OCR Text |
Show GREAT WORK IS DONE BY FRENCH AVIATORS Convert Their Machines Into Weapons of Assault Against German Infantry. iy International News Service. I .ON D IN, Nov. 10. A rem irkable in-stance in-stance of the facility with which French iishtirjr planes can transform themselves into weapons of assault against infantry infan-try was furnished by the tb.irty-six-hour battle recently in the trenches northwest ff St. Quenttn. A niht attack by shock troops on French trenches oast of tho vdlape of Fa vet enabled the enemy to capture the front line over a width of five or six hundred hun-dred meter?. Immediately counter-at-i:cks expelled thtm from a part of the i ground, but they held on to the remain-, der nf the captured line, meeting our counter-attack? with fresh attacks of their own until the even ins of August 11, when a battalion of the Nineteenth rep i men t. coming fresh into the fray. j drove th-m from the position with bomb I :ind bavonet. I During the fig-hting- of August 10 and 111 the French aeroplanes continually swept over the ground, fly i tip low and I pour.ns a constant hall of machine gun j bullets into the trenches held by the e:iemv. i An army order thanking the troops of j Ml arms concerned says: 1 luirinsr the counter-attacks powerful power-ful squadrons of aeroplanes enlaced iu the fij;htincr. seconding the infantry infan-try with a courage which won the admiration of all. The planes came back from the battle riddled with bullets. Since the battle of tlie Somme the action of the aeroplanes engaging the enemy in connection with our own infantry has been no new thing, but it is probable that thev have never been engaged in j land fighting in such numbers, in such 1 a systematic manner, and on such a j narrow front. I The order mentions that while fight-j fight-j ing the ( lermans in their trenches as i described, the French aviators brilliantly discharged their ordinary duty of keep-' keep-' ing the French command informed of the I progress of the battle. |