AIR WORK IN FRANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4900, 20 June 1918, Page 5

AIR WORK IN FRANCE.

RADIATED COATS FOR PILOTS

A British airman, writing to Mi*. G F. Wilson, of Wellington, on March 9, has something interesting to say about airmen and theij work. “we are,” lie writes, a pause cf the big fight in the nest few days. The last two weeks have been anxious ones, but our fellow; have their tails well up. I never gev up in the tront line, as all our work is done away hack in the aerodromes, but we come into touch with all se tions. I am a good dea] in Paris, :,s all our engineering shops are there, so are cur j headquarters but it ?> not a desirable ! residing place at present. We nave j our full quota of b< mibing at night, and by d'ay the big German cannon — I ‘Berthas.’ they ' call them—threw shells at leisurel] intervals. You cam hear them bursting, some near and some far, hut the- people just carry on as usual. Even now there is the us- ! rial crowd of morning, shoppers out j on the boulevards. . . We have nwnty of grab here, thank goodness : much better than in London. In England it is not easv to get a real decent I meal, but there is enough to Keep g<I ing, and the Government is accnnnlatincr a big ‘reserve.’ The standard ! of tlie hotel meal over at Home would astound you, but it is wonderfu, now little vou can pull along with—and keep fit on. “Our flying men are doing wonderfully well, and! we have now got- the best machines and the best trained juep pooS ndnoS j 'Yd 9T U uoxti in the tests, but it is mighty cold, rceky sort of work in tliis tlier. Tlio regular pilots alre now much better off. We supply them with good chamois leather waistcoats, fitted with wires heated electrically from a little dynamo. You shoidp see the gadgets in the big modern machine—pins, cameras, bombs, and I have even seen a couple of stretchers for carrying wounded—all controlled by young schoolboys. The most- astonishing 'things are the infantry fighting machines, covered with thick steel plates, and* looking as solid life a steam-roller on the ground. It’s a st’*a"n on your imagination to think of them as flying machines.” Tho writer conveys the news that Mr. Blackney, formerly of MessrsTurnbull and Jones’s staff, is doing particularly well in tlie Royal Flying Corps. Heps in charge of a very big branch, and is a captain.