AEROPLANE COMBATS

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 49, 14 October 1918, Page 2

AEROPLANE COMBATS

MEN OF THE MR SERVICE FIGHTING TEH YARDS APART. A number of most interesting facts relative to the air service were told by Colonel Sleeman, 1.G.5., Director of Military Training, in the course of a lecture at tlie Garrison Hall on Thursday. Colonel Sleeman mentioned that before one could see an aeroplane the noise of the engine could lie heard. The man in the aeroplane could not hear anything at all and there was interesting case on record. An aeroplane was travelling at a •fair speed when a fire broke out behind the pilot. The observer shouted to the pilot to pass the fire extinguisher and the pilot could not hear what was said, but thought that increased speed was wanted and forged rapidly ahead. Although it was easy to see aeroplanes from the ground ancl tor those in the machines to see objects on tho ground quite clearly pilots had great difficulty in seeing anything in a lino with them. On one occasion six aeroplanes were told off with a front of 4UOO yards to watch. They had to go up and down the whole time. 11 was arranged that one man should first p;o up and report upon conditions generally. Ho wirelessed down that conditions were improving. The first pilot having finished his duties returned and stated that lie could only see two machines. Presently the five returned. The second reported that lie had three fights with hostile machines which only one of the other airmen had seen, although the whole six were operating on a front of -,090 yards in length. A man in an aeroplane couhl not see anything more than five miles away in the air. Supposing, therefore, an airman was travelling at 150 miles an hour and an opposing machine was travelling at G e same rate, they would pass within a minute of sighting each other. The airman had to make up his mind qumkly. as to how he was going to Isolde his opponent; he had +o com ulcr whether he was opposed to a heavier machine, whether it was a fait or a better climbing machine. All these matters were just as essential in the case of an airship as a battleship and it would not he advisable for a destroyer to tackle a dreadnought. The fighting type of birds got above its prey and swooped down—the same applied to fighting by aeroplanes. The aeroplane which was attacking had to get above and. behind tlie other machine. Although the machine gun used on an aeroplane was the same as that used on •land, tlie maximum range in the air was only 400 yards to he effective as against 2000 yards on the land. Close fighting invariably ensued, and 93 per cent, of the machines shot down by the British were shot at from 10 to 100 yards. No machine was accepted as having been put out of action unless it was seen by another pilot. They "'anted pilots of tlie right type in the air service. The pilots had to go through a very long period of training. For the first two months in England the pilots went to a school where they learned drill, military law, etc. They then learn the types of enemy machines and tlie various methods of fighting, photographing, bomb-dropping, etc. They were then graded. The fighter was in a single machine, the pilot and observer in a reconnaissance machine, and the third in a bombing plane. The man who was chosen as the fighter was not the man one would sometimes he apt to think he was. The man who was quick was wanted; the man who thought slowly was the man who was going to die every time. The man who was nervous temperamentally was found to he the best. All the pilots who had come out so well were of the that type. Lieutenant Ball, for instance, went to the front at the age of 19 and was a diminutive. He was the finest fighting man in _ the air: everything came automatically to him. He only lived two years, however, hut in that time bad earned the Y.C., D. 5.0., and other decorations. Bomb-dropping was one of the most dangerous of the occupations of the air, as the “Archies” were now much more accurate than formerly.

A most cordial vote of thanks was extended to Colonel Sleeman for his most interesting lecture.