DEMIGODS OF THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 November 1917, Page 6

DEMIGODS OF THE AIR.

THE ALLIES' VALIANT FLYERS. (By Jell'ery I'sunol in the San Francisco Chronicle). ■luliVry Farnol, the note;! British novelist, lias recently visited tlTe western front, and is supplying English and American papers with articles detailing his experiences there. The following article tells of the daring acts of Army livers: A few short years ago Hying was in its experimental, stage: -to-day, though man's conquest of the air is yet a dream unrealised, it h«s developed enormously and to an amazing degree; to-day Hying is one of the chief factors in this world war, both on sea and land. Upon the western front alone there are thousands ■ upon thousands of airplanes—monoplanes and biplanes of hundreds of different makes and designs, of varying shapes and many sizes. I nave seen giants armed with batteries of swivel guns and others mounting veritable cannon. Here are huge bomb-dropping machines with a vast wing spread: solid, steady flying machines for photographic work, and the light, swift-climbing, dou-ble-gun battleplanes, eapaDle of mounting 2000 feet a minute and attaining a speed of 200 kilometres. Of those last they are building scores a week at a certain factory I visited just outside Paris, and this factory is but one of many. But the men (or rather youths) who fly these aerial marvels—it is of these rather than the machines that I would tell, since of {the machines I can describe little even if I would, but I have watched theni hovering unconcernedly (and quite contemptuous of the barking attention of "Archie") above white shrapnel bursts —fleecy, innocent-seeming puffs of smoke that go by the name of "woolly bears.'' I 'have seen them turn and hover and swoop, swift and graceful as great eagles. T have watched master pilots of both armies, English land Fileneh, iperform senl-shaking gyrations high in air, feata quite impossible hitherto and never attempted until lately. There is now a course of aerial gymnastics which every flier must pass successfully before he may call himself a "chasing" pilot; and. from what I have observed, it would*: seem that to become a pilot one must be either all nerve or possess no nerve at all.

EVOLUTION'S OF MODERN BIPLANES. Conceive a biplane, thousands of feet aloft. Miadnnl* flinging its nose up ami beginning '.o climb vertically as if in • tending to loop the loop: conceive of its pausing suddenly and remaining r perhaps a full irinute poised thus 'ipon its lr.il—absolutely pcrpendieuijr. Tiien. the engines switched off. nneeive of : ' falling helplessly, fail h,*t. reversing sn.dc illy and plunging earthward, s;' ning giddily round and round very like the helpless flutter of a falling leaf. Then sudde'v the engine roars again, the twisting, fluttering, dead tiling '>ecomes instinct with lit' rights itself majestically on flashing pinons. nop; down in swift and headlong course, and. turning, mounts the wind and soars up and "i as lipM, as graceful as anv bird. Other filings they do, ''■"- e soaring young demigods of the air —feats so marvellous i such ef

hound ones as myself, .'eats, indeed, so wildly darine. it would seem no ordinary human bo : - ■ could ever licpe to a<..ain unto. B"' in and. around Paris and at the front I have talked with, dined with and known many of these ,!rdmen, both English, French and ' " : ean, and have general'- found '''-~n w.y human indeed often 'by. generally simple and tinafTr"' cd. and always modest of their achievements and 'ill of admiration for seamen and soldiers, and ;..: - tily ,dad that their lives are not jeopardised aboard fillips or :uibmarines or in muddy trencher which sentiment I have heard fervor'.! expressed not once, but manv times. Surely tlie mentality of the Hier is beyond p- ordinary nnderslajiding!

It was with porno such thought in my mind that, with my friend, X , \ well-known Ame"';can correspondent, 1 visitod one of our flying squadrons .it the front. The day was dull and clond.y, and X——, versed and experienced in flying and matters pertaining thereto, shook a doubtful head.

"We shan't Bee . much to-day." lie opined. "Low, vHbility; plafond only about a thousand!" Which cryptic sentence, liv dint of pertinacious questionin?. I found to mean that the clouds wcro about a thousand feet from the earth and that it was misty. "Plafond," by the way, is aeronautic ftr cloud strata. Thus, I stood, with my gaze lifted heavenward until the intelligence officer joined us with a youthful flight captain, who, having shaken hands, looked up also and striked a small aud very young moustache. "Have you had many air duels?" I inquired, as we wandered on through a maze of wheels and wings and propellers. '■Oli. yes, one or two," he admitted, "though nothing very much!" he hastened io a<ld. "Some of our chaps are pretty hot stuff, though. There's IS—now. T! 's got nine so far." "An air fight must be rather terrible?" said I.

l"0h, I dont, know!" lie demurred'. "Get's a. bit lively sometimes. C , one of our chaps had a near go coming home yesterday—attacked by five Boehe machines, well over their own territory, of course. Thev swooped down on him out of a cloud. C got one right away, but the othcr-s got him —nearly. Thev shot his gear all to pieces, and put his bally gun out of commission—bullet clean through the tray. P.otten bad luck! So, being at their mercy, C pretended they'd got him—did a turnover and nosedived through the clouds verv nearly on two more Boehe machines that were waiting for him. So, thinking it was all up with him, C- dived straight for the nearest, meaning to take a P,oche down with him; but Hans didn't think that was playing the game and promptly hooked it. The other fellow had been Mazing awav and was getting a new drum fixed when he saw o—was on his tail, making tremendous business with his useless business, so Fritz immediately dived away out of range and C got home with about fifty bullet holes in his wings and his gun crocked and —oh, here he is!"

