AIRMEN'S GREAT DEEDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1917, Page 3

AIRMEN'S GREAT DEEDS.

AMAZING STOUY OF A SINGLE FLIGHT.

(FIGHTS WITH -FIVE GERMANS. (H. Perry Robinson, in the Daily News). General Headquarters', April 18. Here is the record of a single (light of one of our airmen, made within the last few days. I have cut out only the names of machines and such small details as might conceivably be useful | to the enemy. Otheriwse the record j is precisely as it was written: "When pur machines were attacked at Cambrai I attacked a hostile aviator at about SOOO feet. I sa,w that I hit his engine as we closed with one another. I half looped to one side of him. and then he dived with a large trail of blue smoke. I dived after him to about 4(100 feet and fired about fifty rounds into him, when he went down absolutely out of control I watched him spinning down to about. 1000 feet, the trail of smoke increasing. '1 was immediately attacked by three 'enemy machines, iwhich drove me down to about 200 feet. We were firing at one another ■whenever' possible, when at last I got into a good position and attacked one of them from above, having another on my right. I closed on the latter, turning in on him so close that I could get a sight actually on the pilot's head. I saw my bullets strike the pilot's head, and the machine then simply heeled over and spun to the>. ground. The other two machines cleared off.

"Having lost sight of all the other ■machines and being so low, T decided to flv home at aibout tiiat height, namely, 200 feet. A company of German cavalry going cast along a small road halted and fired on me; also several machineguns opened fire, "After going west for about five minutes I -was again attacked by an enemy single seater, and as he approached I rocked my machine until he was within fifty yards. I side-looped over him and fired a short burst at him. He seemed to clear off and then attacked me again. These operations were repeated several limes, with slight variations in the way I, looped over him, until within about five minutes of crossing the line (flying against a strong wind), when he was 1 about 150 yards behind me. T looped straight ver him, and, coming out of the loop, fired a good long hurat. I saw where I hit the Vilnt in the hack just above the edge of the cockpit, lie immediately dived straight into the ground. "I then went over the Orman trenches filled with soldiers, and was fired on hy machine-guns, rifles, and small r .<dd guns, in or out of range. There ■was a lot of artillery firing going on. and I 'uiny of our shells bursting in and about I the Orman trenches, somewhere in the vicinity of the Cambrai road. I saw many small companies of infontry and -cavalry, about ten to fifty each, going east along small roads. T noted no convovs or movement of artillery. "I landed at the first aerodrome I saw. Mv machine was badly shot about."