BRITISH AIRMEN'S GREAT DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1917, Page 7

BRITISH AIRMEN'S GREAT DAY

BRILLIANT MANOEUVRING DUEL.

[ The Associated Press Correspondent at the British General Headquarters in France telegraphs as follows: I The intensely bitter ground fighting of the past two days has been reflected lin the air, and the British Royal Flying Corps yesterday established a new" record by bringing down, 40 German machines. The remarkable part of yesterday's performance is that only two British machines are missing. It was the finest day's war flying that the young pilots in khaki ever had.

One intrepid young flying man, failing to find a single German observation balloon aloft, sought out one in its hangar on the ground, dived at it and set the big gasbag ablaze from stem to stern. A ißritis.li pilot, after felling two •German machines and all his ammunition being gone, descended, reloaded, filled up his petrol tanks and took the a,ir again, and within half an hour had bagged his third machine for that day. Another pilot 1 felled two others, 35 German machines being divided among a similar number of British pilots.

The greatest light yesterday, oddly enough, was a drawn battle. Oue of the British pilots met a. brilliant German tlier, and for a full hour they manoeuvred in the most marvellous manner without either being able to bring his gun to bear on the other. They rolled, looped, twisted, and deliberately stalled their engines, and, standing their nm. (chines on the tail end, ?.:?. backward through tho air, but all to no avail. It was probably the most wonderful air duel the war has yet seen. The Bri'tish pilot reported 'to-day that several times he felt sure ho would get his adversary between his sights, but the latter invariably wriggled' out of the line of fire. Tho British airman wn 3 himself kept busy avoiding the German, and once he had to divo almost perpendicularly. -The combat did not break off until both pilots had fairly exhausted both themselves and their petrol. Strangly enough, later in the day another British pilot encountered the same German machine. He was winging his way homo after a hard day's work, but jockeyed with the German for nearly a quarter of an hour before flying on." In strange 'contrast to this was the experience of the British pilot who somewhat peevishly complained last night, "I only got a rabbit." He explained this by saying that, while his opponent had a good machine, he was a clumsy fellow who could not fight at all, and was sent spinning with the first burst of gunfire. Still another pilot, mounted on a fast new machine, deliberately allowed a German machine to get on his tail Then suddenly he looped •behind his adversary, caught him just within the sights, and fired, killing him instantly. The machine swerved, and the dead man was pitched out 10,000 ft from the ground.—Renter.