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Show tnmander Tells Why Allies Hold Supremacy of ihe Air to is MED TOR iORJUN WAR lier . General Lee jring- Country With Flying Circus. .General Charles Fred-, Fred-, ciief of the British avla-lu avla-lu now to this country, m the accompanying ar-to ar-to tho tenets of the force, he says every-Hat every-Hat the service, but not , jbout himself. He and - form part of the so-caDed circus," i'cn journeys tie air from city t city icj, and not only enthralls i of thousands of specta-k specta-k its feats, hut makes an "strong appeal -when the general ascends the plat-i plat-i tells his hearers the se-j se-j achievements of the fly- HOW BRITISH AVIATORS BATTLE GERMANS ABOVE THE CLOUDS j I Without the aid of the aeroplane, casualties in the fighting ranks would increase by leaps and bounds. England i; j and her allies have perfected the science of flying, and have used it to great advantage during the great war. Here arc : three British official photographs of British planes and pilots who have done much toward an allied victory. ; v , x-' I S'sJ - J W'i Jv " j A FAMOUS Koyal air force squadron squad-ron with a creditable record. Every pilot and observer in tho group has brought down at loast three encruy machines. C. "50 6-in. Howitzer rounds observed ob-served in 40 minutes and 31 others in 2 minutes. Fire for otfaet good. Three explosions m the tarjjet position, aDd a fire and explosion m a neighboring neigh-boring position." Results of Work. These records, in a cold and unvarnished un-varnished way, give the result of work with artillery. It does not, however, tell the vast amount of training which has taken place before the pilot and observer are efficient, nor the evolution evolu-tion oi wireless as used in an aeroplane. aero-plane. Our work wih infantrv, cavalry and tanks is also of the greatest importance. impor-tance. A system of signals is devised de-vised as between the infantry and the aeroplane, and tho aeroplane flies extremely ex-tremely low to get theso messages, tlv back, and gjve the commander accu-' accu-' rate information not only as to where the infantry is. but also as to what thev mav be in need of. Perhaps thev mav be short oi: ammunition or greu-ades. greu-ades. All this has to be communicated communi-cated quickly it the material is to bo brought tor. ;rd in good time. lor cavalry and tanks the aeroplane is both an eyo and an ear. Aeroplanes Save Life. As 1 began bv saying, flying is designed de-signed to save life. Take, for instance, a machine which flics at a height ranging rang-ing between fifty feet and 400 feet, and searches for information which is invaluable to the commander of tho i . i - . J, 3' V t . I2 , ' ' V" If . ' f " ' - , B' RIG ADIEU-GENERAL CHARLES FREDERICK ("Fall-ling ("Fall-ling Leaf) LEE, the tbirty-year-old chief of the British I aviation mission, which is now touring' the United States. Rector in which an attack is going to take place. Jt is up to the pliot 01 an airplane to discover if the batteries arc active or if they are only camouflaged camou-flaged make-believe. If ho can transmit trans-mit tho facts to tho artillery commander, comman-der, in tho one case be can h.-ivc the battery destroyed and prevented from sbelling our troop, and in the '-asc of a. camouflaged log lie can save tho battery bat-tery commander the trouble of firing at it. On the same lines, it is the duty of t ho p'lol. to see where the trench mortars are, in order that they may be knocked out before tho attack begins, as well as the mnchine-guu emplacements, emplace-ments, Tshich cause such havoc to an attack if thev have not been previously previ-ously dealt with. Last., but not least, it j essential to know if Ihe wire in J'ront of the German trenches has been cut efficiently. If it has been, all is we'd. If it hijs in ! . ii is ji.'i-essory for the artillery to Mgnin Ftrafe it. in order or-der that an infantry regiment mav" not start, an attack only to find iUnfL beJd up on Cermnn barbed wire. Thev .saving .sav-ing of life bv an efficient air force is absolutely colossal. The ttero.:ine mu?t descend from the iVH.Im uf mystery il has. oci-upied i ri t.bc public mind, and assume its practical form. It should be loohed on as a ma-rhine ma-rhine designed to run-' a man th''oe?ll (be air for definite purpose, and that purpose is to help those on the ground to go forward. The Life of a Flier. Ye ha c to rid uin-.rl-- el mista-Leu notions. The liic ol' a pilot is realfy i'a.r mere ceil, fori aide than is possible fev, lits comrades in thf mfanfrv, I'nx'-alrv I'nx'-alrv or arii'lery. Tiie infanlr. wh-u in the (vecc'ies. are slv.