SPLENDID AIRMEN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, 21 October 1916, Page 5

SPLENDID AIRMEN.

SHARE IN THE OFFENSIVE

When the history of the battle o, tne Somme comes to be written in its true perspective 1 think it will be found that one of the most brilliant facets in this whole lustrous chapter or our military story is . the snare whicn our airmen bore in the righting and the influence they exercised upon the course of it (writes a special correspondent m the London Daily Telegraph). . J

lucre is no need to wait Upon history however, to pay a fitting tribute to the Boyal Flying Corps. Never at any time has the mastery of the air been so completely in the hands of our men as it is to-day.. "What was achieved by British aviators on July 1 and in the subsequent fighting nas been no mere spontaneous result, but rather the culmination of weeks of arduous devotion and gallantry. How tar this is true may be best illustrated by the circumstance that not a single German aeroplane crossed our lines during the opening attack between Gommecourt and the Somme, nor is it at all clear that any enemy kite balloons were in the air during t eventful morning, although I counted eight of our own from the Albert Ridge, where I viewed the bombard-1 ment. . . .

The truth is that the destruction of nine German "sausages"—six in one coup—within the past few weeks has had a demoralising effect upon the rioche airmen. Prisoners admit this, and go further, stating that their gunners are considerably handicapped by the mischief we have wrought with their aerial reconnaissance, and that so venturesome have our "plane squadrons" become that their men in the trenches often get the "jumps" at night, and blaze away with machine guns at machines which are "asleep", in their aerodromes miles away.

DECEIVING THE ENEMY

It is unqxiestionably due to the magnificent work of our'airmen, which so largely neutralised the enterprise of the enemy; -aviators, that the Germans remained in doubt, until the attack actually came, as to where the present offensive would really develop* By sheer' daring and perseverance our fliers rendered it so difficult for the hostile machines to get a view of the ground behind our lines that they were unable to get any correct intelligence of our concentrations and gun positions. They were literally harassed night and day. It was British aeroplanes .that .brought down the enemy kite-balloons, SAVOoping to within 150 ft of them with a cool disregard for. the 6howers ot "Archies" winch they drew around them, and then banking clear of the exploding hulk whon the missiles had found their mark.

Small wonder that the German observe --S hesitate to court a similar fate at the hands of such intrepid foes. A"nd here I may say that the risks which our Flying Corps have had to face throughout the present offensive have been greatly accentuated by the bad weather conditions, necessitating flying at vex-y low altitudes well within machine-gun range from the ground.

Apropos, I see that the Germans claim that only seven Boche machines have been brought down during the montli of June. I put the question as to how far this tallied with our information to one well qualified to give an accurate answer. After referring to certain records, he totalled the number at 21 (most of- them certain crashes, and all of them he described as "sitters") to the credit of" the British airmen alone, without reference to what the French —who are bracketed in the modest German claim—have accounted for. "COMPLETE DOMINATION." So completely have the Royal Flying Corps now established domination oi: the air over the length of the front that our machines are virtually never molested.now during their reconnaissance flights save by anti-aircraft guns. The one-time redoubtable Fokkei- nowadays keeps well within her own boundaries, and in the last recorded fight with this type, when a squadron of British aircraft were bombing an important station to> keep the Germans occupied in these parts while our offensive "was beginning southward, no less than 20' of them came buzzing around our machines and the/only result was that two of-±hem bit the dust violently, while all ours returned. This fine incident may well stand as typical of the dominance which the British have attained. , j

But let it not be supposed that, the aviator has nothing more to do than jump into his seat, take-off, and scurry away in quest of fresh glory, in order to maintain his reputation. There is no branch of the British army which works harder. For the past week the mechanics of the Royal Flying Corps have been kept busy every livelong night, "not because the aeroplanes have received any abnormal degree of damage, but in order to kee,j> things at the concert pitch of proficiency. As a result, I honestly believe that, our air squadrons are * actually stronger •to-day than they were before the beginning of the offensive, which is tantamount to saying that they are stronger than ever they were before.

CO-OPERATION WITH INFANTRY

' Not only are the airmen the "eyes" of the gunners, but of late they have co-operated with the infantry so successfully and to such a degree that the co-ordination between the two is rapidly developing into a regular thing. Indeed, it has become quite a matter of course with more than one battalion to look .out for its own particular aeroplane. But if the aircraft can be invaluable to infantry —as manifestly it can —it can also prove a deadly visitor. A day or two ago, as a battalion of the Prussian Guard were marching up to reinforce the hard-pressed enemy, one of our 'planes dropped to within 300 feet, and the observer, depressing his gun, emptied several drums of ammunition into the close ranks, enfilading the whole length of the column with telling effect before the crescendo of rifle fire caused him to sheer off. An officer of this same regiment who was subsequently captured said that the combination of this'fierce fusillade and the barrage from our guns behind inflicted a loss of at least 50 per cent of the strength of the battalion before it reached the shelter of its destination. The growing practice of employing aeroplanes in squadrons instead or singly has caused the adoption of a system of tactical evolutions not dissimilar to those followed in the royal navy. For example, in cruising, the machines are spread out in "V" formation. For bombing purooses they form into line-ahead, and as -he British machines have dropped more than 20 tons of explosives upon sundry selected spots of the German positions of late, it stands that they are getting pretty proficient in the line-ahead manoeuvre.