GREAT AIR FEAT

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 22, 25 July 1918, Page 10

GREAT AIR FEAT

LIEUTENANT FONCK'S RECORD

STORY OF THE FIGHT.

Reuters correspondent with the French army wrote as follows in London Daily Telegraph, on 13th May, of the French aviator, Lieutenant Fonck, whoso death has since been reported :—

Yesterday I had a talk with Lieutenant Fonck, the young French aviator ■who on Thursday performed the almost incredible feat of bringing down six German aeroplanes in one day. This achievement, which of course has already been officially recorded, deserves to be analysed in order that" its true significance may be brought home. Of the six machines shot down by Lieutenant Fonck four were two-seater planes, each carrying two machine-guns. The other two were fighting planes, each mounted by a single pilot.

Up to last Thursday the record for destruction in air fights in a single day was held by Guynemer, the Unforgettable, who in one day brought down four German machines. Fonck has not only improved Guynemer's record, he has deprived the German army in twentyfour hours of six machines and ten highly-trained airmen. He was already at his thirty-sixth enemy machine brought down. He has now forty-two to his credit, which means that he has actually accounted for at least sixty German aeroplanes, for the rigid French registration system allows the pilot credit only for those enemy machines the destruction of which has been confirmed by French observers, either in the air or on the ground. As almost all our air fights are fought over the enemy's lines, it follows that a large proportion of the air duels which end in victory for the French or British machines are never officially recorded. The airmen know themselves, and are unmoved by the fantastic claims of tho > Germans. They know that if the whole truth could be published Baron yon Richthofen's record could easily be matched by thpse of Guynemer, Ball, Fonck, Nungesser, and half a-dozen others.

TWO IN TEN SECONDS.

I met Fonck at the aerodrome of the squadron of battle planes to which he belongs. He is assuredly young for his exploits, not more than 22, small and slight in stature, with nothing about' him, except his hard-sighted gaze, which airmen share with sailors, and a row of decorations hidden by his overcoat, to give one a clue to his personality. It was difficult to make him talk, because he wanted to describe his exploits of Thursday in three words. It was true, he said, that he brought down two Bocho machines in ten seconds. Flying that morning with his patrols, he suddenly found in front of him a group of three two-seater German machines. (Fonck, I am told by his comrades, has two great qualities in air fighting; he is, like all flying " Aces," a machine gunner of marvellous skill; in addition, he has a speed in manoeuvring which baffles his opponents and amazes his friends. He chooses his own'moment to make an attack, but he will make it from any position whatever. He selects his foe out of a German patrol, which always comprises a number of machines, and is sometimes fifteen strong, and attacks him at his own moment, relying on his extraordinary speed and skill in manoeuvring to win tho duel.) I return to Fonck's description of the fight. He succeeded in getting above the German machines, and opened fire with his machine-gun at short range. Within a- few seconds tho first two German machines each manned by two men, with two machine-guns capable of firing at any angle, were hurtling downwards to destruction. The third Boche machine attempted to bolt, but Fonck was too quick for it, and sent it crashing earthwards on fire. Tho fight had lasted less than two minutes. It was Fonck's morning's work. His mastery of his machine and his gun had enabled him to shoot down three German planes before they were able to get all or any of their six machine-guns trained on him. In all likelihood he shot the pilot of each of tho enemy machines dead.

SIX PLANES—S2 CARTRIDGES,

In the afternoon Lieutenant Fonck went out on his second daily patrol. Flying over the enemy's lines, in the region of Montdidier, he encountered a patrol of nine German machines, four of the Pfalz type, and five Albatrosses. Numbers do not affect Fonck. He chose his time and attacked. He brought down three machines, one double-seator and two chasing planes. The rest bolted for safety. Lieutenant Fonck had finished his day's' work. He had brought down six enemy machines with an average expenditure of less than ten cartridges per machine. In the fourth year of the waj\ most of us have some idea of what a ma-chine-gun is, and the speed with which it spouts munitions into the blue. Lieutenant Fonck '.fired 52 rounds, in all, against hi 3 six foes. Fonck in all his air fights has never been wounded. Even his mnchine has never been touched. He told me that, young as he is, he began flying eighteen months before the war. He has played most games, and done well at all of them, but speed is his hobby, and. the aeroplane and the automobile were always his favourite playthings. He began his career as a military airman in the observation, not in the fighting, service, and brought down his first Boche airman as tho pilot of an observation machine on 6th August, 1916. He decided that year to exchange into the battle-plane service, obtained his brevet, and brought down, his first Boche in a. fighting-plane on sth May, 1917. Since then he has added forty German machines to his list of trophies. He fought with our airmen in Flanders last year, and wears the British Distinguished Service Medal and our Military Cross. It is noteworthy that all of tho machines brought down by Lieutenant Fonck on Thursday were shot down over the enemy's ground. Three of them fell in flames, and one broke its wings in the air. Their destruction was witnessed by his comrades, one of whom, describing the morning flights, said that he had followed Fonck, which was very difficult to do, because of his speed in manoeuvring, and saw what- he could scarcely have believed, namely, the destruction of three German two-seaters in less than two minutes.

[The death of Lieutenant Fonck was reported a few weeks ago,]