DODGING "ARCHIES."

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 885, 11 December 1916, Page 6

DODGING "ARCHIES."

AIRMAN'S PERILOUS TASKS. BRITAIN'S MARVELLOUS AIR WING. It's nil right so long ;is you can' see' cm, or hear 'cm," said "Tommy' Brcnnan, of the Hoyal Flying Corps "but any man who tells you he cai fly over an 'Archie' and get a 'Ham ing onion' light ahead of him with out ducking and wishing the? wouldn't come so close or make si much noise has never been up ii an aeroplane. Take it from me." "Yes," put in Gilray, "and even time you duck your old winger duck: with you. As 'Brcn' over there says is wouldn't be so bad if you couldn' see and hear 'em. Generally speak ing you don't hear them unless on< happens to break within 5u yards 01 so of you. It's when you get dowr close to them and look right dowr at them spitting fire at you—that's when you have got to have even, nerve in your body tuned to tin minute." "I'll never forget the lirst time they got close to me," declared "Boy' Tylie. "My only thought was that ] would never shoot a pheasant again I knew exactly how a bird must fee when a hunter opens fire." Brennan wore upon his left sleeve the gold stripe of the wounded "Gil" was on the oflicial list of thi killed in action some weeks ago bul somehow or other came back to life When Brennan was "hit" and finally came down safely within his own lines it was found there were 80 perforations in the wings of his machine. "I was so interested in looking over their trenches I guess I got a little too low," he explained. There is nothing more interesting in all London than to sit through a long autumn evening talking to the youngsters of the wonderful aviation service Great Britain has almost miraculously built up since the war began, says a writer in a London exchange. Whip Hand Over Enemy. "We've got the Prussians now where they have to fire blindly or shoot by the map," these intiepid men of the air will tell you. "Of what use are their wonderful guns if they don't know what they are shooting at? They don't dare send a plane over our lines. They don't ?ven dare approach. The minute they show themselves we have an overwhelming number of machines to send after them and they beat it for lome again as fast as they can go. rhey can't take a photograph of 3iir new positions. Their batteries lave been driven from the heights

and they can't observe. It is a big difference from the first days of the war." By associating with Britain's flying men one will learn that an "Archibald," usually called "Archie" for short, is an anti-aircraft gun. "Archie" barks at you," said Brenan. "He goes 'woof, woof, woof.' He isn't comfortable to listen to, either, but it's when you get down

a little nearer to earth and the machine gnns get to working that you feel you have got to do what you set out to do quickly and get started to some quieter spot just as fast as the air will get out of your way and let you through. You can't imagine how much that old atmosphere gets in your way when you are really in a hurry." When you get on speaking terms with a machine gun you know that it talks with a "putt, putt, putt." The ordinary hand rifle, which often takes a shot at you when you get too close to the trenches, goes "crack, crack, crack," just as every one expects a rifle to go. "A flaming onion? Well, that looks for all the world like an eight candle-power electric, light bulb coming at you. Then all of a sudden it breaks in to nice little ribbons of fire that dart and float through the air like so many serpents. They are very disagreeable, these"" onions. Their one desire in life is to set you ablaze and explode your petrol tank." One thing the American always must remember over here is that gasolene, or just plain "gas" as the motorists and flying men call it at

! night when they fell into a heated I discussion as to whether vou would ■ rather have a shell break right ahead. of you, right beneath you or right i over you. There were those who ; contended it was best to have it j break right in front, for then the explosion would spread the fragments : and let you pass safely through the ' spot where "the blooming beast |cracked." j The others contended that a shell I breaking on the level with you indi- • rated that "Archie" had his fuses ; timed just a bit too accurately for , pleasure flying, and that it was safer . to take chances with the fragments coming from beneath or above. This . was one discussion in which the inJnoccnt bystander had no part. He ( learned, however, that shrapnel from an "Archie" jumps at you with 'a "bang." that it looks like a white I puff ball as it breaks in daylight and • like the starry shower of a rocket as , it explodes at night. When a "shrap" explodes beneath the tail of your machine you felt as if you were going to loop the loop in the wrong direction. When it breaks in front, you feel as if you very much wanted to do a "flipfiop" i backward in the most improved style. When you get it under the : wings the concussion almost capsizes you. and you feel as if the old "joy stick," or guiding lever, never j will put her back on an even keel. j The "hickeyboos," it develops in j the course of conversation, are the Zeppelins. Where they got the name jno one seems to know. It is the exI elusive language of the flying corps. ; "Archie" is the name of the home I defence aircraft guns as well as those of the Prussians, for generally speaking all such guns are the natural enemy of the airman, whether he be chasing a "hickeyboo" over Lon- , don or taking observations at the front. They are always threatening I him with an unpleasant end. Night flying is no easy task at best I "You feel like the man in the song," | s-ud "Sammy" Sampson, a midget of I the corps; "you are all dressed up and no place to go." Hunting "Hickeyboos." It is simple enough to go up at J night, and simple enough to sail | away, but it is something else again j to come down without taking off a j chimney pot or "strafing" a big oak tree. In ordinary times there is a flare to guide you safely back to the aerodrome, but on "raid nights" when all is dark and when the "Archies" are barking at the "hickeyboos," and the "hickeyj boos" are "putt, putt, putting" at yon with their machine guns—then night v flving is surely enough a real man's I job. j The Royal Flying Corps is proving most attractive to young Canadian officers. They are qualifying as • pilots by the score. ,Some who came . i over from the Dominion in khaki are now in the deep blue of the Royal .Naval Air Service, but the great majority who have taken to the air are still in khaki with the white insignia of widespread wings on the left breast of the tunic. ■ "I had my first real thrill the other ; day," said one of these young Canadj ians just back from the front. "I was j 'way inside the German lines, having I the time of my bright young life, when suddenly I heard a missfire. No matter how many cylinders you , have got whirring in front of you the | instant one misses your heart hears jit even before your ears do. That old engine of mine jumped and bucked and finally stopped. And me ; miles across the line. I knew there I was something wrong with the cari burettor or the ignition, for 1 had ! enough petrol togo lOOmiles or more. In the higher altitudes water often gets into the mixing chamber. So ; first of all I joggled that old carburI rettor for all she was worth. Then I i gave the old boat a little tilt down- ! ward, she cranked herself as she | dipped and old Johnny Engine was j purring away in a moment just like a i tabby cat in an old maid's lap. I had enough of Germany for that day and j set sail for home in a line that | would make a crow's flight look like a serpentine dance."