BATTLES IN THE ARCTIC AIR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15198, 19 April 1917, Page 6

BATTLES IN THE ARCTIC AIR.

BRITISH FLYING MEN'S EXPLOITS. FIGHTS OVER FROZEN TRENCHES. (By I'ercival Phillips, Daily Express Correspondent.) With the British Armies in the Field. If you care to experience really cold weather go aloft with a British flying man over the frozen battlefield of the Somtne, or stand for hours wedged in the narrow basket of an observation balloon, swinging in an Arctic gale, and try to read the secrets of the enemy as they are unexpectedly revealed by the snow. "Cold!" "aid one of these muffled explorers, as he was hoisted out of his cage after a numbing experience at the end of a restless steel cable, "there's nothing like it on earth. I'd bless the man who invented a dug-out that could be carried in a balloon basket. "Of course, you may have the excitement of being shelled to keep you warn.," he continued, "and the possibility of having to dive with your parachute into chilly space at a second's notice, but for all that the atmosphere i-5 about as frigid as any North Polo expert would desire, and I always think with envy of the chaps who are cosy and comfortable in the front-line trenches, with, nothing to worry 'em but a few bombs and shells—and no parachuting through an unfriendly wind. "SEEING LIFE." It is all in the point of view. I have heard a chilled sentry grumbling through his periscope because an aeroplane passing over him looked so snug and s-erene in the bright winter sunshine. ''That fellow sees life, anyway." he said, "and I'm sure it's better than sticking at this bit of looking- j glass for hours on end." I am not sure that the aeroplane scouts and their cousins of the air, tho balloon observers, have a better timo in this bitter weather than the tenants of the trenches, but it is certain that they are doing their difficult and daugerous work as efficiently as in the pleasanter days of summer. German machines are being harried and driven down with the same skilful determination : not a dav passers without at least one thrilling encounter somewhere behind and above the enemy dug-outs—-frequently there are six or seven tierce duels in one brief afternoon. We are making the most of these excellent opportunities for aerial reconnaissance. The novel advantages afforded for this work by the mask of snow which has overlain the fighting area for rearly a fortnight are equally apparent to the enemy. He ha.s sought to utilise them to the same extent- -and failed. The net result of all the patrol and battleplane adventures during this sea-son of extreme cold has been the continued supremacy of British flying men. It; may be that the German aviators are less efficient in a low temperature, or that there is a greater desire to avoid excessive risks. Certainly there have hccii spirited sallies into our zone of the air by parties of enemy raiders and scouts, but they have not shown the same zest for exhaustive exploration on this side of the trenches.

SEVEN FIGHTS A DAT. One day this week, for example, there were seven fights in tho Somme area, in which all enemy detachments wore sent home, some with casualties. One flock of Albatross machines, scouting warily raund the Bois de Biez, suddenIv encountered a British group, which immediately gave battle. There was a. wonderful combat in the sunshine, watched by hundreds of soldiers hidden in the crevices of the snowfield below. The Albatrosses hurriedly turned their wings homeward, with British machine e;uns following grimly at their tails. Two of the fugitives were hit—and crippled- and sent crashing from a dizzy height into the frozen waste behind their own lines. An even more exciting battle took place near Ilarnes, when eight German Halbersladt machines were engaged by an inferior force of British planes. The enemy evidently relying on numerical superiority, accepted the challenge—with disastrous results. Two Halberstadts were shot down, rocketing earthwards in masses of flamo and smoke, and two others staggered back to shelter in the snow, alighting prematurely and with obvious haste. A British observer, in accounting for one of the wrecked aeroplanes, performed one of those fine feats which are characteristic of these knights of the air. Although wounded by a machinegun bullet, he clang to his quarry until it was mortally hurt, and when he saw it rocketing to destruction came back to his base to make his report—and then had his wound dressed. There is still respect, even admiration, for the opposing corps of airmen on this battle front. The German aviators are ryjarded as fair and courageous fighters. When one of them was brought down unwounded in our lines after a hard contest, he met his captor, who came to earth just after him. with outstretched hand and the greeting: '"lt was a good fight." Incidents of this kind have been all too rare in this war. The German who can get off the earth seems to leave many of the prejudices and vices of his kind behind him ; in the air he at least tries to be a sportsman.

QUAINT GARB. The men who are serving in"* the air defy the rigours of winter in strange and fantastic costumes. Their mothers would not know them. When a balloon observer prepares for his outing above the trenches he goes through a weird ceremonial of dress. Be puts on a canvas jacket and canvas fur-lined hiphoots, which buckle around the waist. That is only the beginning. Other layers of windproof garments hide this foundation, and at the finish, when lie is helmeted. gloved, and spectacled, it would be hard to determine whether he is a deep-sea diver or a Polar explorer. When the flying scouts have hiddui themselves in fur and leather coats and tied 1 heir heads in weird visored bonnets which leave only space for seeing and breathing, it seems impossible that the human being beneath can be capable of any rapid movement, or That they have a c-hanee of defending themselves, much less of attacking a skilful and elusrve adversary. Yet they are the masters of the air, as well aa of the weather. Fighting in a gale—and perhaps dying in the snow —breasting an icy wind with the con sciousness that in a second they may vanish amid flames—it is all in the routine work of a winter day