Flight Lieutenant C. appeared ratliev younger tlian his captain—a. long, slender yniilli, with serious brow and thoughtful eves, whom T forthwilli questioned as diplomatically as might be. "Oil, yes," he answered, in response tft my various out!"?, "it was exciting for a minute or so: but I expert the captain has been pulling your leg no end. Yes, ihov smashed my gun. Yes. they hit pretty well everything evcent me and my mascot—thev didn't get that 'hv aood luck! Xo. T don't think n. fellow would mind 'getting it' in the ordinary way—a bullet, sav. Tint it's the damned petrol catching alight and burning onn's legs," tlie speaker bent to sur>

vey his long legs with serious eyes. ''Burning isn't a very nice linish, somehow. They generally manage to chuck themselves out—when they can.'' •SEASONED FIGHTERS. Here is just another story dealing with three seasoned air lighters, veterans of many deadly combats high above Ihe clouds, each of whom lias more than one victory to his credit, and whose combined ages total up sixty or thereabouts. We will call them X,Y, and Z. Now X is an American, Y. is an Englishman, whose pcaeiiliko countenance yet bears the newly healed scar of a bullet wound, and '/.. is an Afrikander. Here begins tile story. Upon a certain day of wind, rain and cloud, news came that tho Bodies were massing behind their lines for an attack, whereupon X.. Y. and Z. were ordered to go up and verify this, ftayly enough they started, despite unfavorable weather conditions. The clouds were low—very low—but they must fly lower, so, at an altitude varying from loOfi to a. bare 10(1(1 feet they crossed th" (lermans lines, Y. and Z. flying wing and wing behind X's fail.. All at once "Archie" spoke, a whole battery of antiaircraft guns filled the air with smoke and whistling bullets—away went X.'s propeller and bis machine was hurled upside down. immediately Y. and X. rose. By marvellous pilotage. X. managed to right his crippled machine, and began, of course, to fall. Promptly Y. and Z. descended. UNWRITTEN LAW OF AVIATORS. It is, I believe, an unwritten law in tho air service never to desert a comrade until he is seen to he completely "done for''—hence Y. and X.'s hawklike swoop from the clouds to draw the fire of the battery from their stricken companion. Down they plunged through the battery smoke, firing their mac-hino guns pointblank as they came, ami so. wWling in long spirals, their guns crackling viciously, they mounted again ant" soawd c'Joudwflrd together, ibut there, among the clouds and in comparative safety, Z. developed engine trouble. Their ruse had served, however, and X. liad contrived to bring his shattered biplane to earth safely behind the. British lines.

Meanwhile, Y and Z. continued on toward their objective, but Z.'s engine trouble becoming elusive, he fell behind more and more, and finally, leaving Y. to carry on alone, was forced to return back. And now it was that in the mists abend he beheld another machine, which, coming swiftly down upon him, proved ' i be a German, who, mounting above him. promptly opened fire. Z., struggling with his balking engine, had his T-.:vls pretty full. Moreover, his oppr-ient. owing to gr*">tor speed, could attack him from- precisely whatever a'.e he hose. So iVy wheeled and flew. Z endeavoring to bring his, run fo bear, the German keeping sVi'fullv out of vange, now above him, low below, bu ever and plw-ivs behind. Tims the Roche, flying in Z.'s tail, had him at his mercv: n bullet. rinrH his sleeve, anothei -=h"d his spcedome' ■—. vet another broke his gauge; slowly find bv i' .(jrv-a nearlv all 7,.'< gear was r-ither smashed or carried away by bullets. BROUGHT TO EARTH IX \\.:i-::",:., news. Ail this time it is t« l/e supposed that Z. thus defenceless, is who.'H.ig and turniii- as well s.s his r-inpled conditio;, will allow, endeavoring to get a shot ai. his elu.MVe foe; but, as he told mc, he felt it was his finish, so he determined, if possibi , to ram his opponent and crash down with him through the clouds. Therefore, waiting until the Hochc , ..3 a:.-.iing at him f;-om dirctly below, he threw" his machi. into a sudden dive. Thus for one moment Z. had him in range, tor one moment only, but the range was close and deadly, and Z. fired off "half his try ■ he swooped headlong down uiion i-. astonished foe. All at once the Genua • waved an arm and sagged over sideways, his great battleplane wavering uncertainly, and as it began to fall Z. avoided the intended collision by inches. Down went the Ge--man machine, down and down, and, watching, Z. saw it plunge through the clouds wrapped in flames. Then Z. turned and made for home as fast as his balking engine would allow. These are but two stories amour; dozens I have heard, yet these, 1 think, will cuffieo to show something of the spirit. animating these young paladins. The Spirit of Youth is surely a. godlike spirit, unconquerable, carefree, undving. Ii is a spirit to whom fear and feat are things to smile and. wonder at, to whom risk and dangers are joyous episodes, and Death himself, whose face their y'fhful eyes have so often looked into, a friend familiar by close acquaintar 'dp. Upon a time I mentioned -omo such thought to an American aviator, who nodded youthful head and answered in this manner:

"The best fellows generally go first. and such a lot are gone now that there'll be a whole bunch of them waiting to say 'Hello, old snort!' So—what's it matter, anyway?" »

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