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Show n MAJOR-GENERAL BID-DLE, BID-DLE, U. S. N. A. who, with the king and queen, re- ! viewed the great parade of American soldiers in London, j : BRITISH AVIATORS MAKE GREAT RECORD One Flier Attacks Five Germans Ger-mans Single-handed; Two Win With 20 Teutons. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE. May 11. (By the Associated Press.) There has been much, air fighting during the last few days, and the British airmen have fully sustained the great reputation they established early in the war. Several days ago near Ypres one British Brit-ish machine attacked five Germans single-handed. The Britisher engaged one enemy and fought him until he fled. The English pilot then went after another an-other German and pressed the. attack so hard that the enemy was forced into a nose spin in an attempt to escape. Tho ruse was futile, however, for the Britisher followed him down, firing steadily into the helpless German machine ma-chine until the latter finally turned on its back and fell. Another British plane was attacked by six enemy machines, which came at it from below and behind. The British observer opened fire at close range, riddling the leading German machine, which dived and then burst into flames. The British pilot got away safely. The British bombing squadron have been doing wonderful work. Tons of high explosives have been dropped among masses of the enemy at night, causing heavy casualties. The British machines also have been employed constantly con-stantly in attacking tho infantry from low altitude and in many cases veritable ver-itable slaughter has resulted. Cloudless weather on Tuesday favored the British aviators, according to an official statement issued today deal- ing with air activities, aud twenty-seven twenty-seven machines were downed and twelve flriven down out of control. In addition to destroying eight of the twenty German airplanes which, as related yesterday, were engaged so successfully suc-cessfully on Tuesday by two British machines the British aviators sent down five others damaged. The battle began when the British aviators attacked at-tacked seven German planes; I n o other oth-er enemy formations came up, raising the total of German machines to fwen-tv, fwen-tv, but, instead of retiring, the two British fighters pressed the attack. In and out among the large enemy force these two planes, with their gal lant little crew-, Bwirfed and charged, working their rapid firers like mad. One of the Britishers got on the tail of a big German machine ami riddled it with bullets. The enemy airplane hung quivering in the air for a moment, and then, turning its uose toward the earth, crashed down, with sheets of flame bursting from it. The seven other German machines were shot to pieces in rapid succession and took the final plunge, three of them leaving a wake of fire and black smoke to tell the story of the terrible fate suffered by the men strapped in their seats. The five other tnnrny machines forced to abandon the fight because, of their crippled condition, were reen to dive away, iu the hope of reaching the ground safely. Thirty minutes had sufficed for the two British machines to accomplish all this. Only seven of Ihc twenty enomv planes remained in the sir. The British Brit-ish had used up all iheir ammunition ' iu the furious inelcc, however, and j rflnnti nilftH on T'.-i -f ThrM BRITISH AVIATORS IKE GREAT RECORD (Continued from Page One.) there was nothing to do but withdraw, which they did in safety. The official statement dealing with aerial operations issued tonight, reads: Low clouds and mist prevented flying on Friday until 5 p. m. After Af-ter this hour the weather cleared on a small part of the front and great aerial activity took place in this sector until Jark. Over fourteen tons of bombs were dropned on Peronne. Ba-paume, Ba-paume, Thielt, Douai, Zeebrugge and the docks at Bruges. Hostile scouts were very active and made repeated attacks on our bombing machines. Kight German airplanes were brought down in air fighting and six were driven down out of control. Nine of our machines are missing. One reported report-ed missing on Tuesdav has returned. |