AERIAL ACTIVITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3372, 30 October 1918, Page 15

AERIAL ACTIVITY.

Sir Douglas Haig's aviation report states!' Wo dropped eix tons of bombs and brought down 13 aeroplanes, while we drove down four uncontrollable. Ten. British are missing. We dropped eight and a-half tons of bombs on Saturday on important railway stations with excellent results. Wo destroyed eight enemy machines. We drove down three uncontrollable. Nino British ships are missing.Our night-flyers dropped three tons. All 'returned. French aeroplanes, -playing tha role of cavalry, are harassing the enemy in' tha retreat. Sometimes 300 massed planes attack and halt columns. .- A famous squadron, known as " Th© (Storks," brought down 26 German planes in threa weeks. An American official report states tha* on th© 23rd 15 enemy aeroplanes wera shot down. Six American are missing. The Independent Air Force, consisting of two squadrons, successfully attacked, tha barracks and railways at Metz on October 21. Another squadron sot out to attack

the Rhine factories, but when near their objective they encountered dense clouds, and became separated,' andl seven of the machines have not yet been located, during the night we heavily and successfully attacked the factories at ' Kaiserslautern (between the Moselle and the Rhine). We also heavily bombed the Mezieres railway station. The Independent Air Force on October 23 heavily attacked the railways at Metzsablon, and many direct hits on the railway triangle and barracks were secured. We destroyed one enemy machine and drove clown three. One British machine is missing. At night the force heavily and successfully attacked the railways at Burbach and S&arbrucken, dropping five and a-half tons of bombs. The force attacked with good results chemical factories at Mannheim, and the railways at Coblenz and Metz-Sablon, near Mintz. On,e of four aeroplanes has not been located. In addition to the enemy machines destroyed, as reported above, we brought down one and shot down two uncontrollable. We attacked the Fresc.ty aerodrome on Sunday. Bombs burst well on the target. All our machines returned.

During the period June-September, inclusive, the British have destroyed 1443 and brought down 558 German aeroplanes, as against 668 British planes missing. A significant feature of our recovery of territory in Belgium is th?„t the enemy has lost over 12 large aerodromes, the effeot of which is to expose a new sector of the Rhine to the early possibility of aerial attack by us. The conference of the interallied parliamentary delegates passed a resolution in favour of allied joint industrial control over the production of aeronautical material, with a view to extensively bombing enemy territory; also a resolution in favour of the transfer of enemy ships to replace submarined merchartmen. CONSTANTINOPLE BOMBED. The Vossische Zeitung reports that Constantinople has been bombed, and 70 people were killed ov injured.