FIGHT IN CLOUDLAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13602, 6 February 1915, Page 3

FIGHT IN CLOUDLAND.

EXCITING CONTEST DESCRIBED. LONDON, Jan. 29. In a letter to hia relatives a French officer writes: —

"For half an hour some black Taubes have been describing their infernal circles over oar lines, like foul birds of prey. My men are crouched in. the trench. • They cover their bayonets and everything else that is glittering and await permission to raise their heads.

"Suddenly a French" airman emerges from a cloud above one of the Taubes, and the dry bark of a, mitrailleuse announces that the Frenchman is attaching. The Taube turns tail without replying, but returns to the charge. The two great birds charge head on, and from below it seems that they must meet in a terrible shock. Nothing of the sort. The German passes a little above the Frenchman, and the machine guns speak. .'

"In the trenches the red breeches and the Bosches alike are following that death struggle with equal emotion, and silence reigns. The firing has ceased over a large distance, and only the shots from the motors above can* be heard. A biplane emerges from 'a cloud, but of what nationality is it? The doubt is soon settled.

"A Taube flees, and the first machine pursues and drives it back to where a biplane is 'waiting. The Frenchman dives headlong upon it, and seems to touch it, and then mounts again, gracefully in the air. At a dizzy speed the Taube falls vertically in the German lines, and from the Teuton trenches shells burst in tho air, encircling the Frenchman, who, however, calmly continues his journey."