-'i'Vi rent i'lunliy aii'i oflen be.l ily. They have to s'eep in duenuls, seme vs'i, and so'ne dry. Tlv-' are at war I'e v'nnle Imv. e-,-epf. t veiirse. when tl.rv a'-e bar!; at rest. Put the pi!1'!, lhrot,j:h hi- prried of fighting uia' '.oniie.H' fer t ;sks anil mouths a"" ." tinn:. has a driinife leb to do cavil day. He 1 news, v.'neu that job is over, he will return. Pi a r'.Yln bouse, a rlrau 'era! aal a rlon led. His moralo is exrellcuf. ;. fiya; the besf niachin.' the v-ru emmer i rnn sup-pb-. !le uecs net see tie' .iirrv s.'.!e of libe v-ar. He dees ner fid in ihe ail the ci" ar.d 'be tilth n ihe c-ltunf!. II is col 10 be wondered at tb.it be i? proud to be in the ;nr eir;ien. A certain t4v,v of pcrfoi, w;it..v on the dangers of flvii:;.; and -v.v be pre vented bim-rtf item bom:; killed, vet e'lefrvtb of the niitoPi I' r;,'. in ! lii trenches would make the air-pilot's story sound very small. Yet the airman air-man is all-important. It would not matter mat-ter if America sent ten millions of meu to Trance if there was not an efficient air service back of them. Fortunately, things aro going well. The United States has pilots of the BRITISH airmen inspecting a newly captured Gentian plane at a flying corps depot near the front. The wings of the machine have been shot off by allied fliers. right kind, and the material is now going go-ing overseas in the right way. I have been fortunate enough to see a good deal of American flying men, of the training which is going on in this country, coun-try, and of a certain number of American Ameri-can cadets in England. Personally, I have nothing but praise for American flienti, and tbQse at home have nothing but praise for the cadets there. And how important a thorough training is! However wel a pilot may fly, however good his machine may be,- unless he can kill his opponent in the air, he is, to all intents and ' purposes, useless. To do that he must have a gun, use a preponderance prepon-derance of fire, outmaneuver his enemy and bring him down. There are several sev-eral means and ways of achieving this excellent result. Some Germans have been forced to land without having been fired on; others have been brought down by machine ma-chine gun fire in the air, and a few by anti-aircraft fire from the ground. Again, a very small number has been shot down by infantrv gun fire from trenches. The more Germans brought down, the less sacrifices of life we have on our side of the lines. Say a German Ger-man airplane has come over our side of the lines; say he has taken photographs of our artillery position; say he has photographed trenches where we are assembling as-sembling to attack it is perfectly easy 'for him, if not interfered with, to take these back, bave them developed and issued to the artillery. lie can also call up batteries by wireless wire-less and have them, train their guns on the infantrv so assembled. Hence, it is absolutely necessary that every hostile hos-tile machine on our side of the lines, every enemy machine in the air at all, shall be brought down whenever and wberevor possible. Only by this means can we save our own men on the ground, and eventually make the Gorman Gor-man government realixo that they cannot can-not ridfc rough-shod over every nation in the world. Is Germany "Efficient"? People lmvo talked a lot of German efficiency and intelligence. Yet bat can we think of an efficiency which has been training for over thirty years to destroy two mitions when least pre pared ? And Germany could not even do that.! The Huns chose a time when they were ready and Belgium aod 1-Vance unready. Thev chose a time when, as they thought, Great Britain would he too' much occupied with her own affairs to bother about tho affairs af-fairs of oilier people. The- thought their system of systematic syste-matic terrorism would frighten people out of the war. They thought their atrocities in Belgium, now proven to be systematic, tfould so frighten other nations na-tions that they would keep out of the war and let the German bull' in the shape of autocracy go ivhcre he wanted to. They have bar one or two rude shocks since then. The latest and greatest, great-est, was when America, came into tins war. (I would tike to barp on this theme, but must keep to my story.) Aerial Gunnery Key. With the airman came the air-gunner. Id 191! and the early part of 1015 pilots and observers carried rifles, and the pilots at that time sat behind. There w-'re no marhiim gnus on airplanes. air-planes. Mon undouPle:iy loiigbt iD the air, but t lieso scraps generally resulted in tlvo inurhines maneuvering around earh other and o,:rasioi;a.l 1;- getting in a shed. s-om"times: one mar.bine or the other was ferrr-1 to land for laci, of gasoline. It 'v.is ex'remely lurbr if you rouid pel in a shot that would cither disabb- the pilot or knock out the ma'-hinc. i0'- until the advent nf the leu is guD did aerial g-imnerv real-lv real-lv bein to make itself iV-Il. 