FLYING IN FRANCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 25 October 1916, Page 5

FLYING IN FRANCE.

A .NEW ZEALAx\D AIRMAN'S EXPKLU'iSNC'Ji].

-| The following ietter from FlvinoHere I am at last in the thick nf if , Since last writing to aou: I W Lm days theoretical examination the -erseas," and wiS 24 >hou Pi° Cw!,s lal o^r^^T^ rf °r a *«*£* S fly over tp I<ranee. .Late on the 28+ln i started,, and got a s far as Folkestone where it was too mistj to proceed S we could not S ee the ground dlys WebSt hS g for, 4 s misfc Sr £ aS a?,? then decided to chance it and duly arrived safe on the hi«J salient which we formed in thj push of -last September. I fly over —_ every day. J x I have been on several bomb raids SifytnW the Pleasure <rf se*l mg my bombs blow up a large rai'lwav station and goods depot. My ot££ dZ to them to 'strafe' them. • I don't think thSlettpr^f*■{ W3S g°?t to^ bec^ If Al mf¥- be oPened by spies, and little XnT not«lreadyinow our little plans .of. operation it might be useful information for him. Anyhow I can t^ll you the work is very iSestmg and exciting. Of couie every t me-we go over the lines we 'get "archied," which means that hostile aircraft guns poop off af us wSh their shrapnel. One has to dodge and SL , I^^f.^ think of nothing else but dodging "archie" Wl looking out .for" HuS machines^ I am Jappy to say, though, that as far S this part of th.c linTis cohc^nedl at £7 T^Vlf haVe ,the «"Pferiorit7 in the mr and I have only seen Hun machines ™. herrt r dls*?nce, and that cnsy a? all tT rarfily -C<>me over our si<*e at all. ■ lhis morning one came over our aerodrome at a great height, but f,™f w^.a fast scout v P oS Patrol tiom a neighboring squadron, and he tackled him and drove him off We have, not heard what became of him it was. a great sensation being pooped" at when about 9000 feet up ' I Above the noise of the engine you hear 'work"-«Svork"-'<wuff J " and you look around and see little shrapnel rsi* all around. I think it is a good thing the noise of the machine drowns the whistling o f the shells, or that would probably "put the wind uo us" very much more, so that we could not do our 10b. As it is you.really don't know you're hit till you are actually hit, which sounds a little Irish probably, but you know what I mean. Occasionally one coni.es and bursts fairly close so that the report makes you duck your head into "the office" (sort of cowl over the controls) a s if that thin covering of aeroplane fabric could protect one from pieces of shrapnel: still it s quite instinctive to duck. ' j _ Well, we have our iob to do each ■ day, and it lasts about three hours t! 1 j e i_wfe are free for th-e lest of the day, but of course cannot go far trom the aerodrome in case of anything special cropping up. We have a delightful mess in the '-puse' of the Mayor of the village. We hav e a piano gramophone, etc. We sit down to a fuli course dinner every night at eight, and really you would not think there vas a war on, except for the uuil i-oar cf the guns when there is a strate vn. \ Just here things are wonderfully regular. If the Hun "strafed Wr artillery, we "strafe" back, ai.-d vic e versa. It is practically retaliation the whole time. Sometimes there is a complete lull for several days, then a violent bombardment for two or three days and so on. To-night they are gomg ifr hammer and tongs, and as I came along to my billet after dinner the whole; sky was illuminated right round the salient by "star shells," I &m writing this in my bedroom, which is very comfortable. I have a large feather bed and a table, etc., and electric light from the eillage supply., 'Like New Zealand, most of, the small villages and towns have electric light and in this <respect they are far ahead of England. What strikes me as being most wonderful about these villages is the way the people "carry oh" just as usual, and yet at any moment they >may have the whole place shelled so that there's little of it left. , The other day I went with a few more up to the batteries ,to see the bat- ! tery commanders, to talk ov.er and arrange for targets. One battery was only asfinile behind the lines, and yet the people were living in the rmains of that village. It was a sorry eight indeed — beautiful chateaus wholly or ■ partially destroyed— not a single place possessing a whole pane of glass. "^V.e went down into the gun pits and dug-outs, and I was very impressed witE everything I saw. It is very funny sometimes at night, when our flight commander has ■ detailed the targets, to hear us bargaining one with the other for them; for instance, one chap came to me and said, "Oh, you'v.egot K,7D25, haven't you? Well, will you 'swop' with me for M,6c38? because I particularly want to see the results of an '0K r on that house." I tKink it's decidedly humorous, when you come to thiijk of what Fritz is coming in for, because by this '•time to-morrow night, if all goes" well, there won't be much left of either of those targets, whoever has them. 1 When flying over the trenches one marvels how anything could live down there at all. On a quiet day it's full I of shell holes and looks barren, and dur- j ing a "strafe" you see nothing but explosions everywhere^—and incidentally, you "feel" them. Well, as for the rest of our work, I must wait till I see you after the war to tell you all about it. , I expect you have heard about poor G. j V. Aimen's death. He was at the same school with me at Norfcho'ld, and about two days before he was to go to France he was detailed to fly a fast scout. ■ Something happened when he was 3000 feet up, and his machine came down in a nose dive. It was a sad loss, for he wa6 a splendid pilot, and a fine man— everyone liked him. *He was an Auckland boy, and a very prominent member and one time captain of the St. George's Howins Club. He died doing his duty, and that is how he wished to die. P.S. —The King and Prince of Wale s ! turned up here unexpectedly at lunch I time one day last w.eek. No one took , any notice of them, and thy were only recognised iupt as they were getting ba.ok into their car. The King walked ; right over the aerodrome, but as nearly ! everybody was away at lunch, very few i saw him at all.