IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1916, Page 5

IN THE AIR.

A THRILLING COMBAI. ' 'AMONG THE CLOUDS. > GERMANS COPY BRITISH TACTICS. SEVENTY MACHINES TAKE PART. Paris, Nov. 12. A thousand Anglo-French troops watched near Bapaume the first real aerial battle at. a height of two miles, which was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch. It was between thirty ■ eight German machines and three Britlish squadrons each of ten aeroplanes The British delivered battle before the Germans were able to get across our lines. At one moment seventy machines were engaged In the fight. First a Fokker fell in flames, then a British aeroplane landed in its own lines badly damaged. Meanwhile the soldiers heard incessant machine-gun and irevolver fire overhead, and saw the last four German machines drop after half an hour's fighting. The enemy flew back in disorder, the British pursuing Reuter Service. '.i Pieceived Nov. 13, 9.30 p.m. London, Nov. 13.

Headquarters says that the old leisurely air combats are now gone. There are now swifter, more breathless, and reckless duels. The Germans are exactly copying our . methods, formations, and tactics. The last engagement raged for twenty minutes 0000 feet up among the cloucja It was an inextricable tangle of darting and whirling machines. The roar of seventy propellors and the clatter of guns filled the air. The strong wind drifted the battle deeply into the enemy's country,