'Tbo'.." ami;.' litt'e weaoons were mounted on sv.i ve ns on ea'-b fide of tb" machin'-. and cut down to decrea -.'.ruhi. "J'be. Iviv-ev er. though the h' -iniiiTi, wj:1 oc.n cr -J tisfactory, nod the flo)ajr., in the machine srun vvere f r'Tjij.-nt . In tbf middle of iftlo Ihe Gorreau aviatik hal a sini'le movable gun in lb-- rear C'-M-krut vrlv), ,-anccd ipiiie a b'l of lt,,-4-,lr i, th.. sUi,-, This was followed .by the French Tweuport machine, which had a Lewis gun mounted over the top plane, and at the same time we developed a ring mounting in the observer's cockpit. It thus became a race not only m machines, ma-chines, but also in gunnery as to who could bring tho most effective fire to bear on the adversary. In the autumn of 1915 experiments were made with the Vickers gun firing through the propeller. pro-peller. These blades were protected by steel plates called deflectors, which were so placed that when a bullet struck the blade it glanced off. No form of synchronizer gear had then been voiuted, but it was the beginning be-ginning of a system which is now universal. uni-versal. Late in 1915 the Fokker maile its appearance. This machine had not a great speed, but it did have a synchronizing syn-chronizing gear, i. e., a gear which enabled en-abled the machine gun to fire through the blades of the propeller without hitting hit-ting the blades and without anv loss of efficiency. It had quite a success for a time until the French got out the Spad gear and the British the Vickers gear. The latter was used by us quite extensively exten-sively over the linos, but owing to tho difficulty of training mechanics in its use, and the small amount that was GUNNERY KEY TO SUCCESS ANDVICTORT Rifles Were Introduced on Aircraft Early in Great War. knoTvn of it in tboso clays, it left, quite a In t bo desired. This was fnl lowed bv the Con Mat) tint? ti-nt? sec grar. whieh prueil 'cry r-atis-faotory. Here, then, vras a definite profrre.ss in aoriai qunnery, and today we have, ou every mabirw; two or tbrM or lour machino j,'ijns, two firing through the propel lor and two bein used by the observer behind. In the ease or' a two-seater, it' you consider 1 bo amount oi' rounds which can be fired on the. enemy from a. maeKine, vou will understand what a menaeo it Is. You can fire 6K rounds per minute min-ute from each un ; bene.e, the pilot can fire 1 200 rounds per minute, and j tho observer can reach the same figure with his two guns. Machines, of course, arc specialised. There. are single-seater machines, which depend Entirely on their power of maneuver and gunfire. There are two-seater fighters, where the pilot and observer have to work together the whole time. There aro machines do-signed do-signed for co-operation with artillery, which carry an observer and wireless. There aro large machines for day bombing and still larger machines designed de-signed for night boinbiop-. Owing to the pace at which machines maueuver, the sighting of machine guns becomes a very imporlant factor. To hit an object ob-ject in a vital spot going 120 miles an. hour, when your own machine is traveling trav-eling at the same pace, reqiures a vast amount of training' for pilots and observers, ob-servers, who practice gunnery continually con-tinually from the time, they go on the ground school until they go overseas, tn the mat ter of sights, perhaps the most noteworl hy development was a compensated foresight which allowcl automatically for the speed of your own machine, but the most valuable, adjunct ad-junct to air fighting was tho tracer bullet, a bullet neither explosive nor flaming, but which leaves a phosphorescent phos-phorescent trail. Vou can thus see if your bullets are going the wav vou want and aro entering tbo machine aimed at. The old maxim of cutting tlio enemy's en-emy's communications is only possiMo at the present moment by the air, and we can reach him in the air now with our large machines. We can give him a foretaste of what war will be when wc are in German territory. YVo can-make can-make it exceedingly hard for him to feed hit; troops in ibe field. |
