MASTBRY OF THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 30, 4 August 1917, Page 7

MASTBRY OF THE AIR

SKY FULL OF DRONING 'PLANES

LIKE A GREAT HIVE.

(From Malcolm Roes, Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces in the Field.) ;\ - / ,•■ . ■;. •' .;.

BELGIUM, sth June.

The air activity has increased,, till the sky is like a great hive with its droning 'planes. For a time, as before the Arras battle, the German 'planes appeared almost to have gained the ascendancy. ' They came over, and saw, and photographed. Some flew bravely low, others at a great height—fifteen and sixteen thousand feet—and our anti-air guns fired, thousands of shells at them. At Headquarters we seemed tw bo living in a constant showerbath of broken metal. , One heard the bits hitting the iron roof of the hut as one lay abed in the early -morning. The unburst shells, or chunks of them, came screeching down from the sky. : Most difficult, perhaps, of all the arts of war it is to hit a flying 'plane. There are many calculations to be made-in. a little time—distance, height, speed, leDgth of fuse, wind, etc. And the fuse burns slowly or quickly according to the density of temperature of the ■ atmosphere. And then there. is the human element, which cannot ever be calculated.,! You can never tell what is in the mind of the pilot. He may circle right^or left, climb or drop. And an anti : aif jjun cannot hit a 'plane in the position it is in when the gun is fired. If the 'plane is flying high, the" shell will reach it only after an interval of about thirty seconds, and by that time a fast-flying ;.'plane will liave travelled a mile! The/gunners cannot get guidance from their'first, shot, for.before the burst of their, first shell can be seen there will be already from 15 to 20 other.shells already speeding from the guns on. their way toward, the, target. Very ingenious appliances have,been mado, both by the Germans .and. ourselves, to make "the necessary;,calculations . quickly; yet on the-average, it takes from thirty to fortythousand shells to bring down a 'plane. This would seem to be a waste of ammunition, but even if few 'planes are brought down by tho guns they still, by meana 'of barrage fire, ward off the 'planes, and help to keep them at such heights as to make their work leas effective.' But' there were times when one ha 3 seen 'planes hit by the guns, though generally they are brought down in combat with other-planes. 'There is no more thrilling, no sadder sight, than to witness that sensitiohal drop of 15,000 feet which the brave bird-men make when they have.fought to.the finish..The thrill'of the spectacle is increased when they fall in flames. Next to tho brave infantry, who so' coolly climb over the parapet into the storm of shot and shell of an attack, one's heart goes out to the brave flying-men, who are daily and hourly performing such incredible feats. There soon came a time in connection .| with this new battle when our-, 'planes had at least a great ascendancy over theGerman 'planes. • They came 'and went,, singly and'in.flights of five, and ten,,and fifteen, • sometimes climbing high for a, bombing -expedition; at other times flying very low to observe closely, or even to fire their'machine-guns on the enemy in his trenches. Some of the German. pilots,' but;not all, were equally, brave, and, generally, when they did get over our back',area, they flew at a great height.:. ■ .. v r . ' ,;. . .MANY DUELS/ ". '■ . . Almost any evening now you may Bee iin the air a [duel of the most exciting and spectacular kind. The other day one of our men brought down a Boche 'plane. It turned over and over as it fell, and. before it had fallen far a man tumbled out of it. For him that must have been a- terrible descent. Tonight, : while writing in my little hut after.-dinner, I heard the distant popping of a'machine-gun in the sky, and, dash' ing to the door, was in time to see the tracer bullets from a-Boche 'plane aimed at one of our balloons a few fields away. Tlie two men climbed quickly out of their basket and took the parachute plunge that is always so interesting to an onlooker, and that must be so thrilling • to...the observer.- Slowly,- -very slowly, the .tw.o parachutes, borne eastwards towards the German lines on a light breeze, descended, till,l lost sight of. them behind a hedge. There 1 was much specuplation as to whether they would jail. in' our or the enemy's, lines. Tho German pilot dived, after them, firing, his machine-gun at them as he flew, but, apparently, without effect. Then some of out attacking planes frightened him home. "That was a very feeble effort," said a man beside me, and a Belgian Count remarked that tliig was a very unsporting war when one man could shoot at another man who was unarmed in a falling parachute.

It was half-past nine by the summer clock, and" the balloon was a dark silhouette just" below the round moon. The, flashes of the shells aimed at the departing Boche made A sparks in the sky. And': black against the opal of the zenith our droning 'planes were coming home to roost after their eventful day. Dipping down into the amber of the western sky, they sought the aerodrome that was their home. Some there Were that did not come back';, for these the brilliant flires that were meant! for guiding lights were shot into the darkening sky at intervals, till there was no more hope. There would be some vacant chairs in. the mess to-night. For an hour or more the flares went up in vain, affording only another spectacle to the curious,.for brave pilot and observer had either crashed to earth or landed far from home. Lucky they were Who landed behind their own lines, lucky even they who could make 'a safe landing in No-Man's .Land: The latter had at least a chance of getting home, even though the flares had died down.