BRITAIN'S NEW AEROPLANE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12069, 26 July 1917, Page 7

BRITAIN'S NEW AEROPLANE.

FIVE HUNS DESTROYED IN ONE FLIGHT. CLOUD AMBUSHES. (By W. BEACH THOMAS in "Daily Mail.") War Correspondents' Headquarters, France, May 4. The latest aeroplanes on" both tides are of a quite breathless speed. At one moment aeroplanes swish over you like a covey of birds; at another yon sec or heir no .sign of their presence ; a minute later faint, mysterious sounds as of a hammer on.soft wood corno from viewless heights, and then one of t:?e planes, either winged or too weak for the combat, dives for the harbourage of its ow- lines.

The fighting is now so quick and skilful that the slower, older machine has about as much chance as a fieldfare against a hawk. I urn told that all records were broken _by one of our newest and fastest machines, which destroyed five of the enemv in ono flight. The art of high diviner has increased beyond telling. From 16,000 ft, where they are scarcely visible, or from the ambush of a cloud, the planes comedown like a. plummet to bomb a train, to fire a balloon, or to riddle a IkjcT;-' of men with machine-gun fire. Firing at small objects on the" ground is daily practised like the game of tent-peg-ging. So quickly do the divers oome and go that men with loaded rifles on tho very spot ara oft on in their astonishment too slow to Svr- till til.- plane is well cut of range. Tho German authorities eoinplnin V.'.ttorlv that their infantry fail altogether to use their rifles on such occasion.'--. The enemy has concerti.ru-ed a number of his best airmen, just ,•■>.<= earli~he concentrated a group of his br-s' gunners in what is known p=; rh travelling circus, which gather- wher ever he militates nn of v '-n--.ive. It i- • raobdc unit of expert fkibters and phc togra. pliers The clear air and commet, tine 1 - ckr'ds with we!l-d.-■fined give jde"' conditions for air ma.rceuv"•<•■•; and so—of the (-"perts on both hav<> hibited almost uneannv *k : ]\ in ambm-h ing in c>\ids and c-scapi"- h~eV r-r them. This ictiw'+v is nil ov"\the front. The French machine* a'-m."■-■b admired by our mc\ who v-i-/: 1

t'"*-ir manoeuvres in the neighbourhood of St Quentin.