hit his machine, and yet Lieut. Brandon came round to have another blow at his enemy. The back part of his machine was giving out sparks, but lie was not satisfied, so he worked round the machine, and flew over it from stem to bow. Here, reaching down, he liberated still more explosives. "Again as he passed were magazines of cartridges fired off at him. The Zeppelin became engulfed in darkness as she gradually fell to her last restingplace in the estuary of the Thames."