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Show uu Ground Flying Most Exciting of Aerial Tactics BEHIND BRITISH LINES IN FRANCE, Sept. 3. (Correspondence of the Associated Press) "Ground flying" fly-ing" is perhaps the most exciting of all the aerial tactics in which the British' Bri-tish' airmen arc instructing their American pupils in Northern France. It demands a high combination of skill and daring, but it is a game in which the British have during tho past year won a marked superiority over the Germans. The training of "ground flying" pi- lots Is particularly thorough, and includes in-cludes much necessary practice in leaping hills, trees and telegraph poles, etc., in a manner which promptly leads the uninformed spectator to condemn con-demn tho airman as a reckless fool. But failing" this practice the pilot would never acquire the skill and confidence con-fidence necessary for this highly specialized spe-cialized type of work. The machines used are fast and difficult to fly, and operating so close to the ground, the pilot knows that he has literally no more margin for indecision or hesitating hesi-tating than he has in actual aerial combat. In "ground flying" tactics the pilot acts mainly on his own personal initiative, in-itiative, and he must bo prepared to attack the enemy whenever he may be found, cither with bombs, grenades, darts, or machine gun fire. Thus German officers in charge of ammuni-j ammuni-j tion dumps have every reason to fear I the approach of- a British "low filer." The fear of machine gun f,rc is oven greater, and whole German regiments have been decimated and demoralized by British airplanes, j German batteries, railway stations, billets, training grounds and aero-. aero-. dromes are frequently attacked in this way, and the moral effect is very great, j Von Rlchthofen, the famous German ! airfighter. now dead, once described how an English machine one night came down to a height of 150 feet, through a fusillade of gun fire and blinding glare of searchlights, to bomb a German aerodrome with deadly effect. ef-fect. Richthofen considered it "tremendously "tre-mendously plucky that the man didn't swerve but came straight on In accordance ac-cordance with his plans." nn |