AERIAL WARFARE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3314, 19 September 1917, Page 15

AERIAL WARFARE.

Despito unfavourable weather, there has been great aerial activity on the western front. British airmen bombed enemy aerodromes and an ammuniton dump at Roulea and railway stations and trains at Courtrai, and, besides dropping bombs on enemy billets, fired their machine guns at troops in the open and in the trenchos. Thirty-nine* enemy machines were brought down and 12 British are missing. A British airman shot down Lieutenant Hohndorf, the- foremost German airman t who was a well-known flyer before the war.

The naval aircraft dropped several ton* of bombs on the Thourout aerodrome and ammunition dumps and the Bruges docks, causing explosions. They also attacked thd shipping at Zcebruggo Mole, and scored direct hits on a largo destroyer and several hits on the eeaplano sheds, causing a fire. French airmen_ successfully bombed Porto* mary, Gitsgoitelindenkon, Vadcn, and an aerodrome north-west of Thourout. Flightcommander Guynemer destroyed his fiftieth Germau aeroplane. French aeroplanes dropped three tons of bombs on two aerodromes east of Courtrai, an aerodrome and a munition dump north-east of Cambr&L and also billets and hutments, and brought down eight machines. Four French machines are missing. German aeroplanes bombed the region of Dunkirk, where a hospital was bombed and 15 women wounded. A German message states that during August the enemy lost 295 aeroplanes and the Germans 64-. A NEW ENGINE. Mr Baker, Secretary of War, announces that after many weeks of conference and experiments by engineers and inventors, a. remarkable military aeroplane motor has been produced. It is regarded as one of the great achievements of the war, combining power, speed, lightness, and relia« bility. The engineers worked for five days and nights without intermission on thai tests, which proved a complete success.