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Show -oo Airmen Highly . Successful in the Lorraine Fight WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE LORRAINE FRONT, Sept. 17.--(By the Associated Press.) Aviation played a large part in the American offensive In Lorraine as is indicated by a summary of the first four davs of the battle. In spite of the rain, which before the battle had transformed airdromes air-dromes into seas of mud and which during the combat handicapped the aviators on two of the four days, the airmen were highly successful During the fighting they made more than 3300 sorties, the summary showing that the machines were aloft for an aggregate of 4000 hours. During this time enemv airdromes wore so thoroughly bombed that the Germans were not able to do much of anything in the air fighting. Pursuit groups played a largo par1: In maintaining bombing barrages over the sector in advance of the attack and they enaged enemy airplanes and balloons wherever thyy were found. The work of tho American observation observa-tion corps was greatly facilitated by this activity. More than 30,000 rounds of machine gun bullets were fired at convoys, artillery and troop concentra- ' tions. The pursuit groups followed the British method of attack in launching ! small bombs at the concentrations they discovered. A number of reconnaissances were made by aviators who kept those Jn the rear in constant touch with the shifting of the front line. No less than 350 attacks were carried out against enemy ammunition dumps, batteries and other important targets. Observers Observ-ers penetrated the enemy line to depths of thirty miles day and night) and bombing units made the surprising total of more than 1000 raids. Cloudy weather interfered with the work of the balloons but there were scores of ascensions, during which forty-five hostile batteries were spotted. Tho French also played a conspicuous part in the fighting. On the four days there were seventy-five aerial combats, during dur-ing which nine enemy machines weie shot down and fifty -four more were driven down out of control. Thirty enemy balloons were destroyed during this period. An American patrol of five machines had an exciting experience from which, much to Its surprise, it emerged emerg-ed triumphantly. The airmen were flying fly-ing at an altitude of 6000 feet when suddenly seven Fokker machines dropped out of a cloud above them. It was a pure accident, but it unfortunately unfortu-nately placed tho German planes in the ideal position for a fight just be hind and some 200 feet above Hip Americans. The engine of the machine driven by the patrol leader was firing badly and two of the Fokkors attacked him He gave himself up for lost, being un able to get his machine to do anything. Just then the youngest member of tho patrol, Lieut. Frank Hayes, who wnis In his first fight, engaged one of th-2 enemy planes with such fury that It was sent to the ground. In the meantime, tho leader who had been desperately working to get rid of his pursuers, got his engine going and making a "cirage" shot the pilot who was just behind him, the enemy machine ma-chine taking fire. During the batttle another German airplane was sent crashing in flames to the earth and the remaining four of the enemy made for their own lines. Another American pilot, Captain Charles J. Biddle, of Andalusia, Pa., who has five enemy planes to his credit, did a neat piece of work on the second day of the advance. He lay in wait at an altitude of 18,000 feet for a German two-seater which at once accepted ac-cepted his challenge. After a considerable consid-erable expenditure of ammunition on both sides, the observer in the German Ger-man machine was shot through th3 head. The German pilot, however, con-I con-I linued to fight until his gun was dis-I dis-I abled. He then attempted to escape but was wounded. Captain Biddle preferred pre-ferred to capture the German so he shepherded him toward the 'American lines and they made a perfect landing just north of Nancy. nn |