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Show TELLS GRAPHIC STORY OF FIGHT INJURE 1 Associated Press Correspondent Corre-spondent Witnesses Unusual Un-usual Scene on Brit- , ish Front. GERMAN MACHINES MAKE THE ATTACK Escape the First Onslaught by Return and Two of Their Planes Are Brought to Earth. WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN FRANCE, Dec. 24, via London. (Prom a staff correspondent of the Associated Press.) A day of sunshine a rarity in December on the British front recently caused a temporary revival of activity among the aviators, presenting a spectacle spec-tacle which a few years ago could have lived only in the imagination. Out of the distance there came early in the day a scries of black specks which gradually grew until they took the form of German aeroplanes. From points of telescopic observation their approach had been signaled long before be-fore even the tiny dots were visible to the naked eye. British guns were ready and British aeroplanes were already climbing above the the ruins of the shell-torn Flemish town to challenge the invaders. "Archies" Speak. While the German machines were still over their own lines the British anti-aircraft cannon, known as "Archies,'' "Arch-ies,'' began to speak. A moment later a shrapnel shell burst into a white puff-ball puff-ball just in the path of the on-coming aeroplanes. At first the white fleck of powder smoke seemed no larger than a pinhead, .but it soon spread until it appeared as an exaggerated toy .balloon, and. floated as lazily against the sky. Then there was another puff, and then another, until it seemed that a half a hundred "Archies" must be going, and the sky became pierced with whito smoke balls, each one marking a spot where a breaking shell bVf showered its leaden pellets upon the fast-traveling Germans. Plunging in and out among the exploding shrapnel, the approaching ap-proaching aeroplanes left a trail of these flecks and powder puffs in their wake. British Airmen Go Up. Up and up, through the danger zone of their own guns, the British aviators climbed eagerly to the fight. The distant dis-tant hum of the hostile motors now could be heard, mingled with the louder, bee-like drone of the English machines, and between the scarcely perceptible intervals of the (Anhies " fire came the staccato notes of the machine guns. The British airmen had opened fire.' Now the British machines began ' to close in and the invaders turned suddenly and started for their own lines. Their retreat was marked by the same trail of shell Are as had seen their approach. The British aviators pursued, but having in this instance the distinct -advantage of height and a diving start for home the Germans temporarily got away. Two Brought Down. This was the first phase of the day's battles in the air, a prelude to the later fighting, when two German machines come crashing to earth; In spinning nosedives. nose-dives. Airplanes are ever so much like birds as when they meet In an aerial combat. They dart. diash, circle, turn and swoop like so many feathered warriors, and often the battles rage at such high altitudes that the : machines become all but invisible. Again there wiU he a fight among the clouds, when tlye morn daring aviators make startling y hinges through the intervening inter-vening mist to jatch their opponents unawares. un-awares. Alway there is great maneuvering maneuver-ing for position, and the spectators are tilled with Wnder at what the modern ; airplane can, do. even to flying upside I down. MosG of the fighting aviators en- j deavor to "et on the other fellow's tail." ' This mennsj a. position above and slightly, behind theadversary, where one can fire down into him. Others, however, prefer to attack -from a position almost directly underneath, thinking they have a steadier1 firing pfiatform in climbing than in diving. ; j Show 7ATonderful Stability. The flatter-day machines have such; wonderful stability that they can only be brouglu down by direct hits, killing the pilot or piercing the petrol tank, in which latter event the airplane generally catches fire find falls in a blazing spiral. W,hen the history of aviation in the present war is written it will contain some of f the most thrilling chapters of the Strang world conflict. The British flying crfrps. which grew from almost nothing ait the beginning of the war. has already Established records of daring and attainment attain-ment which even In the colorless official reports of the corps read like fiction. Recently Re-cently there has been fighting on the - British front in which from sixty to : eighty machines were engaged. 96 Fights in One Day. There have been as high as ninety-Fix separate fights in a single day on" this front alone. Near the point where the British and French lines join there have been fights in which the French have come to the assistance of the Knglish and vice versa, to help defeat the Germans. There have been both Engllnh and French (Continued on Pago Seven.) TELLS GRAPHIC TALE : OF AERIAL BATTLES (Continued from Page One.) instances of aviators, as a last resort, deliberately de-liberately crashing into a German and sending him down. After one instance of that sort a British aviator brought his machine down with only one wing. He could only effect a landing with his engine going and had deliberately to collide with a tree, seriously Injuring himself. There was one memorable occasion when three British machines deliberately dived into a formation of seventeen German Ger-man machines, destroying two of the hostile hos-tile planes and themselves escaping unhurt. un-hurt. Another time two British aviators attacked eleven Germans, and once a second sec-ond lieutenant of the British corps attack at-tack five hostile machines. He. In turn, was attacked from behind, but turned and got in the rear of the hostile craft and, keeping "nn its tail," drove it down. The British aviators take great satisfaction satis-faction at the result of a recent tight when they attacked a German bombing squadron squad-ron which was trying to cross the British lines. In the heat of the aerial combat the Germans let go bombs which fell into their own lines. |
