"HAWK AND GNAT."

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 82, 6 April 1918, Page 15

"HAWK AND GNAT."

BOY AVIATORS TEASE DEATH. "THEY WERE ROTTEN* SHOTS." This is a true story of two boys in the Royal Flying Corps. Their orders—well, never mind what precisely were their orders. It was necessary—nay, vital—that certain information should be obtained, and the Hawk and Gnat went out to get it. As years went neither the Hawk nor the Gnat could sing much of a song—their birthdays combined barely equalled the number of German planes set to their credit on the list posted at headquarters— but in scrapping experience you might run the whole Allied armies through a sieve and you wouldn't find a couple of young sparks with more to Took back on. They reached the line, saw nothing ol what was going on Hunwards to realise tbe Importance of getting back, and then met Fate In grim aspect, for out of the mist swooped a whole convoy of Gothas. Four shot by them In quick succession to bar the trackless path homeward: ahead, above, around, five others manoeuvred to give the death blow. Maybe the British boys could have shaken on" pursuit by getting among the clouds, but they had no mind to miss such a fine prospect of damaging the German aerial service, and they promptly set about reducing the odds. The first victim fell to the Hawk, who was pilot. Coming end on and simply asking for trouble, a Hun went down In a wreath of flames. FIVE AGAINST ONE. Then the Gnat had to sting for all he was worth, as five Huns dived together, spitting lead like a potato sprayer in the direction of his tall. It was a supreme moment. But the luck nnd the pluck which had helped the Gnat In the landing at Gallipoli, out In the desert when the Scnussi hordes were howling round the Isolated post, and In a great foot-slogging stunt through the German lines up Serrc way, stood by him. and two of the five went on diving until they crashed to earth. All the while the British fighter was combining the swift darts of tbe swallow with the gyrations of a tumbler pigeon. Every movement known to the craftsman of the air and others of wbicn the trick flier had dreamed were employed. A terrific turn absolutely vertical showed the Gnat how two of his enemies had fared, and the knowledge, you may be sure, bucked him up no end. When they had dropped to 500 feet the Hawk pot his leaden talons Into the vitals of the fourth, which went down and added to the Utter of battle below. TWENTY FEET FROM EARTH. It was while the Hnwk was engaging the fifth Gotha that the British machine exceeded tbe limits of possibility and began to fall sideways, whilst, as the Gnat says, the earth seemed hungry to gobble them tip. The remaining Huns dived on them as they fell,' pouring out lead with reckless waste, and only a second or two remained, as It seemed, for the ITawk and the Gnat to be among the mortals. Then n miracle happened. Twenty feet off the ground the machine righted Itself, and tbe nuns on foot, who had scattered for the crash, were speechless with amazement. When the Hawk oegan to make for home, however, every sort of gun In the German field museum opened on them. Again and again the n«ac_lne was hit, but not In a vital part, and the boys brought their craft to port nnd handed In the report which the Huns were so anxious to Intercept. "A damned One show," said the CO. "They were rotten "shots," quo__ the Gnat.