AN AIR DUEL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 700, 9 May 1916, Page 6

AN AIR DUEL.

JHEADLONG PLUNGE TO DEATH. ! An Oxford undergraduate, serving in the Royal Engineers, describing ■ 'the destruction of a German aero-! ! plane, writes:— | "This morning was ideal for fly-; jing—the air calm and very clear,) | with here and there a heavy cloud' I floating slowly across, but not threat-j iening rain, and everything seemed to |point for a safe return for the inI vader. He came towards me down wind at a great pace, making an almost impossible target for our' | 'archies' (as the anti-aircraft guns j j are always called). They seemed i to realise this, and hardly a shot fol-j lowed him as he sped across the sky. i He passed over my head and made I away for home, skirling along the! ledge of a large dark cloud thai j stretched away towards the horizon. |i glanced up again, and as 1 looked! the 'plane made a sudden swerve' j away from Ihe cloud-bank, and a! larger ajid darker form seemed to! i spring oul of Ihe shadow, just as I you have often seen a hunting spider l (larl out of its hiding place and seize; (some wretched insect. It was Ihe I I lighting 'plane I had seen rising some i time before. Almost before one! could realise what was happening, I jibe machine guns were firing, and the German was planing madly j I downward for his life. At first 1 [thought it was merely a ruse lo helps !him to shake oil' his big opponent,! | but the volplane was turned into a j spiral, and 1 knew that something, j was wrong, for a few seconds he! |came down steadily, and (hen seem-; : ed to lose all control. The radius of the spirals got less and less, and the! [descent more sleep, till the 'plane .was pitching headlong downwards,! ! whirling round and round as it fell,! dike a dancing Dervish dropping! through space!" i