THE 'PLANES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 174, 22 July 1916, Page 11

THE 'PLANES.

BRITISH AIRMEN IN FRANCE. ] i A REAL GALLANT SHOW. ■ — the Australian Press representative, '. Captain Bean, writing from thp British ( Headquarters in France, on April 23, hat |. ■1 something interesting to say "on fie •' subject o: aeroplane?. He says:— "In France the enemy is almost as . much in the air as we are. Ho ha* to ; be reckoned with all the time, and .fierce fighting in the air. cither'ajwinsf f'Crttari machines or German s-ln'll lire , . such as we scarcely even imajrini , '! ml watching the airficriitin? of Gii'.'poli,] are the'daily spectacle of the tren'rlu , -. Wβ have seen a brave flight by p. Ci.-r----iMn low down within ri.'le shot, n-it - never "anythini to c-omparr with lire in- ', rtiiTcrence to danger of the fint'-li pilots. „■ "I was in thp lines thr other (1 ;y *"him thert> poundprl close at 'ian<i .-» tafro-so fart that f took it lor a bomtbardment. Trie Gernuns »vere lirins nt ■ cne-of oiir .aeroplanes. It «'as I'ving JM low - as I ever paw a plane !lv "i .GalJipoli— you coiiiil" s» clearly the"! rinjs of. the planes, whi.li meuit ;« .firitish machine. A sputtering rifle fire .broke out from the German treneli-js '■opposite —their infantry were firing- :it ;him. xhen came tliat salvo igam. ;t«-elre reports iv ipiiok ssuceose : on~-<i . !«hc'af;of shell, whining overload like on .liiairy puppjp.s—huriPt after burst in the 'sky. Some short, some far past him --j [have, gone through him —one over, -.him.- • - OIORE PU'C X THAN" WHAT T HAVE.! i "The hearts of our men wore in iTu'ir • : »oiiths a-i they watched. ITe sa-ilee! .straight throi-.frh the -hrapiH puff*. BnJi •then turned eliarplyvjan,! ftteprel nwav. salvo broke out over the si:V . inhere.he,' should have been. .He imme piately swerved into rt like a foot'ialWj ..waking- a d-odwihg ■ run.' : .then j ia *%' again. A mfniiTe later ,\ third j **W or shells hnr=t bn'iind him. ff.i | ■.lowing him up. 'Hn ought to he sale] . ; »otf.' ono thought t.o nntwelf. : bu-. ray] w oril, they nsaTly got him.". And then ■. M one Weed, 'he turner! =lowl .- an-1 straight up towards trio".-*' girn3J . .»gjjn. . ; . "the Australian* holding those! .Wenches were delie'ntert. •Mγ wor.i. he'ej '•|ot more pluck than I have.' said ■ma. ! ;-aeaf after sheaf of shells burst in tl.e; .sit all about him. but ; he Btee-edj 'Straight .up the middle of them till l<ej • ftMhcd tie point he wanted to n:ake,| ;»ntt ; then wheeled and made his pa.tr.ol n?| .■«« down over the trenches.' He was! >"w>g higher, but still - low, und the; waokle of rifles again broke'out from ln e German lines He was within the '"!*"«« of the feeblest 'Archie , even at :°» highest. They were iiterally jw>t .'iv?-? 8 "? big shot giine firiniT nt a great '■& e nly i this- bird came up-time and J*"i to be shot at, simply trusting tr> ■ •£Sr mce that the y would not bit him. 'I: 1, rest may taku t ' lpiT ]nck ' " ut "ta!? nld - be dead ei(k if they wae to gnt a big Australian, as Uc ,^^ 8 ~.» pull-through out of hi* rifle.

"'Of course they will get him if he does that often —you only need two eyes to know that. The eommuniqiu-.s tell of it every week. As you scurry paat the hinterland of the lines in your motor ear you will sometimes see two or three aeroplanes flying, like great herons, overhead. They seem to be in company, keeping station almost, and holding on the same course all three mates together—until you catch the cough of a machine gun and realiee that they are actually engaged in the deadliest sort of duel that can be fought in these days. ' In a battle of infantry you arc mostly hit by an unaimed shot o" a thot aimed into a mass of men. Even if a man fires at you once it ie probably someone else whom he aim? at next time. But in the air the man who -shoots at you is coming after you and intends to go on shootimr at you until he kills. The moment when you sec an enrmy's plane, and realise that yon have to light, that must be one to set the i-trodgest nerves tingling. The aeroplane with tlio black crosses Ol! it? K-ing?. is often very. very high, barely visible. When. the' other planes are near it may swoop steeply to earth behind the frerman line, or it may be that driving, behind our own lines, you see :i plane diving to earth at an angle which -Tnjrkcs yoinvondor whether it is falling or being steered. It straightens out hUikiruly. and lands a fow fields away. By the time you are there a clustor !of khaki is already around it. An English boy step? out of it. Hushed and rxeitod. and with intense strain written in his eyes and in every jerk of his j bead. Out of the seat lx>hind him they ! are lifting a man with a terrible wound lin his side. In the arm of the seat from ' which they iire lifting him there aiv I two holes as bip as a shell would make j—but they were not made by a shell. A cluster of bullets from the machine-gun iof a (It'rman plane at close range has [passed "in at one side of the seat and ■ out at the- other. The rifle which the observer was carrying dropped from ni.-f '. hands out into space, and the pilot saw jit fall just befor.- he dived. j THE CHANCE OF WAR. I The (icrmaii pilots are sometimes j youngster?, too -not unlike our own. Our I first sight of active war in France was when the train stopped ■at a country siding, many miles behind the lines, and j tyro British soldiers with fixed bayonets marched a third man—a youngster with la slight fair moustache—over the level ' crossing in front of us. He wore a ! grey peaked cap and a short overcoat ■jacket, a warm collar and small tightffitting boots —very much like those of ; onr own offieere. and he walked with a 1 big swift stride, looking straigtot ahead Jof him. Somewhere far over behind the I German lines they were proba-bly e.xjp'ecting him at that moment. His servant -would be getting ready his room. He had left the aerodrome only an hour before, and flown over strange lines, which we have never seen, but which had become as familiar as home to him. with no idea than to be back, as he i aJwayt: was before, within an hour or so.' And then, something seems to be ; wrong with the plane—he has to come in a strange country; and within an • hour he is out of the war for good and 'all. He rtridee along, biting hi* Up. I.

His comrades will expect him for an hour or so. By dinner time they will guess that there is another, member gone from their mess.

While I am writing these words someone runs in to say that a German aeroplane has been shot down—came down, in flames they cay, and tore a great hole in a roadside. There seems to be some such news everf day, now it is one of ours, now one of their. It is a brave game, and they say it is the only one in which there is a sort of generous agreement between the British and the Gwman Corns. When one of them falls within our lines the next British aero plane which ffios over their, lines drops a message to say whether -the pilot and observer were killed or injured or are unharmed.' And"'they d~6 the same for us.