FIGHTING IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1917, Page 3

FIGHTING IN THE AIR.

AN INTERESTING LETTER. Mrs. A. M. Respinger, of Douglas, lias received an interesting letter from her brother, who in with the Flying Corps in France. "I fly a two-seater machine," he ; says, "and have an observer with me. He has a movable gun and I have a fixed one that fires straight through the propeller. We do not make a practice of lighting Hun single-seater scouts, us they are not only faster but, being' smaller, are much easier to manoeuvre, and so they always have an advantage. We content ourselves with defensive fighting unless a scout comes below i.s when it is possible to dive on him. When I first came here I 'walked' one day into the very middle of eight Hun t'wo-aeatcrs at.10,000 feet up amongst the clouds. It is solely owing to those clouds that I am still alive and kicking. 1 rnaile a dive for the nearest big cloud I could see -and disappeared into it, followed by sixteen different streams of lead I stayed there a while too, about three or four minutes. It is impossible to stop longer as von lose all sense of equilibrium, and don't know whether you are upside down or not. I then dived dived straight away for home, and never stopped until I got there. I 'have hfljl . one or two scraps, but I have never beaten the record I put up on this occasion, when there were some 45 bullet holes in mv machine.

"This is a life you 1 cannot stand up to for long. All pilots go home after completing six months out here, as their nerves give out after that. I have been wounded three times, and feel a spell will do no harm. I never knew anything so glorious as my -fortnight's leave. It was quite like Heaven to live for a few days out of the sound and reach of the Huns, Archies and "dud" machines that might let you down. t . '"I do not. see any signs of> the war I'paeking up' vet. Everything seems rather to point to bigger battles and greater efforts. Having gone as far as we have it is essential that we finish the job."