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Show INTEREST GREAT II TIE FLYING CORPS To Uninitiated 'Stunts' of Airmen Are Little Short of Miraculous. THRILLERS ARE MANY Description Given of Battle Between One British and Two German Machines. LONDON, May 19 (Correspondence of the Associated Press). "In a service ser-vice like the flying corps the standard k of values is on a very different plane J-- from that of average lay minds," writes a British military expert from the front. "What is little short of miraculous miracu-lous to the uninitiated is but a commonplace common-place to the airman, and a pilot's achievement must be very fine indeed before it is regarded with undue interest inter-est by his fellows, far less by himself. "This enlarged perspective has extended, ex-tended, though to a less degree, to the soldiers in the trenches, to whom the antics of an airplane, or squadron of airplanes, have long since ceased to be a novelty. But sometimes an undefin-able undefin-able touch of 'class' about the manner in which a pilot handles his machine immediately attracts the attention of the men below, and the whole trench here will be filled with eager and observant ob-servant spectators watching his every maneuver. "Every plane coming up from the rear is earnestly scanned until its identity iden-tity is established, and once it is known that 'he' is coming the soldiers lean back on the fire-step and wonder what new 'stunt' will be introduced, for their delectation. The pilot in turn seems conscious of what is expected of him, and the more cheerfully takes his risks among the 'Archies' because it provides the tired trench dweller with a little mild amusement. Machine Overrated. "One such pilot existed just at the time when the Germans introduced their much-overrated Fokker. This type cf machine, and the tactics evolved with it, certainly scored an initial success suc-cess against some British airmen. But improved planes are constantly being - brought out, and each side has always rin use a certain number of machines inferior in-ferior to the later enemy planes. When the two types come into conflict the - odds are naturally in favor of the better bet-ter machine. Supremacy in the air, however, depends more on the skill and resourcefulness of the pilot than on the quality of the airplane he flies, and it is to such resourceful men that the British owe their undeniable supremacy of the air, a supremacy often challenged, chal-lenged, but never broken, even when for the time the Germans have had the better type of machine. "The fame of the pilot mentioned waa not confined to any particular sector. sec-tor. The whole line knew of his exploits. ex-ploits. His name was never mentioned In print at home, but out in France in every rest camp, village and town men chuckled hugely over his doings and wore greatly cheered thereby. Here is one of them: Fierce Battle in Air. "A British machine was engaged on a reconnaissance over the German lines when it was attacked by two Fokkers. The observer saw the first Fokker coming, com-ing, and used his gun so well that the German fluttered' down to earth sorely damaged. The second Fokker, however, dived right behind the British machine and so deluged it with machine-gun fire that the pilot had no course left but to attempt a forced landing. The German Ger-man quickly recovered from his dive and was coming back to finish off his adversary when our pilot dived from behind the clouds. The German saw him coming, banked sharply and started start-ed to climb. "The Briton 'stalled' his machine and managed to put several shots into the enemy from beneath. 'One shot killed the observer; another put the engine out of commission, and the Fokker, Fok-ker, mortally hit, nose-dived steeply, throwing the dead' observer out into midair. Has Narrow Escape. "The pilot managed to regain control con-trol before his machine crashed and contrived to effect a landing of some sort. But our pilot was not finished with him. He circled overhead until the German had got clear of his machine ma-chine and then he descended further and sprayed the Fokker with machine-firun machine-firun fire till it burst into flames. He then started to climb. "Clouds of German anti-aircraft eholls pursued him, but he managed to get right over the German firing line hefore a shell burst near enough to injure in-jure him. His machine stopped in its course, its nose fell and down it went, diving steeplv to earth. A thousand feet, 50O, 200! Everyone's heart jumped in expectation of the crash. Then the plane righted. Along the German Ger-man line it sped, faster than a swallow, swal-low, and its machine gun spat venomously ven-omously into the crowded trenches. It W-as only a ruse, just another flight of the genius which marked the pilot from the ordlnarv, and as he mounted heavenward heav-enward and flew toward the safety of his own lines he leaned over from his seat and gavly waved his hand to the baffled foe." , |