THE NEW AIR FIGHTING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 143, 16 June 1917, Page 13

THE NEW AIR FIGHTING.

AMBUSHES IN THE CLOUDS Even the amazing communiques issued recently give no real idea of the new lighting in the air. The latest acicplanes on both sides are of a quick, breathless spe«d, according to Mr. W. Beach Thomas. At one moment aeroplanes swish over you like a covey of birds; at another you sec or hear no sign of their presence; a minute later faint, mysterious sounds as of a hammer on soft wood come from viewless heights, and then one of the planes, either winged or too weak for the combat, dives for the harbourage of its own lines. 1 am told that all records were broken by one of our newest and fastest Machines which destroyed five of the enemy in one flight.

The art of high diving has increased seyond telling. From 16,000 ft, where they are scarcely visible, or from the ambush of a cloud, the plane 3 come down like a plummet to bomb a train, to fire A balloon, or to riddle a body of men with machine-gun fire. Firing at smalt objects on the ground is daily practised like the game of tent-pagging. So quickly do the divers come and go that men with loaded rifles on the very spot are often in their astonishment too slow to jjre till the 'plane is well out of range. The German authorities complain bitterly that their infantry fail altogether to use their rifles on such occasions. ENEMY AIR EXPERTS. The enemy has concentrated a number of hie best airmen, just as earlier he concentrated a group of his best gunners, in what is known as the travelling circusi which gathers wherever he meditates an ■offensive. It is a mobile unit of expert fighters and photographers. The clear air and compact clouds with well-defined edges give ideal conditions for air manoeiivring, and some of the experts on both sides have exhibited almost uncanny skill in ambushing, ia clouds and escaping back into them. This activity is visible all over the front.

We have "fought several hot fights as far behind the German lines as Douai, and considerable groups of 'planes in as regular fighting formation as attacking infantry, have both bombed and bombarded much more distant spots.