FIGHTING IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1917, Page 9

FIGHTING IN THE AIR.

I GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF EXPERIENCES, (l'rom Our Own Correspondent). London, March 29. A private at the front, who confesses' to leading his Omar Khayyam through , . lo "t? watches of the night within hail of the German trenches, sends a giaphic account of his experiences in the advance 011 the Somme front. "Your letter," lie writes, "reached me this morning. it a i ove iy morning, bright, cold, and full of t'ho promise of spring. The ground was hard with frost • thc h'rds were singing in the woods. was seated just inside the door of my dugout, having breakfast, and listening to tho guns trying to bring down a bold 1 -»ei man y.via tor overlio&d. Tho ilyin nr taan was not hit. In my experience they, rarely are by gun tire from thc ground. 0,1 see dirty little puffs of shrapnel smoke all round them away up in the sky. But they Jieop on humming away and signalling to tliefr batteries behind. "Some days ago 1 saw a light in the air. It was a very clear day and the light was .quite eloso overhead. Two ol our scouting machines were up, and two of Fritz's, stronger fighting ones, went for them like hawks at sparrows. It was all over in two or three minutes. Both our machines were raked by the planes, and came crashing toi earth. You could sec the pilots fafl out of their wrecked air carriages and fall headlong, from about 3000 feet, with arms out like men diving. The combat was typical of the German methods. The German flying man watches and pounces on our lighter scouters with his heavy battle flyers, and avoids our battle planes as much as possible. "I dbn't think you would like it out here. I have not seen a civilian, a window pane, or an entire and undamaged building of any sort for about a month! Everything are heaps of bricks and masonry, old scrap iron, twisted and broken girders, ruined household furniture, buliy tins, shell cases, petrol tins, and the debris of a ruined city and a fighting army. Old rusty bayonets, with sinister red stains .showing under the rust, bits of equipment, broken wheels, and all sorts of rubbish litter the ground. 4" nroimd, in the clear bright sunlight, and against a perfect blue sky, show the gaunt and still beautiful ruins of what once were masterpieces of architecture. And all the while our guns roar defiance at the foe, and the Merman guiiA, fuiijtlv heard afar off. send shells across to strafe us. Most of theirs are. heavy shrapnel, tuid you can hear the bullets and bits of shell rattle viciously on the ruins. It is like Hogging a corpse, except that every now and then sonic flying bit of metal searches out a victim, and you see a stretcher party go-«ff with a motionless form bandaged up on a dooly."