TWO FAMOUS FLIERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1915, Page 2

TWO FAMOUS FLIERS

TRAGIC FATE AT DUNKIRK. BRINGING DOWN A TAUBE, (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON,' 2nd February. Two well-known aviators in. the British Army, Major Raleigh and Captain H. J. Roche, have just lost their lives under tragic circumstances. One was found dead in the sea near Dunkirk, and the other met with a fatal accident near by. It seems that one morning four aviators, including the two ill-fated officers, ascended from Dunkirk! Their proposed destination was kept a secret, but it is believed that they flew to Zeebvugge, and dropped bombs 011 the German defences at the harbour. Whatever _ their mission, it was successfully accomplished, and all four started together on -the return flight to ' Dunkirk. On the Way they encountered a thick fog, and Captain Roche became separated from the rest of the party. The other three safely reached the flying ground, and reported their companion as missing. Later in the week the dead body of Captain Roche was washed up on the shore near Dunkirk. Major Raleigh returned safely with the others, but a day or two later he set out on a Sopwith biplane. A few hours afterwards he was in difficulties, and trying to make a safe landing on the shore, his machine fell into the sea. The Major was badly injured, both legs being broken. He was caught in the quicksands and saved with great difficulty, only to die soon afterwards in the Naval Hospital at Dunkirk. 4. FIGHT IN THE AIR. A French officer .of the line thus describes a fight in the air : — " For half an hour a black Taube had been describing infernal circles over our lines, like a foul bird of prey. What did this manoeuvre .signify? Was he correcting artillery fire? We don't know. "Suddenly a French airman emerges from a cloud above the Taube. The dry bark of a. mitrailleuse announces that the Frenchman is attacking. The Taube turns tail without replying, but only to return to the charge. Then the two great birds charge head-on. " From below it seems that they must meet in a terrible shock. Nothing" of the sort; the German passes & little above the Frenchman, and machine guns epeak. Then for a moment I fear for the dear ' bird ' of France, for it is not armoured. " Carried apart by the speed of their charge, the Frenchman hovers and waits $ the adversary returns quickly, circles, flies above, flies below, firing quickly when he can on the French airman, who seeming always to hover replies with energy. "This lasts scarcely a minute; inthe trenches ' red breeches ' and ' spiked helmets ' alike have raised their heads and are following that death struggle with equal emotion. An impressive silence reigns ; firing has ceased over a large distance ; only motors and shots up above can be heard. Suddenly a biplane emerges from the same cloud which has just brought the French airman. Tho soldiers cannot preserve their Self-con-trol. Of what nationality is the new arrival? A second later we can divine it; the Taube takes to flight. But all isn't over yet. " Our monoplane pursues, and in less than no time passes the fugitive, forces it to turn and come again over the French lines, where the biplane is awaiting it. It passes near the latter. Wh»t happens, then ? Even with my good glass I cannot quite say. But in any case the French monoplane, flying over its adver. sary, dives headlong upop it, seems to touch it, and mounts again gracefully in the air. "At a dizzy speed the Taube, which, has just made a half turn, falls vertically in the German lines. Then from the Teuton trenches shells bu»t in th« air, encircling with their black smoke our two compatriots, who continue their uninterrupted journey without troubling their heads about this stormy demonstration. " The German aircraft are armoured, which puts them at a disadvantage in a duel with the French, for tho latter, being very light, make dancing circlets around their adversaries, and fly twice as quickly."